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

Recruiting

Ochako Uraraka wrung her hands anxiously, still nervous about approaching Bakugo, much less asking him for something. She finally managed to start moving when she heard Michi and Shoto trying to convince him of the same thing she was there for; maybe with their help, Bakugo would actually listen!

"Listen, Bakugo, sparring with a real partner is going to be way more helpful than any other training you could get, and everyone would appreciate the opportunity to learn from you. I'm not sure how good you are at teaching, but even if you could just demonstrate some of the moves you do, it would really help everyone," Michi appealed.

"I could use a sparring partner that's actually on my level," Shoto admitted when Michi looked to him for assistance. "We're both a lot stronger than most of our classmates, and we won't get better unless we fight someone that's difficult. That means each other."

"Fuck off," Bakugo said out loud, but Ochako could see him considering the offer. She took a deep breath, set her jaw, and ran out before she could convince herself not to.

"Hey, Bakugo! I was actually going to ask the same thing," she said. He folded his arms as he turned to her, scowling. She gulped, remembering how outclassed she'd been when she fought him in the combat training. "Not that I would be a challenge to you! I just know how crazy good you are from when I fought you, and I want to learn to move like that. I wanted you to teach me how to fight."

Bakugo looked down at her for a few seconds, looking unimpressed. "You're selling yourself short," he finally muttered, clenching his jaw and glaring in another direction like he couldn't believe he'd just made himself say that. "You weren't able to land a hit on me, but for a rescue quirk, you fought really well. It..." he trailed off, then glanced at all three of them. "It might be useful to get used to fighting more types of quirks."

"Yeah!" Michi cheered. "I'll see you at our training, okay Kacchan?"

Bakugo flinched and glared at Michi, but he finally grimaced. "I really chose that as my hero name, huh?" he said. "Well, hopefully he'll know I'm looking for him."

"Who?" Ochako asked, her success emboldening her. "Can I call you Kacchan?"

He looked like he was going to snap at her, but eventually rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Call me what you want." He stalked away, not answering the previous question. Ochako was just more curious now; was it that boy that Mina had talked about being his friend a long time ago?

She took a deep breath and started after him. Kacchan was like a complicated puzzle—he was helpful, strong, talented, and good looking, but he still snapped at everyone that tried to get close to him. Why?

Well, she didn't know, but she was going to find out.

*                *                *

Michi's inner Izuku was showing. He was in a relatively private area in the school, working on an assignment, but he couldn't seem to stop his mutter-storm about the potential consequences of everything and how to contain it. His carefully laid pieces were falling into place much sooner than they should be; he'd grossly underestimated class 1-A, which was hilarious because that's exactly what Shigaraki and All For One had done as well.

He was snapped out of his musings by loud, annoying laughter. He was used to laughter like that, and it almost always followed by some sort of insult to his quirklessness. He snapped his notebook closed and started making his way there.

"What were you thinking, Shinso?" someone asked mockingly. "Challenging the hero class? As if you could ever be a hero, with your quirk. You might as well go ahead and join the League of Villains now, it's gonna happen eventually."