~O~

"This is it..." Midoriya mumbled underneath his breath.

A huge smirk made it's way to Midoriya's face before he looked up at the sky, extending his arms outwards.

"You guys just started a fire you cannot put out!!!"

This was the moment his real plan begun. He didn't only trick the villains into this battle, he also tricked the heroes and his classmates into this battle.

It feels amazing when your plan has multiple layers and the others could only scratch out a little...

What? You expected him to tell them his actual plan?

Nope.

He divided it. Spread it. Commanded them — the one thing he learnt from Bakugou. They didn't even know what they were actually doing.

It's great that you build up trust among your team, form a bond and explain basically everything to them.

But sometimes, you gotta play them. You gotta command them, boss around them. You gotta take the wheel...

Now to the villains, Midoriya had already joined them, gained their trust and figured out their plans. Gained a special power using their own power with his wonderful trickery. He couldn't help but hold back his smirk. They wouldn't attack him. Why would they? He was the one who was fighting for them. In Shigaraki's eyes, Midoriya was the only one who could handle the heroes. They wouldn't attack him. Nope. Not at all. They were looking at him for help.

And that's where they were wrong...

On the other side, to the heroes; Midoriya was only a tool of confirmed information. They wouldn't force him to go back at UA, they were instructed to leave him there and take Best Jeanist instead. He could continue with his little scheme when they left. They were tricked into believing that the boy was probably on a mission conducted by the commission or something. He was nothing but a student gathering information on the villains.

That's where they were wrong...

And finally to his dear, dear friends; he was supposed to be rescued. He was just a victim that asked for help indirectly while he gathered information. They didn't know anything else about his plan. They we're probably gonna come to him and try to safely take him back to UA High as instructed in the journal. Well, Midoriya told them that he'd be back in five days but he also instructed them to come to his rescue just as Endeavor got the case. They knew he would gather information, but to them, this boy played the victim as well. They were going to rescue him no matter what and Midoriya knew that. That's why what would happen next would brilliantly support his plan.

Snapping out of his train of thoughts, the boy looked around. He was so calmly standing amidst the utter chaos that was happening right now. He couldn't help but smile.

Shigaraki was fighting off All For One instead of the heroes. The boy looked so, so desperate trying to keep his mentor from fighting. He looked so, so dumb, gullible and naïve. He tried his best to push All For One out of the battlefield while he commanded the last standing villain; Spinner to take care of the others just as Kurogiri arrived on the scene with Gigantomachia.

Endeavor got busy with the Nomu after he saw his son and yelled 'Shoto' — who was unfazed by his reaction, while Hawks dealt with the others with the seven teenagers that stepped into the battlefield, ready to take on their enemy.

With his incredible speed, Hawks pinned down Kurogiri. The winged hero turned to see that Todoroki froze Spinner in place, making him immobile for the time being. Shiozaki and Yaoyorozu held down the unconscious ones just in case. Komori and Kaibara fled downstairs to help Best Jeanist. Shinsou and Monoma were looking around for Midoriya who stood in the middle of all the smoke and debris, apparently hidden from their sight. Shigaraki and All For One were practically not even there now.

"What are you kids doing here anyways!?"

"We were told to rescue Midoriya!"

Clash in their plans.

What Hawks knew was they were supposed to leave Midoriya and what the students knew was that they were supposed to take Midoriya.

A wonderful distraction that bought the green haired boy enough time to skillfully flee from their sight...

All Might should be proud.

~O~

Now standing away from where all the  destruction was taking place, Midoriya closed his eyes enjoying the cool breeze that flew past him. He was standing on top of one of the hills that surrounded the hideout.

It was relaxing — yes, Endeavor was having a death match and Best Jeanist was practically about to die and so were a few of his friends if they turned out super unlucky — but hey it was kinda fun.

He mentally noted down to do more of this once he becomes the villain.

Though, he shouldn't get too attached to this feeling. After all, he was a hero-in-training, All Might's successor, the next Symbol of Peace, blah, blah, blah.

He never noticed how beautiful fire looked like until now. He took a deep breathe, he shouldn't relax himself much. What if someone was there an—!

A voice interrupted him,

Yup. Someone just did.

"I take this was your scheme we talked about?"

He turned around to see All For One, an unreadable smile on the green head's face. What was his expression? Petty, glad, sly, sympathetic? Maybe a combination of all of them.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"You got good cover-ups for betrayals too, huh."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"... You're smarter than I credited you for."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

All For One chuckled. This boy was testing him.

But, he too, was the Symbol of Evil. He wasn't going down that easily. He wasn't completely in the shadows. He had prepared a counter just in case. He could technically kill the boy right there. But he could also kill him slowly and painfully. Perhaps the boy had already thought of a possibility that All For One would have a last trick under his sleeve, and perhaps he did. Although he decided to take the low road for now. He'd wait for Midoriya and see what he's doing before acting.

In the end, it was just a game.

And the winner would be whoever planned ahead of the other.

All For One smiled to himself. Finally, an opponent that fought differently. Someone who used different pieces. Someone worth his time. Someone who viewed every angle in a battlefield. It was nice to have a competition once in a while, you know.

