Shackles of the Past

USJ

Midoriya just stared back at Kurogiri blankly.

If Kurogiri was being honest with himself, he felt bad for the boy. He was one of the few that had seen the boy's memories with Sensei's quirk. He had seen the boy get bullied all his life. He had seen him commit suicide. He had watched the entire process of Shigaraki and the other villains breaking the boy's mentality. He watched him try to resist. He knew the inevitable when the heroes came and he had to teleport Controller away. Midoriya would listen to the heroes, and knowing them, they would convince the boy to leave the base. He would be electrocuted and bleed out from the injuries caused by the implants.

So to be honest, to see the boy looking at him with the same deadpan expression he was so used to, instead of being on the verge of bleeding out and dying was a relief to the misty villain.

But he wasn't honest with his feelings, so all he felt was annoyance at the child that was supposed to be dead. "You know, I wonder why they even let you in here. You're just a tool. Something people use, then eventually throw away."

"Hey! That's super rude and unmanly!" Kirishima retorted. Bakugou let some explosions dance on his palms.

"Fight if necessary"

Aizawa's words rang in his mind.

Kurogiri sighed, "I still have my job to do, I guess...." He attempted to extend his mist to teleport the students away, but Midoriya struck immediately, lashing out and kicking Kurogiri right in his metal neck plates. Kurogiri stumbled down, and Midoriya landed, placing a foot on his neck plates. "You always did have a soft spot for heroes, didn't you?" Kurogiri replied, before pushing the smaller, lighter boy off him.

"It's wrong to attack people just to kill them."

Kurogiri shook his head patronisingly, "You're made to be a villain. The world broke you, tore you to bits, almost killed you, and yet you still side with them."

Midoriya made no reply, and Kurogiri internally berated himself for forgetting that he would not respond unless asked a question or an order, "Why?"

"You did the same as well."

"Well... that can't be helped. The world will always be prejudiced against the quirkless after all."

"Wait, Akatani, who's quirkless?!" Kaminari asked, looking around.

"Me." Midoriya replied.

"No way.... " Mineta mumbled.

"We're gonna need some help here!" Jiro yelled as she blasted another villain away. "There's too many here with long ranged and short ranged quirks."

Tokoyami and Ashido set about helping them to take out the longer ranged villains. Kurogiri disrupted their little conversation by teleporting a group of villains in front of them. They all activated their various quirks and rushed the students, and Asui yelped, "Kero, Akatani, watch -"

She blinked, realising that Midoriya had already moved. He lunged, kicking two villains swiftly in the chest, sending them tumbling into a few more villains. They crashed into the railing and dented the metal. Midoriya snatched a knife out another villains grasp, smashing the hilt into another guy with a rock quirk before kicking the former holder of the knife in the head. He kicked another two into the railing, before slashing the last villain away with the knife.

Thirteen saw how the boy moved. He had purposely used the blunt end of the knife so he wouldn't grievously injure them. He just wanted to knock them out of the way, not kill. He knew what he was doing.

"Still as sharp as ever, aren't you?" Kurogiri sighed patronisingly. "You do realise no one will appreciate you, right? You'll just be thrown aside when it's all done. Just step aside and let me do my job."