Mastermind: Strategist For Hire

Entrance Exam

"Are you sure you're ready for this Mind-chan?"

Izuku just rolled his eyes, ignoring the lump of guilt, excitement and doubt that had been steadily growing in his gut all day.

"Himiko, you do realize I have killed people before, right?"

"I know that , silly, it's just..." she looked at him softly, "It's just you've never taken a life with your own hands. It's different than just making murder plans and letting other people act them out. The blood will be on your hands, no one else's. There's no coming back from this."

Izuku took a deep breath and started playing with his favorite knife, "Yeah, I guess you're right. But," Izuku's eyes took on a determined glint, "I think I need to do this. I mean, in the eyes of the law, I'm already a killer, so it's not like it'll save me a prison sentence even if I never do it myself and...well, I think I need to prove to myself that I can, you know? My whole life, I've been told that I can't do anything everyone else can do, I can't be a hero, I can't be a useful member of society. I can't be human. Hell, my own dad left because I was so useless. If I let everyone else do my dirty work forever, then isn't that proving everyone else right? Yeah I'm smart, but when it comes down to the wire, I really am the useless deku that everyone's always told me I am." He looked over at Himiko, crouched beside him on the rooftop while they waited for their prey to pass through the alley below, "I want to... I need to do this. I know that I'm capable of it, I just need to actually, you know, do it. Does that make any sense?"

"Not really to me, but I've never been one for big ideals." She got a contemplative look on her face, "I mostly just kill people to see them bleed, which other people think is a dumb reason too, so I think that if it makes sense to you, can it really be wrong? I mean, any more wrong than murder is anyway?"

Izuku laughed, "That really shouldn't have been as comforting as it is. Thanks Himiko, you're a great friend."

She smiled, her fangs glinting in the dim light of a nearby street lamp before her eyes brightened in excitement. She grabbed Izuku's shoulder and shook him roughly.

"Mind-chan! Mind-chan!" She whispered, somehow still managing to convey mania as if she were yelling at the top of her lungs, "She's here!"

Izuku focused on the woman entering the alley below them. Hero Name: Glimmer. Sidekick at Uwabami Agency. Quirk: Sparkles. She can refract light to produce a glittery effect around her body that she uses to blind and disorient her opponents. Weaknesses: she is susceptible to the blinding effect of her own sparkles. She uses dark glasses as part of her hero costume to minimize this effect, but right now? she's coming off a day shift in the dark of night in civilian clothes and dark glasses would just get in the way. Izuku smiled and put on his own dark goggles to shield his eyes before grabbing a pair of throwing knives.

Glimmer cried out as one stabbed her in the shoulder and the other lodged itself in her thigh, preventing her from running away. She instinctively surrounded herself with sparkles, but had to shield her eyes with her hand. She reached for her pocket where she kept an extra pair of sunglasses only to receive a swift kick to the hand as soon as she managed to grab them. She could tell by the sound of them hitting the floor that they were most likely cracked and useless. She dimmed her quirk enough that she could still see somewhat. She could just barely make out two figures behind the bright sparkles. One was hanging back, but the other was stalking toward her with knives in each hand. A knife-hand quirk, perhaps. Glimmer shook her head. Not important right now, she needed to focus on staying alive.

She launched a punch at her attacker, only for him to dodge at the last second. How? Even dimmed, she knew her sparkles made it difficult to see her movements. It seemed it was her opponent's turn to attack as he ran close to her with a knife and gave her a deep cut on the side of her neck. Her eyes widened in pain and realization as she saw the dark goggles on his face. She stumbled backwards, trying to get out of range before he came at her again, thanking every deity she could think of that her hurt leg didn't give out from the movement.

Glimmer was starting to hyperventilate. She didn't have her glasses and her opponent's gear limited the effectiveness of her quirk anyway. She was also injured and bleeding heavily while she hadn't even managed to land a hit on him. They fought for another few minutes, but for every hit she managed to get in, he gave her another few cuts or stabs. She hadn't been this scared since the first time she'd run into a major villain during her first internship. Her mentor had been there to save her then, but no one was going to come to save her now. She stilled and prepared to stand her ground as a last desperate strategy occurred to her. There was a risk she might go blind, but hopefully it would incapacitate her attacker long enough for her to run away.

She slammed her hands over her screwed shut eyes and sparkled brighter than she ever had in her life. She had never poured this much energy into her quirk because even with standard dark glasses, this much light could cause permanent damage. She was just about to cut her quirk and run for her life when she felt a knife slide between her ribs. If her eyes hadn't been closed she would have been concerned about how dark her vision was going as her legs finally gave out beneath her and she succumbed to quirk exhaustion and blood loss.

Izuku waited for the last of the sparkles to fizzle out before taking off his glasses. He'd had to close his eyes during that last attack, but the glasses Giran had provided him with had done a wonderful job at protecting him. He watched the last bit of life drain from Glimmer's eyes as Himiko came to stand beside him.

"So," she drawled, "That looked like fun. How do you feel?"

Izuku knew that the him of 10 months ago would have probably thrown up at the realization of what he had just done, but all he felt was a sick sense of pride, just like he'd felt that first time that a villain had honestly thanked him for coming up with a plan to kill Mt. Lady.

"I feel good." He smiled at Himiko as he retrieved whatever knives were still stuck in the hero, cleaning them off and putting them away. "I think I told you when we were planning this that today was the UA entrance exam," Himiko nodded, "Well, I've just been thinking about how proud my bully was when I saw him walking home this afternoon and honestly, I think I've got him beat." This was like his own personal entrance exam, his own proof that he was a real villain. Izuku liked the poetic irony. It was just as ironic as a hero fanboy growing up to kill heroes because of the words of the number one hero in Japan.

Sirens were starting to grow closer, most likely drawn by the bright light of Glimmer's final stand, but it wasn't important. Izuku and Himiko had plenty of time to get out of there before anyone else showed up.

"Come on Himiko," he said, "let's go celebrate."