Midoriya Collection 19: The Plan of a Mad Thinker (Patreon)

Midoriya Collection
Chapter 19: The Plan of a Mad Thinker

-VB-

Insanity.

Every single one of his power drove itself forward in insanity.

Even the most human of them all, Tattletale, scoured information that sought conflict rather than simple information.

Izuku hadn’t realized until now while using Accord, but all of his powers thrived in conflict. It was like a low pitch humming underneath everything.

With Accord, however, that background noise became the focus of his mind, and Izuku couldn’t understand how anyone could stay sane.

Just simply looking around made him mad. The inaccuracies, the lack of symmetry, and stupidity of humanity drove him up the walls.

Only his iron will and Alexandria’s emotion-muting state of mind (another fact he’d just learned about) was keeping him from lashing out and destroying everything so that he could rebuild it all in his image.

“Have Nezu please look at this plan while I make other plans,” he told All Might without looking at the man to keep his mind calmer than if he had. The mere tachycardia of All Might’s heart thumping in his damaged ribcage just made him ... !

He took a deep breath in as All Might took the slim USB without much care, using only one hand and -!

‘I think I’m going to go crazy by the time I finish this,’ he thought to himself. He knew he could stop right now and just tell Nezu that he can’t do it… but…

This was his opportunity to make exams for U.A.! How many people could even think about having that kind of an opportunity?!

No, no, no. This was too good of an opportunity, and both Alexandria and Tattletale told him enough about the inefficiencies with the current exam process to make him want to change it all.

He had once been considered Quirkless, and while that was no longer true, he still remembered the sneers and disdain people tossed at him like candy wrappers. The very thought of others who might be like he had been being unable to be a hero, to chase their dreams, because of this one fucking exam?

Wrath.

Anger bubbled within him like magma bubbled atop a volcano. It was his permanent state of mind and -.

No, it wasn’t. It was only when he used this power, one that he would forever be hesitant to use once this was over, so this power should stop telling what was real about himself and what wasn’t.

And it was done.

The plan was done.

Izuku wasted no time and shut down Accord, and took a gasping deep breath in.

“Izuku?!” All Might, who had just entered the room, blurted out as he came skidding over to him.

“I-I’m o-o-okay,” he stuttered out as he felt like himself again. He shut down even Alexandria and Tattletale so that he could feel like himself again. He was an All Might fanboy, he didn’t care about some cracks in the wall, he didn’t care about the symmetry of the room, he was … he was a hero…

“Okay, I think I’m done,” he muttered out as exhaustion crashed into him before swallowing and realizing that his throat was dry. “How long have I been here? Can I have some water?”

“Of course, Izuku,” All Might said before he went out of the room and came back with a cup of water. Izuku snatched the transparent glass cup out of his hero’s hands and greedily drank it all. When he sighed in relief, the Number One Hero spoke up curiously. “What exactly was in the USB that you gave me? Nezu was very … excited with it.”

Izuku looked up, confused for a second before his eyes lit up brightly in amusement and achievement. “It was a plan to end hunger in Japan while incorporating the culture of its people into it.”

All Might looked down at him and blinked.

“And … your power helped you do it?”

“Yes. T-This new power, Accord, is great at planning. More complex the need is, the greater the efficiency and usage of the plan,” Izuku tittered out. “It will have an easier time solving world hunger than hunger in Japan, but the former is impossible to get the world to agree to while the latter is easier due to our culture.” He turned back to the computer he had been working out of, saw that the plan had finished downloading into the second USB, and safely disengaged the drive from the computer. He then pulled it out and jumped out of the chair. “Let’s go see Nezu-san!”

-VB-

After beginning to read the second plan, Nezu wouldn’t stop laughing like a villain.

-VB-

2 months later...

Izuku sat nervously in the viewing room with all of the faculty of U.A. High School, waiting to see his plan unveiled.

“So, give us a little bit of a hint!”

Izuku jolted in his seat and looked around to see where the voice had come from.

There was a dominatrix right behind him, but his mind didn’t go down to her very exposed-looking boobs but the fact that there was a hero who looked like a dominatrix behind him. And her name came to the forefront of his brain like a bomb going off.

“You’re Midnight, the 18+ hero!”

The woman reared back a bit before she blinked. “That wasn’t what I expected…” she muttered before grinning. “But yes~! I am Midnight, the 18+ Hero! And I see that you are unfazed by me!”

