Shadow Monarch Hero: Viridian (SMH: Deku rewrite)

Sorting It Out

Izuku and Iida emerged from the treeline to see a rather disturbing sight. Kaminari and Jiro dead on the ground, their bodies mutilated. Standing behind them were the rest of their class, aiming their aggression at the two boys.

"Stop right there!" Setsuna demanded, to which Izuku and Iida complied. They already knew the situation thanks to Raia, so there was no confusion.

"Okay so how do we sort this out?" Setsuna was ninety-nine percent certain that the Izuku before her was the real one. She'd seen his power, there was no way he'd die to one of these things. But both of the Mosaics that they had killed were capable of copying and evolving Awakened abilities. If one had copied Izuku, they would all be dead. Then again, if they had copied Izuku and his true power, then he wouldn't have needed to play a long-term con game. He could have just killed them instantly with Gravity Magic.

"Their hearts are the only defining feature," Maigo said.

"What about memories?"

Aizawa shook his head. "Kaminari and Jiro's clones knew what we were talking about with the search and rescue team, they knew the locations we were in, and they knew our names and how we would behave. That's not an acceptable way to determine who's human and who isn't."

Izuku, hearing all that, went to utilize two Magics at once, Gravity and Soul. With Gravity Magic, he was capable of essentially mapping a human body, scanning them. Because gravity affects anything with mass, he had a clear view of human internals. He was able to note the abnormality in Copy-Jiro and Copy-Kaminari's hearts, and was also able to see that, for the moment, the rest of the class was clean.

And just in case, he used Soul Magic to see that everyone's Soul looked normal. There was a chance that Mosaics could mimic Souls as well, so Izuku would need to keep an eye out for that.

"Just listen to my heart," Izuku answered. "It's low-tech, just need a stethoscope."

Everyone looked to the biologist, Maigo. She shrugged. "It was what Brandon was gonna try with the townsfolk. But we still don't know if they use Magic to hide the abnormal movements of a heart with something inside of it. We'll need a live mimic to know for sure."

"They looked a bit pale," Yui noted. "Maybe the copies were paler because their blood flow was bad."

"Alright, then we'll have to trust that for now," Setsuna acknowledged, grabbing a stethoscope from the morgue. She was the safest choice after all. Her body parts could split off and regenerate, so there was no threat upon getting close.

Both Iida and Izuku removed the chest plates of their Hero outfits, revealing impressive physiques beneath them. Maigo directed her in noting certain abnormal sounds.

Setsuna listened to Iida's heart, then Izuku's.

"They're clean as far as I can tell," She said with a sigh.

"We encountered one in the woods," Izuku said, walking closer to the class. "It didn't look anything like a human."

"They've evolved at an extremely rapid pace," Iida concluded, essentially just relaying information from Raia without mentioning him. In a situation where distrust would run rampant, bringing up a metal man feeding them details whilst also keeping them trapped on the island and wanting to burn it down would invariably make things more difficult.

Izuku briefly considered revealing his Monarch status to the class, but reconsidered upon thinking about what Raia had said. "Its arrival was arranged by the Monarchs to greatly weaken humanity."

The Mosaics were on Earth to weaken humanity, so that some force, named the Monarchs, could more easily... conquer? Eliminate? Whatever the case, they could have served as information gatherers as well. Revealing his true nature could be dangerous. If this was the start of a war, some sort of first strike, then information was a critical piece of the battles to come. Izuku didn't need to reveal himself yet, so he'd stay silent.