Chapter One

Eyes

Two notes:

1. Takes place after the final exams arc!

2. Disclaimer. I should probably mention that, despite the mostly upbeat tone of this fic, Niki's quirk is intimately entwined with her mental illness, which will not be explored lightly or carelessly.

They're watching you.

Run.

The street is dark, abandoned except for a flickering light across the pavement. All the apartments are shut up from a fire that ruined this place over a decade ago. A fittingly decrepit area to find a Villainous League.

The flicking light is annoying.

Run.

Inside the light there might be a hero. Or maybe the lights are just eyes. Who knows these days.

Eyes watching her.

You know they are! That's All Might, or so she's named him. He's the loudest, the most shrill. You might say the Number One Voice.

Niki bends over, clamping her hands over her ears, not that it ever saves her.

Don't give up, says Endeavor, the lone positive voice, her only friend. Endeavor endeavors to save her.

We're your friends too! Be grateful! whines her newest companion. Mt. Lady, who is actually quite small.

We're warning you! howls All Might.

They're clamoring up her, like spiders or insects, devouring her –

Niki blinks down at her legs. She screams and leaps back, colliding into the wall of what looks like an abandoned bar.

"No, no, stop," she moans, shaking. "Go away bugs!"

But they're here, feasting on her.

"Make it stop!" she wails, clawing at her calves. They are now raw from bites. A mosquito flies up and nibbles on her nose. Oh my god, are those maggots in her bones?

You're too weak! shrieks All Might.

Control your goddamn quirk.

All you need to do is calm down for five seconds, but you can't.

Because someone's watching you.

They're watching you!

Watching us! All of us!

Niki cries harder. She might as well surrender and let herself be devoured by these creepy crawlies.

"Are you all right?" A young man, clad in a tan trench coat and matching hat, hurries around the corner to find a screaming young woman crouched over on the sidewalk. He squints at her leg. It's wriggling with worms and spiders and venomous ants. "Holy shit!"

"All right, All Might, same thing, right? It's a pun, isn't it? I like puns." Niki mumbles, forcing herself to stand, to act as normal as she is capable.

Act normal and he won't kill you, Endeavor says.

He's still gonna kill us, All Might retorts.

The bugs vanish as she focuses on the dude before her.

"Whoa, that's some quirk." Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa grins uneasily. Why would someone willingly torture themselves? Is this a trap? This is that kind of area, isn't it. Is she connected to the villains? "That's…cool."

"Bugs aren't cool," she says nervously, wiping her eyes.

We all hate you.

He should kill you.

"Fuck off," she yells to the voices. This man meant no harm.

Tsukauchi wants to back away from, to resume his search for the League's hideout, but this girl is clearly unwell. She reminds him of his sister Makoto. Actually, she may be even younger.

Niki's shoulders slump at his alarmed expression. At least, she thinks it's alarmed. She messed up again, didn't she?

Of course you did!

"Never mind. Leave me alone," she says, stumbling away.

"Wait – do you have family?" Tsukauchi hurries after her. "I can call you a cab if you're trying to get somewhere."

"I don't believe in family," Niki replies. It's true. They're all gone. "So All Might told me to stop believing in them."

"All Might?" Now Tsukauchi is extremely worried. A powerful quirk with a crazy owner cannot amount to anything good. If she's lucky, she'll fall in among villains. If she's not, they'll hurt her.

He holds out his police badge, so she'll see that he's safe. "I'm sorry, I really think you should come with me, Miss."

"No!" she yells, scrambling backwards.

A badge?

"You're with them, aren't you?" she cries. "All Might, you were right, you were right, I'm sorry I didn't listen – yes I know I'm bad, I'm sorry – help me, please."

"I can help you," Tsukauchi pleads.

"If you want to, go away," she growls before turning around and fleeing.

She should have put bugs on him. Or maybe rats. But she feels bad doing that. Chizome would be very upset with her.

Tsukauchi watches her go. He can't save everyone. He's not All Might. And it hurts.

He turns around to see two tall figures blocking the street back to his squad car. "What's a fine officer like you doing in this area?"

Aizawa Shouta knows Yagi Toshinori is watching him carefully. Not because their meeting was heated, but because he's slipping away to an undisclosed location again.

He just spent the last thirty minutes protesting the teaching of sexual education, not because he's against education – although in his illogical moments, he has already considered to castrating Mineta for his own good – but because Midnight wants to do it.

Better Midnight than him. Or Toshinori, whom Aizawa is pretty sure has never kissed another person.

But still. Midnight could stoke their teenage hormones beyond what Aizawa is capable of tolerating.

This class is gonna give him gray hair by the time he's thirty-two.

Well, at least she won't be teaching them until after training camp. That gives Aizawa a few weeks to steel himself.

