Accepting Oneself

Izuku Midoriya was a boy with a heart filled to the brim of heroic potential. He would sacrifice himself for anyone, and break bones just to prove himself. It seemed there wasn't a single bad bone in his body, he was made to be a hero.

But Izuku knew this wasn't true, more so than anyone else. He had suffered countless years of bullying without fighting back once, countless years of being belittled for something he was born with. And people had ways of coping with this, some became the bully, some wrote about it in notebooks, some even lashed out at others and became a villain, claiming that society was terrible.

But Izuku solved this anger in the worst way possible, he didn't. He stored it away inside himself, he let it build until it was a raging inferno, and it gained its own consciousness. He stockpiled so much anger that it became a second personality, the devil on Izuku's shoulder. A constant partner, that would whisper horrifying things into his ear. A ruthless beast that called itself Akuma, a personification of his burning fire of rage against this world.

Until it stopped, Izuku didn't know why but ever since he had inherited One For All from All Might, he was finally free. Free from the devil on his shoulder. But Izuku knew better than to just believe it was gone. If anything, its sudden disappearance made him more worried. Because he could still feel it churning in his stomach, trying to overwhelm him and follow those ugly desires that Akuma spoke of.

He wanted to talk to someone, but that would make him seem like a monster. He didn't want others to know he had some kind of evil subconscious, he was a hero! So he did it again, he stored away his rage at the League of Villains, his rage at Overhaul, his rage at One For All, he continued to store it away. Not knowing he just strengthened Akuma more and more.

It had been about a week since their amazing performance at the School Festival and Izuku and his class we're currently lazing around in the dorm rooms. Izuku thought it had been quite fun, besides his fight with Gentle Criminal, and a good stress reliever after the raid on the Eight Precepts of Death.

"Attention could Class 1-A and 1-B please report down to the auditorium." Izuku was quite confused by this, he didn't think there were any scheduled performances or other events, so this was quite confusing. But he got up and went to the auditorium anyways, the rest of the class following in just as much confusion as him.

They entered the auditorium around twenty minutes later, only to notice that Class 1-B was already there, along with most of the staff members who were just as confused. Even Monoma wasn't spouting his usual bullshit.

"Wow, this must be pretty serious, even Monoma's being quiet." Everyone heard Kaminari say before he was whacked in the back of the head by Jirou.

"Can your one unfried brain cell not figure out something as basic as not talking in a tense atmosphere." She hissed at him, earning a few snickers from people around the auditorium, slightly loosening the strained atmosphere in the room.

"Now that everyone is a little more comfortable, I can discuss what I called you here for." Everyone turned to the front of the auditorium, only to see Nezu, the principal, on the stage, except he was sitting on the podium instead of standing by it. "I'm sure you are quite confused why I called you here today, but I can explain. Recently, the media has come to think that U.A. is not very secure, and apparently just holding a School Festival was not enough for them. So I have decided to do something else, a simulated wat between Heroes and Villains!" Immediately muttering was spread throughout the room, as people talked to their neighbours about this.

"Ah, quiet down please and let me explain." Chattering instantly stopped when they heard him. Everyone sat on the edge of their seat for an explanation. "Now, as much as this is a reassurance to the media and parents that U.A. is safe and they should not be worried, this is also a lesson that should be taught every year. There's a quote that I live by, spoken in the pre-quirk ages that go, 'Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every battle.' As spoken by the famous Chinese General Sun Tzu. This exercise will allow the villain team to learn what it is like to be the enemy. As to know your opponent's mindset means to be one step ahead of them, it means ultimate victory." Nezu finished with a malicious smirk that sent chills through everyone in the audience. Nezu quickly coughed and switched back to his neutral face.

"Anyways, I guess I should explain the exercise now. Two randomly selected students, from either class, will be chosen as the leader of their team. From then you will have a week of preparation, which includes recruiting members, collecting supplies, mapping out the area assigned for this activity, and other things. I must also mention that there is no limit on the number of persons in each team, so this could be a match where there are thirty-nine heroes and a single villain. When the time is up, both teams will be set up in the place they selected. Where the game will continue until one of the conditions for winning is achieved. To win as the hero team, you can either take down the other teams leader or protect the three objectives until the activity ends. The villains win by knocking out the hero team or obtaining the three objectives. Each team will be in the city for seven days. The three objectives will be clarified in the rulebook handed to each of you at the end. Another thing is that you will all be attached to a small high-durability secure camera used for broadcasting during this activity, as it will be on live T.V., similar to the sports festival except it will include a bunch of mini cameras along with one large camera to survey the city, so the audience can witness everything." Nezu laughed evilly to himself.

"Enough of this though, it is finally time to find out the leaders." And the screen behind him began to rapidly flip through profiles of students. "And the leader of our hero team is..." A large photo of Todoroki appeared as clapping was heard around the Auditorium. Izuku pitied the villain's leader, he knew most people would probably be a hero, as that is what they trained for, on top of Todoroki's intelligence and strength it would be a tough match-up. "And the villain leader is..." Izuku's stomach dropped. His face. He was the villain leader. And for the first time, the burning fire in his stomach stirred in happiness at the role it was assigned.