The Marksman and The Warrior

Villains in Plain Sight

The practical exams ended up with four people out of the twenty students in the class failing to detain their opponents or escape.

Ashido, Kaminari, Kirishima and Sato, specifically. 

In particular, Ashido and Kaminari were making the biggest fuss out of the four about not being able to go to the Summer Camp.

"Oh, cut it out, the both of you." Katamina rolled her eyes as the pair bemoaned their inability to attend the Summer Camp for what seemed to be the fifth time within the last ten minutes, "You failed, so what? You can at least spare the rest of us your bitching and moaning."

"Wha- Katamina!" Izuku scolded her, "You can't just say stuff like that!"

"The bitch has a point. It's their fault they failed." Bakugo said gruffly, "That doesn't give them the right to make it everyone else's problem. Certainly ain't my fuckin' problem."

"Kacchan!"

"What? You gonna tell me off for being honest?" Bakugo rolled his eyes, "Get off my dick, Deku."

"As much as I hate to agree with him, Izuku, they really should've known better." Katamina crossed her arms as her glassy eyes flickered around the room, looking, but not seeing, "The practical exams aren't supposed to be impossible. There was a way to win, they just couldn't find it."

"We were fighting Nezu!" Kaminari cried, "He's the smartest being in existence! What did you want us to do?"

"Yeah, and I fought fucking All Might with the nerd. What's your point?" Bakugo glared at Kaminari, who shriveled under his gaze, "We fought the strongest and won. What excuse do you have?"

"Okay, calm down, that's enough bullying Ashido-san and Kaminari-kun." Izuku laughed nervously as he raised his hands in a placating gesture, "I'm sure they understand where they went wrong, right?"

"In your seats when class begins." Aizawa abruptly walked into the room, causing the class to scramble for their seats to avoid the piercing glare of their teacher. 

"Now. Your results for the exams. Every one of you passed the written test, but out of the twenty of you, there are five of you that failed the practical exam."

The students were stumped. Five?

"Kaminari. Ashido. Kirishima. Sato. Sero." Aizawa listed off the names like they were on a hitlist, "The five of you failed to complete your objectives to a suitable standard."

Sero just hung his head, "Yep. Should've expected that. I guess falling asleep immediately only to get dragged out of the escape gate isn't enough for me to pass."

"And as a result..." Aizawa paused, instantly alerting Katamina to the possibility that he was about to say something that will no doubt trigger the entire class, "You'll all be going on the Summer Camp."

A moment of silence passed, giving Katamina time to put in some earplugs before the entire class erupted in cacophony. 

The rest of the day passed by relatively quickly. Or maybe that was just Katamina's perception of it since she largely ignored everyone else in the class. After class was out, the class decided to go shopping at the Kiyashi Mall together on Saturday to get what they didn't have on the gear list. 

Well, the entire class save for Bakugo and Todoroki. One of which didn't want to hang out with 'shitty extras' and the other elected to visit his mom in the psych ward instead.

When asked, Katamina simply shrugged, "Sure. I'm not busy."

...

The Mall was a terrible idea, Izuku reflected as he tried not to make a scene as a dry and crusty hand wrapped itself around his neck, leaving a single finger aloft as a voice hissed in his ear, "Yes... I know you, alright... What a coincidence that we'd meet here, Izuku Midoriya-kun!"

It took all of Izuku's self control to not immediately break Shigaraki's hand. Not only would it be a terrible idea as he could place down his last finger before Izuku could get his hands up to the villain's arm, but it would absolutely cause Shigaraki to lash out and hurt a lot of innocent civilians.

"Now, now, don't make a scene. I'm sure you remember what my quirk does."

Izuku grit his teeth as Shigaraki led him to a nearby bench, "There's a good boy. Now, act like we're just old friends having a long overdue chat."

"... What do you want?" Izuku's voice came out quieter than a whisper, yet still somehow reached the ears of the villain holding him hostage. 

"Glad you see reason. Now, let me preface this by saying: I hate everything. And Master told me I can destroy what I hate. Sadly, the thing I hate most right now is currently rotting away in a prison cell."

Izuku immediately realized what Shigaraki was talking about, "Stain. I thought he was working with your league?"

"Feh. The media certainly made it look like that, didn't it?" Shigaraki's voice immediately took on a disgusted tone, "What's so special about him, anyway? He's doing the same thing as me! He's destroying what he hates! Why's the media only talking about the Hero Killer?"

"Probably because no-one knows what exactly you're going for." Izuku blurted out the response before properly considering how it could very well end up getting him killed, "You're just bringing senseless destruction. People don't understand you. But they do know what Stain was trying to achieve."

Shigaraki was silent, so Izuku continued, "You like video games, right? Think of it this way: Is the random bandit on the side of a road an interesting character? Or is the storyline villain with established motives the more interesting character? Right now, in everybody's eyes, you're the bandit. A ridiculously powerful bandit, but a bandit nonetheless. They don't know your motivations, they just know you're an enemy to defeat. Stain, however, is the storyline villain. Maybe he's not the final boss, but people actually know his story. They can understand and relate to him, to an extent."

"The same applies to the media. They want a story to tell. They don't care about wanton destruction. They don't care about the nighttime villains. And they certainly don't care about the villains in plain sight."

A/N: Heyo. Sorry I was dead for like four weeks. I have a lot to get through at Uni. Anyways...

D&D character concept of the day: A fallen aasimar zealot barbarian whose powers stem from her own necrotic power and her connection to the Celestial Sanctum of her homeland.

This is the character that I'm playing in a oneshot, in literally five minutes.

So I'm going to hurry up and publish this shit so I can get to rolling dice.

Timeless_95, signing out.