But right now he doesn't need to think about this. Right now, he can head across town to the mental hospital.

Maybe I'll wind up here after Midnight's classes, he thinks with an uncharacteristic grin.

He's been grinning more lately. And Toshinori has noticed, that along with his absences. But of course the fool never asks him. Just watches him carefully out of the corner of his eye. Gives him suspicious smiles when he announces his departures earlier than usual.

Does he suspect? Aizawa doubts it. Again, see the fact that Toshinori has never had a girlfriend or a boyfriend.

But he feels pseudo-villainous here. Even if she's separated from her awful husband, Todoroki Reiko is technically married. And her son is in Aizawa's class.

He passes the nurses, who nod at his presence. They've seen him often enough to know him by name now.

She's on the second floor, not enough for a good view. Aizawa has petitioned for supervised leave, though that could raise more questions than either of them wants to juggle.

Aizawa opens the door to her stark white room room with another smile. His room is about as plain as hers, but he hates hers because he knows it's not her choice. She'd prefer colorful things.

Reiko turns around from the window to freedom she's lost, her face alight.

His heart flutters, the way it always does, the way it did the first time they met. Todoroki Shouto was slipping away after school to meet someone in a hospital, Aizawa investigated, and now… he doesn't want to stop.

"How are you?" she asks him.

"Can you believe the kids are at the age that we need to teach them … health?" Aizawa makes a face.

Reiko bursts into peals of laughter. "Shouta, you're delightfully sour as ever."

He smiles back at her, his friend. Yeah. Definitely. There's nothing illogical about calling her his friend.

There's just something very illogical about calling her only his friend.

Niki groans at the taunts that ring out behind her.

"What's up with you, pretty boy?"

"What's in your wallet?"

She wants these people to shut up so she can listen to All Might and find the League of Villains.

Niki hesitates. Is...no, wait. Maybe if she helps out the spy man, he'll stop following her.

Don't be stupid, All Might growls.

I think it's clever, Endeavor retorts. Mt. Lady giggles, which Niki takes as affirmation. It's two versus one now, All Might.

With a sigh, she backs up and peers out from behind a dumpster. Sure enough, three – no, two, it's only two – brutes surround the man.

If they kill him he'll stop following you.

If they kill him he'll be dead, and we don't like dead.

Speak for yourself.

Niki tries to concentrate. What will work? Rats, yes, rats.

Slimy, oily rats. Fat rats. Rats with bloody incisors. Hundreds – no, thousands – of them. Jumping out of the dumpster and racing towards the men.

"What the fuck?!" shrieks one. His voice is pitched higher than she expected, and Niki has to giggle.

Niki watches the thugs screech as one of the rats grows to the size of a large dog. It tackles the man, and the police officer helps him up. Then all three flail away.

Niki snaps her fingers, and a sea of rats rush back towards her. She clears her mind, as much as she can, until it's just her and her three loudest voices.

"What the fuck was that?" One of the henchmen eyes the waifish figure wavering in the shadows.

"Go away," Niki calls out. Her voice sounds like a little girl's, even though she's nineteen.

The officer hexed you.

"No, please," she whimpers, squeezing her eyes shut. Rats, rats, rats – but now they're attacking her instead of the men. And she's too tired to do anything but sob.

"What's going on here?" Two more figures emerge from the empty bar.

Niki's eyes pop open. So the tip she heard about the bar was correct? Why was she too stupid to figure it out?

"You think bringing the cops here is a good idea?" One of the newcomers is about her age, with messy black hair and magenta patchwork scars all over his body. The other wears a ridiculous hat and mask.

The two thugs cower before them. "N-nothing, mister."

"That's what I thought." The masked man raises his hands, and the thugs cringe.

Compress. She's seen articles about him. The scarred kid must be with the League, too.

Niki steps out of the shadows, her eyes cold. "It was my fault, Compress."

"Oh?" Compress turns to her. "I'm glad you know my name."

"You worked with Stain. I want to join you." The rats finally fade around her. She keeps her focus on his mask lest they return.

Bakugou can't fucking believe it. Ururaka gave him sad eyes when she said goodbye.

He didn't even want to say goodbye today. They're meeting for training camp soon, after all. Just because he's not going shopping with the rest of these fools doesn't mean he's going away forever. But no, she insisted, and gave him sad eyes. Like she pities him – Bakugou, the boy – no, the young man – with the strongest quirk of all of them!

Ugh. Fuck her. Fuck her and her stupid pretty face and her stupid sad eyes and her stupid pink and black outfit, which he must admit looks cool, but still it's goddamn fucking stupid. Because she likes Midoriya, so obviously, and everyone likes Midoriya, and he has no idea why, because Midoriya sucks and is always nice.

