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

Ingenium

Guys, this is crazy. I didn't think this story was getting popular because my notifications weren't showing very many votes or comments, but I guess most of the readers are just silent because it has way more reads than I thought.

Midoriya wished he was sleeping. Unfortunately, Eri was full of energy and he had to take her out for a day of fun. Well, he didn't have to. She didn't actually even ask him. But he was so happy to see her so happy that he couldn't stop himself.

"Hey wait a second, look over there!" Eri said, squeaking in excitement. She'd spotted something from her vantage point on Midoriya's shoulders. She pointed at the floor for Midoriya to put her down, and he reluctantly complied. She took off through the crowd, leaving Midoriya to apologizing to people left and right as he pushed people out of the way to keep up with her.

"Best friend!" she squealed as she ran into a cat cafe, jumping up next to Denki Kaminari. Midoriya grinned, pleasantly surprised. Kaminari, Jiro, Mina, Shoto, and Shinso were all sitting in a booth in the back corner. Judging by the cups and napkins, there had been more people that he'd just missed.

Eri was on her knees on the bench, frowning at a cat that was purring on Denki's lap. "He took my spot," she pouted. Jiro perked up.

"Hey, you can sit on my lap. I want to be best friends with you too," she said. Eri considered for a moment before nodding in acceptance and climbing over to sit on Jiro's lap. Jiro stuck her tongue out at Kaminari, who grinned and rolled his eyes playfully.

Midoriya slid in next to Mina, not missing the way everyone looked at him for a second. Were they talking about him? On top of his social anxiety that he was gaining back as he 'healed' and became slightly more like his old self, he hoped they weren't talking about anything that he'd told them about himself. Considering the fact that they all knew different parts of the story, things would get really awkward and tense really fast.

For example: Mina finding out that he's Izuku Midoriya? Very bad. Everyone realizing that he's a vigilante? Maybe not so bad; he'd get in trouble, but everyone would also realize that Eri has Overhaul after her and help look after her.

And besides, it's not like his classmates knowing could possibly be worse than Principal Nezu himself.

"Hey, guys!" he said, trying to sound upbeat. Everyone saw through it immediately, and he winced at all the sympathetic glances.

"You look exhausted," Shoto said as Shinso silently slid him a cup of coffee. Midoriya sighed.

"Yeah, I'm pretty tired," he admitted. "But..." he trailed off, looking up at the TV in the corner of the store, horror apparent on his face. The sound was off, but crawling across the bottom of the screen was the headline, Turbo Hero Ingenium paralyzed from waist down after conflict with Hero Killer Stain.

"Oh, Iida," Mina murmured quietly as she followed his gaze and saw what he was looking at.

 Stain... the Hero Killer was back. He'd been a vigilante at one point, going by Stendhal. Now he was on a campaign against the idolized celebrity worship of 'heroes'. While it was obvious that there were heroes that needed to be dealt with—sometimes even lethally, Midoriya didn't particularly care—Stain's ideals were misguided. Midoriya steeled his expression, narrowing his eyes as he glared at the table. He needed to deal with Stain, whether it be through killing him, capturing him, or convincing him to change his ideals. After all, a powerful villain that considers themselves to hold the moral high ground would be a perfect ally against someone like Overhaul or even All For One.

He looked up and saw Mina glaring at him, shaking her head warningly. He remembered suddenly that he'd told her about his vigilante activities, realizing that she'd probably guessed what he was thinking about. He shrugged unapologetically.