Izuku blinked once and then twice and then looked at her.

Then he blushed. “Umm… Umm…”

Midnight cooed. “Oh, he’s just cute.”

Izuku quickly turned around and stared back at the screens showing the examinees.

“Oh!” he quickly yelled to change the subject. “They’re starting!”

“Izuku-kun, could you please explain to our audience exactly how this test is set up?” Nezu asked.

“O-of course..!” Izuku muttered before clearing his throat, drawing upon Alexandria’s power to calm himself. “First off, the first portion of the exam, the paper exam to test their knowledge, was untouched as I wasn’t given the authority to change it. The practical was what I changed, and the first portion of the practical exam is not that different from the original exam.”

Everyone watched as the U.A. hopefuls rushed out of the gates from each of the practical exam sites. There, they encountered their first obstacles: U.A. patented one-pointer and two-pointer robots.

“But that’s where this exam differs from the original,” Izuku grinned excitedly, unbeknownst to himself.

Midnight shivered at that maniac smile.

-VB-

15 minutes earlier…

Bakugo sat in his seat while glaring at the loud motherfucker of a hero who stood at the stage. He would have ignored all of the talk-talk-talk, if the straight-and-proper guy who lectured his fellow examinee - while introducing himself  stood up and asked a question.

“Present Mic-san, you talked about three-pointers and that we should watch out for them!” Tenha Yoda(?) asked loudly.

Irritating extra. What’s there to fucking ask? We go in, we smash, I win.

“Yes, I did say that, listener!” Present Mic - a respectable but not All Might level hero - answered with a grin.

“Can you tell us more about them? Even if this is only a practical exam, heroes would get intel on their enemies!”

“Hmm, that is true,” Present Mic seemed to consider the extra’s words. Then he snapped his fingers. “Alright, I can give some information! Heroes don’t go into a situation with all of the information after all!”

“Thank you very much!”

“Alright, let’s see…” Present Mic said before he tapped away at his smartphone. The room dimmed and a projector came online.

Did they fucking plan this shit or something?

“Let me introduce you all to one of the three Three-pointers: Spider!”

-VB-

Now
Viewing Room

The teachers watched, some shivering at the sight of a villain-worthy metallic monstrosity that stalked the students who separated too far from where the majority of the battle was taking place.

Perhaps the students were hoping to find their targets in a less competitive environment.

But in the real world, there were reasons as to why there might be less competition elsewhere. Yes, in this exam, the competition was the other competitors, but it was also because the exam intentionally kept the one-pointers and two-pointers within a certain area.

The faculty watched the screen, which showed a boy that caused earth tremor, strayed too far from the center of combat.

And the camera caught the metal spider - easily the size of a small van - ambushing the student.

It noisily jumped off of the edge of a building, but it cleared the street in seconds. The student looked up to find what made the noise, but the spider was on the other side of the street by then. It jumped down at the student while spewing strings from its mouth.

The student tried to fight back, but it was too late. The strings caught his limbs, and the spider spun up the student in its webs before tossing them aside.

Present Mic shivered. “I mean, I did warn them,” he said.

“Because you hate spiders?”

“Because I hate spiders!”

-VB-

Arena 4

Bakugo roared as one metal spider sailed away, only to catch itself with its eight freakish legs, upright itself, and critter at him menacingly.

“Fuck off, mook!” he shouted before punching forward. “DIE!”

He hadn’t just punched the air: he had actually punched one of the metal debris that had broken off of the metal spider when he punched it away. He struck the metal debris while letting his sweats explode, and, powered by his explosion, the metal debris zipped across the air nearly horizontally before embedding itself in the spider’s head.

The thing screeched before losing strength and falling with a loud clunk.

Bakugo spat towards it, though he missed by at least two dozen meters.

“Know your place, metal shit.”

And then he went to hunt down more of these spiders. They gave more points and he wouldn’t accidentally hurt an extra in that shitfest at the center of the arena.

-VB-

“The spiders are meant to encourage counter-ambushers and speedsters to hunt after them. It’s more energy efficient than taking down multiple one or two pointers,” Izuku explained. “They also act as high priority targets, and since they leave their victims tied up, it gives the other students the chance to earn themselves the secret Rescue Points.”

“And what about the others?” Eraserhead asked.