"Does she give you warm and snuggly feelings like she does to me?" Mineta asked him when he growled.

You know what? Fuck Mineta too.

He's going to be a real hero. He doesn't need a girl, even if all those dumb superhero movies of old end with romance. Bakugou has never cared for romance. He prefers explosions.

What about an explosive romance? Midoriya would probably ask.

Ha! As if anyone could like or love Bakugou. They all like or love Midoriya.

Bakugou doesn't even realize he's pouting until Mom slaps him.

"What's up with your grumpier-than-normal face?" she snaps.

"Nothing," he mutters, slinking upstairs to his room.

God dammit, Ururaka.

Shigaraki Tomura is grumpy, but that's not unusual. Sensei keeps telling him it's worth it, Stain is worth it, but if he hears another mention of Stain, he's going to reduce whoever said the word to a stain on Kurogiri's floor.

Stain sucks. He hurt Shiragaki. And Shigaraki won't forgive him for making him feel like the trash he is.

Someone knocks on Kurogiri's door.

"Again?" moans Shigaraki.

"It may be useful," Kurogiri says, ever smooth and pleasant. He opens the door. Dabi and Compress enter with someone new between them.

A girl, a very pretty girl who looks to be in her late teens, wearing a rather sloppy outfit that contradicts her statuesque features. Her long dark hair spills over her oversized brown jacket, and her blood-colored eyes shift to and fro like she expects to be murdered at any moment.

The League has no room for cowards. Shigaraki slides onto a barstool and crosses his arms, taking care to ensure that his pinkies don't touch his arms. "Who the hell are you?"

"Hands, he has a lot of hands," she mutters, avoiding his gaze. She pulls her jacket tighter around her small frame.

Shigaraki pouts. "So you've brought me someone crazy. Excellent, Dabi. I knew I didn't like you."

"Shigaraki," groans Kurogiri.

"Shigaraki, Shigaraki, leader, right?" Her eyes suddenly lock onto his. "I want to join you."

"I don't do insane." Shigaraki moves his fingers in a circular motion besides his head.

She titters. "No one does insane in this world, right? Just like no one does villains. But you do! Because no one does real heroes, either, right? Except All Might, or so we know, who knows. So you have to do villains to oppose the fact that no one does heroes, and everyone thinks insanity makes the best villains, so aren't I your best candidate?"

Shigaraki can't believe there's a coherent point in her rambling mess, but there is. "I need to know I can trust you, and you're not exactly convincing me."

"Her quirk was rather impressive," Compress says. "Seems to be some sort of mass-hallucinogenic."

"Oh, really?" Color him surprised. Shigaraki leans forward. "Demonstrate it."

"I like picturing this one all covered in rats." The girl grins unsteadily and waves at Dabi, who looks like he's fighting the urge to incinerate himself as several dozen sewer-covered rats clamor over him before morphing into one enormous rat that threatens to swallow him.

Shigaraki slumps over. God dammit, he did not count on someone with fucking schizophrenia-the-quirk.

But Sensei would like her. Sensei had taken him, the child of destruction. He should take her, too.

"What's your name?"

"Akaguro Niki." She sighs. "You had my brother for a while."

"Stain?!" Shigaraki leaps to his feet. "Why is it always Stain?!"

Kurogiri eyes the girl. She does have similar coloring to Stain. But who can say if she's hallucinating this? "Shigaraki, does she have proof of this?"

"Heh?" Shigaraki looks at him like he has three heads. Or perhaps one that isn't made of mist. He swings back around to face her. "Give me some reason to believe you."

Niki snickers. "I…I bet he hated you. He'd only join our league if he thought it suited him. This League was the means to his end, but you're using it like it was his end!" She throws her arms wide. "So I … I'm going to help him because I owe him."

"Owe him what?" Shigaraki is thoroughly confused. But she does seem to know Stain, or at least his creed, beyond what most of the other villains who've joined know. Most of them think Stain liked Shigaraki. He's not sure how he feels about that assumption.

"Because I'm a villain." She bares her teeth in another mysterious smile that would be pretty if her eyes would focus on him.

"I don't like her." Shigaraki stomps his foot. They're not getting straight answers, are they? No, of course not.

"She could be useful," Kurogiri reminds him, like he always does.

"I know, I know," he grouses.

"You're pleased with me and Dabi, right?" Himiko Toga smiles. "Maybe you'll like her too."

"Don't get full of yourself," Shigaraki shoots back, although he truly doesn't mind Toga and Dabi. They're the most tolerable minions besides Kurogiri. Not that Kurogiri is a minion. He's almost like a second sensei.

Shigaraki sits back down. "Dabi, show her to her quarters. And if she tries any of those rat things on me, someone better kill her before I have the chance."