A Hero's Dirty Work (Villain Deku / Vigilante Deku au)

Barriers

"I'm not sure if 'King Explosion Murder' is inspiring enough to comfort anyone," Midnight said apologetically. "Try again."

Michi stifled a laugh as Bakugo stalked back to his desk and immediately started scribbling something else, but now it was his turn soon and he had no ideas. In the spirit of creativity and inspiration, Shoto had chosen 'Shoto' as his hero name. Mina was Pinky, Denki was Chargebolt, Jiro was Earphone, Ochako was Uravity... Michi really had no idea what he should choose.

There was an admittedly large part of him that wanted to choose 'The Savior'. Everyone had heard about his vigilante identity by now, although they didn't know it was him, and the choice would confuse literally everyone, which was why it was so damn tempting. The only downside was that he hated that name.

Well, unless you considered that he might be found out, arrested, killed before he could tell the heroes anything, and leave Eri in the hands of All For One. He grimaced. Not so tempting anymore, actually.

Everyone was looking at him, waiting for him to get up, and he sighed. He made his way to the front of the classroom, showed them his blank board, and said, "I got nothing. Does anyone have any ideas?"

"You could be Super Soaker," Jiro volunteered, smirking. "I mean, it implies that you have water powers, but really it would just be because you soak up damage and information like a sponge."

"Give it some thought," Midnight said, sending Michi back to his seat. "Bakugo has another idea."

Michi sat down, and Bakugo got up. Midnight sighed.

"Bakugo, dear, I think we're going to run into some of the same problems with 'Lord Explosion Murder' as we did with 'King Explosion Murder'. Try something less sinister, maybe."

Michi thought hard. He only had one idea that was really sticking in his head, but he'd been trying to ignore it. Before he could lose his nerve, he wrote it down and stood up. It was risky, he knew, but it was what he needed to do.

"Are you sure about that?" Midnight questioned, sounding skeptical of his choice. He took a deep breath.

"I'm sure," he said confidently. "It's for... personal reasons."

"Okay, I guess... hero name 'Deku' is approved!"

Michi grinned and quickly returned to his seat, risking a glance at Bakugo. The blonde was staring forward at the front of the classroom like he wasn't seeing anything. His eyes were wide, and there was conflict in his expression that Michi had never seen on the confident, powerful Katsuki Bakugo. Finally his expression hardened, and he deliberately wrote something on his board and got up.

Michi hoped his expression didn't give anything away when he saw what was written, but he suddenly had to fight down Izuku's stupid tears; he'd chosen 'Kacchan'.

*                *                *

Shoto was breathing hard, although he was amazingly not shivering. Ice formed in patches on his body as he faced an equally worn-out Michi, but still he refused to use his fire. If only he could use the other side of his body, his only quirk limitation would be his stamina. As of now, though, his internal temperature was a weakness that Michi could take advantage of.

It honestly didn't make any sense that Michi was able to keep up with him, so it was possible that Shoto was going easy on him. It would be slightly out of character, but Michi could imagine him holding back just to make absolutely certain not to injure his partner and further identify himself as different from his father.