Something Different

17: Easy Victory

Izuku had a plan. It would come into fruition when Kacchan's kidnapping took place. He decided that although it was risky and could get him killed, Izuku would take his childhood bully's place. To achieve this, he would need to attract the League enough to want to kidnap him. That meant that he needed to somehow defeat Kacchan and attain first place in the sports festival. It sounded easy on his tongue, but his brain vehemently disagreed.

Izuku was certain that he could defeat most of his opponents, but there were two obstacles that were more prevalent than others… Kacchan and Todoroki. The strongest of 1-A and most troublesome pair. In the past, even when the heroes lost the war against villains, they continued to strive for justice. It was difficult to find Todoroki's reasonings, considering his past. But dissimilarly, Izuku knew that Kacchan had a very strong sense of justice.

"Just pray that you'll be born with a Quirk in your next life…

…And take a swan dive off the roof of a building!"

Izuku shook his head. Kacchan was different, then. He had learnt from his mistakes and had even apologised to him in the future. Izuku glanced toward the current Kacchan, eyes turning melancholy. He, on the other hand, could use some reshaping…

His first match would be against Shinso. Izuku kind of felt bad for him; during the sports festival in the previous timeline, Shinso suffered an almost immediate defeat. He went against one of his classmates, whose name Izuku didn't bother remembering. What he did remember, however, was that his opponent had some sort of Copy Quirk. Due to Shinso's lack of combat ability, he was taken out of the game almost instantaneously.

Suddenly, Izuku was tapped on the shoulder. He tensed up and turned around, attempting to appear as calm as he usually was… But judging by the unsettled look on Ojiro's face, his efforts were futile. "Um… Is this a bad time?"

"No, no! I'm just nervous about my first match," Izuku chuckled and folded his arms behind his back innocently. He forced a friendly smile on his face—though, once again, his expression didn't seem to appear as he intended because Ojiro started to sweat profusely. "Is there something you need?"

"Oh, um… I wanted to warn you about your opponent."

Is that allowed?

"I don't think that's necessary," whether it was allowed or not, Izuku didn't require information regarding Shinso. He already knew the ups and downs; the ins and outs of Shinso's Quirk. And Izuku had noted long ago that Shinso had the fighting spirit of a lion whose cub was stolen. Or… was that description more accurate for Eraserhead? Well, the two of them were eerily similar anyway. So either worked, right?

"…Midoriya?" Ojiro squinted his eyes, "I asked what do you mean by that?"

"I'm one of the strongest in our class, remember? I'll defeat Shinso within a minute," Izuku grinned. Although he sounded slightly complacent, it wasn't like he was underestimating his opponent or overestimating himself. All the facts taken into account, Izuku formed the perfect solution in his mind. "Just keep your eyes on me."

"For our first match of the day, we have class 1-A's Izuku Midoriya, versus 1-C's Hitoshi Shinso!"

Wait, 1-C? But wasn't 1-C General Studies…? Izuku looked at Shinso with a raised eyebrow. He was in class 1-B, wasn't he? There was no way that he…

Izuku's eyes widened.

He wasn't in this class in the previous timeline, so there must have been someone who was in his spot, right? In that case, Izuku could have unintentionally ruined someone's life…

Even if he didn't try, Izuku still managed to ruin someone's life. Once a villain, always a villain…

That was… that someone couldn't be Shinso, right? Izuku couldn't have ruined Shinso's chances of becoming a hero, even in this timeline… could he? If that was the case, then can Izuku really bring himself to defeat Shinso, despite the guilt that would certainly consume him?