“Well, there is the Alabaster-model, named after a story I heard…” ‘From Alexandria-san.’ “It’s not stronger than any of the other models, but it has a trick up its sleeve…”

-VB-

Arena 2

“This is going to be tricky,” Jiro Kyoka muttered while staring at the human-sized-and-uncannily-similar three-pointer that she had just taken apart with a earth-shattering vibration attack.

But then the thing, disassembled into suspiciously neat blocks just got back up as it put itself back together.

Then it charged at her, swinging its fists.

She ducked, rolled away, and instead of causing another vibration attack on the ground, she waited for it to punch-!

It punched, going for a haymaker.

She ducked into its guard and hit it with her back blasting attack!

One of the blocks that made up the three-pointer shattered, and it scattered apart on top of her.

“ACK!”

-VB-

“And the last one is…”

“The Mastermind.”

Everyone turned towards All Might, who was frowning - still with that smile - in his seat.

“Huh?” Present Mic asked, now a little wary upon seeing a grimacing All Might.

“I had to be the one to test them, and it annoyed me with how … well it did its job.”

Everyone turned to Izuku, who laughed nervously. “I did tone it out a bit after All Might had its round with it…”

“I punched it out of the sky out of frustration!”

“Which is the exact wrong way to go about dealing with the robot you unhelpfully named ‘Trauma.’ I did lower the difficulty about your objection, you know.”

“Well, how does it work?”

“The Trauma isn’t actually a combat model, so it has other robots to guard it.”

“What does it do?”

“It’s a coordinator, and it also has an escalating threat algorithm, so let’s say only one defensive Quirk comes at it, it sends less minions. However, if the enemy is strong…”

-VB-

Arena 1

Ida Tenya yelped as he sped away from the four spiders that crittered at him. “I thought they weren’t supposed to work together!” he complained.

The spiders screeched and lumber-skittered towards him.

Tenya did the smart thing and got the hell out of the “spider nest.”

-VB-

Arena 4

Bakugo grinned maliciously at the horde of spider robots, robot humans, and regular robots that stood in front of him.

“All of you shits should get out of my way!” he roared before unleashing half of his stored sweats into one giant explosion at the heart of their formation.

-VB-

“But that can’t be all it, right?” Midnight asked with a frown. “If you’re only adding a new variety of new robots, then Nezu could have easily done so.”

Izuku turned to her and smiled. “That’s where the next part comes in. We have hero volunteers acting as ‘fake’ civilians and ‘fake’ villains.”

She looked at him incredulously as did a few other teachers. “But that will make the arena very complicated very fast. How would it help us determine which examinee will be worthy of U.A.?”

Izuku gathered his thoughts for a second before he spoke up. “My definition of a hero, something Principal Nezu agrees with, is a person who sacrifices their future for the sake of others. You can make mistakes, but a hero will consistently try to do better and save more people. It’s why you and other heroes train, right? There is an underlying goal of wanting to save others.”

“Well, yes…” Midnight didn’t want to talk about corporate heroes and ‘fame’ heroes.

“I’m sure there are a few bad apples, but … that’s the purpose of this exam. It’s to bring the hero out of these examinees’ hearts.”

-VB-

Bakugo finished cleaning up the spider horde, but stopped when he saw a bound child in one of the window ledges.

He didn’t think; he just blasted his way up there to bring the kid down.

-VB-

Tenya jumped right behind another examinee who was about to be assaulted by a very human attacker. He took the hit, and crashed into the ground.

-VB-

Ochaco grimaced as her nausea began to mount, but nonetheless, she tapped at the “civilian” to get them out of the way of an attack by sending up up into the air right next to a building.

She stumbled and got clipped on her shoulder, sending her flying.

-VB-

“I think we’re seeing some of them now,” Izuku hummed in satisfaction. “It’s easy to help someone when you won’t lose anything, but when it is clear that you might lose something and yet you jump in?”

Some of the teachers smiled.

“I think I’ll be right in calling them heroes.”

“What is this plan even called?” All Might asked with a bright smile on his face.

Izuku grinned.

“‘A plan to draw out the heroes in teenage hearts.’”

“That’s so blunt!” someone among the crowd in the viewing room shouted.

Izuku laughed.

The timer ran down, and Present Mic held up the mic to his lips.

“AND TIME!”