Lost Cause// A Vigilante Midoriya AU

...But I Don't Know When To Quit

She remembered walking back to the campsite.

She had no idea what was going on... and it made her furious. They had returned to the campsite sometime after the villains had retreated, and the police had arrived. Tenya had reprimanded them all for not returning sooner, but she could care less. Her friends had been attacked, and when the group returned, Lost Cause had disappeared. They had managed to grab Fumikage, but there was no sign of Ragdoll.

Until they got back to camp.

She felt so hopeless... she couldn't even properly process the scene before her. Ragdoll and Fumikage had been kidnapped, some of the students had gone after them, and then someone... screamed something. The voice and what they were saying were indistinguishable since she was so far away, but she felt something tighten up in her chest. Not long afterward, the other students emerged from the forest's depths. She asked them what had happened.

No one answered.

She almost felt bad when she eavesdropped on a conversation between Momo and Shoto. They had both seemed pretty shaken up about whatever had happened with the villains. She had intended to just walk right past them to go see Tsuyu, but then she heard Shoto say "...went completely ballistic." This caused her to stop in her tracks, making sure she was out of sight but far enough to still hear the conversation.

She didn't like what she heard at all.

Shoto recalled how they had failed to save Ragdoll, who was actually Double Trouble in disguise. Lost Cause had broken down shortly afterward, and without saying a word, he straight up disappeared, running into the forest. Momo had brought up having Yosetsu placing a tracker on one of the villains, but she also seemed... concerned. That warp gate villain from the USJ was with them, after all.

Ochako tried to ignore the ever-increasing feeling of dread.

Something was trying to crush Izuku.

Not literally of course, but there was something in the air that seemed to relish in his despair. It wanted to keep him from breathing, keep him from moving , and it was doing a pretty good job if he was honest. It took way too much energy to just push himself off the ground. He eyed their attacker in the distance, who was approaching them in a casual strut. He wore a business suit, the kind that the mafia would wear, and his previously hidden face was now... hidden in a black industrial mask.

Kinda anticlimactic , thought Izuku.

The villain stopped approaching a few feet away from the vigilantes. Izuku tried sneaking a quick glance at Brains and Crawler; they were fine, but they looked absolutely terrified. Even though Izuku couldn't register it, his own skin was crawling, a primal response he refused to adhere to. The villain rubbed the back of his neck in an oddly familiar gesture. He seemed to be... pondering something, even if their expression was quite literally unreadable.

Against his body's wishes, Izuku tried to stand, reaching for a paralysis knife.

The villain started to laugh. Not the standard "Mwahaha" laughter most villains were thought to carry; this laugh was far more reserved and cold, like it was trying to suck the life out of any who heard it. Then the villain began to speak. "Vigilantes... what an interesting phenomena," he mused. "Delivering their own unique brand of... 'justice' without the whole heroic middlemen." ...was this guy seriously monologuing?

"A shame, really," the villain continued, "Even when you're in the right, the heroes continue to doubt you."

Koichi looked like he wanted to protest, but he shrank back in on himself when the villain looked in his direction. "Heroes. What a humorous ideal. They can't even keep their society together without breaking themselves apart. The people follow them blindly on a leash, and they turn a blind eye to all their faults. And for what? Some mediocre sense of safety? The world has grown too complacent. The heroes have begun to falter, allowing for a new power to rise..."