Mastermind: Strategist For Hire

Hope for the Future

Despite his best efforts, Izuku found himself at an internet cafe logging into his Mastermind account a little under two weeks after Mt. Lady's death. The TV in the corner is playing the news and even now won't stop talking about the murder. There's even talk about putting a memorial up where she was killed. Every time he hears about it, he feels a weird mixture of pride and nausea, the same feeling he felt every time he considered logging into his account. He knew that he should just let it lie, but recent events had shown how not great he was was at that. Once his brain had latched onto a problem, it wouldn't rest until it was dead. Literally, in the case of Mt. Lady. He clicked on the little envelope at the top of the screen, seeing a notification for four new messages. He opened the oldest one first, the only one from the original Mt. Lady poster.

New Message:

From Whyher0es301

Thanks for the plan, I couldn't have done it without you. Well, I couldn't have gotten away with it at least. I know your reasons for helping are your own, mine are too, but just know that if you ever need anything, I've got your back.

Well, Izuku thought, that's nice of him at least. He sat back and took a deep breath. No one had ever thanked him before, well, not including his mom. Goodness knows Kacchan never did. It felt...really good if Izuku was being honest with himself, even if it was coming from a murderer. The thought made Izuku nauseous again. Just how desperate was he for attention if a compliment from a villian was enough to send him over the moon? He really was as pathetic as Kaccan was always saying, wasn't he? Izuku shook his head in an attempt to yank himself out of a self pity spiral. If he let that get going, he might be there for hours and he really didn't want to stay logged in on his villain account longer than necessary. (He pointedly ignored the voice in the back of his head that said having a villain account wasn't supposed to be necessary at all.) It was then that he noticed the thank you note had a postscript.

P.S. I hope you don't mind that I told a few friends about your account. None of them are cops, so don't worry about any snitches.

Izuku hurriedly clicked back to his inbox, trying not to panic. He refreshed the page twice, willing the words on the screen to change, but when had anything ever actually paid attention to what he wanted? Three new messages. From villains . It wasn't like Izuku could justify it like he could last time by saying he didn't know for certain these were villains. They had been referred to him by a murderer specifically because he had apparently made a murder plan . There was no way they weren't villains. This was terrible! What had he gotten himself into?

"Hey kid, are you ok?"

Izuku jumped when the teenager who had been running the counter put a hand on his shoulder. He hadn't even realized he'd been hyperventilating until that moment. He nodded, willing the worker to just go away, but apparently he wasn't that great of an actor because the worker just stood there looking concerned. Izuku took a few deep breaths, both to calm himself down and to convince the worker he'd be fine. When he felt he'd staved off the panic attack he met the workers eyes.

"Thank you for your concern. I think I'll actually be heading home now."

The worker nodded and walked back to the counter as Izuku signed out without reading the other messages. He considered deleting the account, but the worker was still eyeing him with concern, so Izuku didn't want to take too long. He almost sighed in relief when he walked through the doors. No doubt if the worker had seen anything incriminating on his screen, he would have called the cops rather than helping Izuku through a panic attack. He pulled at his hood self consciously as he turned toward home. Someone thought he was useful. The thought almost stopped him in his tracks, but he managed to trip over air instead. Someone thought he was useful. Sure, that someone was a villain, but still, someone thought he was useful! That meant he wasn't just a worthless deku!