~Zero to Hero: A Vigilante Deku Story~

Twelve: Zero Meets World

...

Well.

That took slightly longer than I originally intended.

Now, I can't apologize enough for how long you've waited for this chapter. I fully intend to make my best effort, in the authors note at the end - make sure to read that for a special surprise - but for now,  I figure I could either bore you with apologies or give you the content you've all been waiting for. Guess what I chose?

Without further ado, please enjoy the chapter!

Word Count: 9585

TWs: panic attack

———————————————-

The halls of UA were always empty at this time of day.

Nezu had always thought that this was when UA was at its most peaceful: empty of students and staff and the hustle of the daily grind. There were no incompetent humans to deal with. No foolish children crowding the hallways. The principal could simply indulge in one of his favorite pastimes and walk around the school in a rare moment of peace and quiet. Now, however, the absence of life felt strangely unnatural. Shadowed in the dissipating light of sunset, the school seemed like nothing more than a faded shell of something once vibrant.

Something once vibrant. A pair of hollow green eyes flashed across Nezu's mind.

So this was guilt, he supposed.

It was a strange sensation. Unfamiliar. He could understand why humans detested it so. Leave it to his precious specimen- why was it that now that word made his skin crawl like it never had before - to never fail to teach him something new about humanity, even if it hadn't been something he had wanted to learn.

Guilt was an emotion. All emotions were ludicrous. Therefore, guilt was also ludicrous. Thus it has been demonstrated; quod erat demonstrandum. That simple line of thought had sustained him ever since his endless days in those hellish testing labs, a rat in a maze full of terror and resentment. His hatred towards humanity hadn't been what had gotten him out of that cage. Therefore, it had been unnecessary. An unfortunate symptom of his imprisonment.

That's all emotions were, in the end. The result of a situation. The reaction to an action. They should have made sense, should have been predictable, should have followed a reasonable outcome, but leave it to humanity to turn something so simple into something so irrational. Dangerous. Ridiculous.

Still, the weakness was there, and Nezu had never been one to waste an opportunity. So emotion became yet another thing to be used against others - and therefore nothing he would ever indulge in himself. (Fear had made him weak, once. Never again.)

Guilt was an emotion. All emotions were ludicrous. Therefore, guilt was also ludicrous.

Thus it has been demonstrated. Quod erat demonstrandum.

If only life could ever be so simple.

Things had changed. Nezu had changed. He was acting - thinking - feeling - in ways he never would have dared to a year before. He was no longer in complete control of himself; the lines he had so carefully followed for so many years (like a rat in a maze) were beginning to blur, and he didn't know why. And if there were two things he hated, they were lack of control and lack of knowledge.

(Then again, that had been a lie, hadn't it? He knew exactly what the source of this problem was. He just didn't want to admit it.)

"This really is quite the mess," the principal mused aloud. He had always made it a point to avoid useless small talk like this. Thought it beneath him. Yet here he was, finding words to fill the silence.