He was about to say something but couldn't as Endeavor came crashing down into the hill, Gigantomachia following the suit — attempting to attack the already injured hero once more.

Gigantomachia roared which caused quite a shock wave to run up front. Midoriya nearly placed his arms in front of his eyes to shield himself, but nearly — he mostly managed to keep his calm posture.

All For One stepped back. He wanted to see what the green head would do next. Save the hero? Fight Gigantomachia? Kill the hero? Leave the battle as it is? Each step, determined his next one. He needed to see what he would do.

Gigantomachia prepared his fist before Endeavor had enough time to recover from the impact. With one swift motion, the Nomu brought down his fist and basically destroyed the entire area where Endeavor was, making nearly everyone nearby stumble to the ground with it's immense power. Once the smoke cleared and he retracted his hand, Gigantomachia only saw that there was left a huge shallow deformation on the ground and Endeavor....?

The flame hero; Endeavor wasn't even there to begin with.

Rather, there was an open warp gate there. Just like Kurogiri's.

The Nomu looked around to realize that Midoriya opened the warp gate and sent Endeavor somewhere else — possibly back to where the other heroes were.

But was the problem over? No.

When is the problem ever over with UA's infamous problem children?

From the warp gate that led Endeavor to safety, Todoroki, Monoma and Shinsou came out in search of their green haired friend. Only to meet the monstrous calamity that was called Gigantomachia.

Seeing this, Gigantomachia prepared another attack. But now, he was the one who wasn't given enough time as Midoriya turned out to be faster than him.

With a sharp yell of, "Look out!!" Midoriya used Best Jeanist's quirk which he had gotten a graze from earlier when the Pro Hero was struggling. He used the quirk to grab all three of his friends and — using One For All — pulled them behind himself.

Just as he finished placing his friends down with one hand, he used the other to create a warp gate behind Gigantomachia that connected to the new one he created in front of himself. Then he used Best Jeanist's quirk once again through the warp gate in front of him and brought out those fibers from the one behind Gigantomachia. The fiber strings connected to the Nomu's back and shoulders, regardless of his struggles. Midoriya pulled the strings towards himself, resulting in Gigantomachia to be forced towards the warp gate behind.

But just before the Nomu entered the warp gate, Midoriya created another one on a random location — somewhere in the middle of an ocean and left Gigantomachia there, pulling back his strings.

"Well, he's gonna have fun finding his way back." Midoriya said to himself as he closed all the warp gates.

"Midoriya!!!"

On call, the said boy turned around to look at his friends. They looked seriously concerned and confused.

"It's okay, guys. You did your part well."

"... But what was that?! I mean—! Multiple quirks? Or was that something like mine?" Monoma asked, clearly confused.

Midoriya, however, calmly said, "Relax. I'll explain later."

"To use Kurogiri's and Jeanist's quirk," Todoroki pondered, "It was All For One, right?"

"Mhm." Midoriya nodded.

...

...

"Wait a second." Midoriya deadpanned. "Both Kurogiri's and Jeanist's quirk?"

Hold up. This was wrong. Like, completely wrong. That shouldn't even happen in the first place.

All For One said that the Duplicate quirk supported one duplicate at a time. Two quirks cannot be used at the same time. Then how in the world did Midoriya use both of them without feeling anything wrong? Why did it even happen? Was All For One lying? Or was this the result of some other quirk he didn't know about?

Nonsense, he knew about almost all the quirks.

Then why—?

Midoriya coughed up blood.

His hand flung to his mouth and he dropped to the ground on his knees. His friends surrounding him just as they noticed his condition.

"Midoriya!" Shinsou exclaimed as his sight landed on Midoriya's blood covered hand.

But before any of them could reach him, Midoriya opened another warp gate under each of them, sending them back downhill to Hawks and the others. Except, Todoroki...

"Midoriya, what's going on?" The hetrochromatic boy said, sitting next to the green head and placing a hand on his back.

Midoriya looked at him with groggy eyes, "Tell Endeavor I said; C-9-4 when you go back. And do not mess it up. C-9-4."

"What's that...?"

"You'll find out eventuall—!"

Another fit of bloody coughs. He motioned Todoroki to stay back.

It didn't stop, though. The green head kept on violently coughing up blood as he clenched his shirt. Spitting out a really concerning amount of blood, the green haired boy took deep breaths. Sweat lined his forehead as he felt a searing pain in his inner organs and his muscles cramping. His head felt too light, he might drop unconscious any moment now.

Ah...

So, All For One did lie to him...

When he said that there was absolutely no drawback to this quirk... He was hiding this. Well played. But the war wasn't over yet.

It was a game of lies.

Now, with blood trickling down his mouth, Midoriya lightly chuckled, "You had me there, I gotta admit..."

He stood up and turned to look where the villain was standing, "...All For One," Midoriya said, "But we are far from done yet."

"Oh, I believe you are right," All For One said, "But there isn't much left to fight for either."

Midoriya gave him a what-do-you-mean look.

All For One elaborated, "Each time you use this quirk, it'll store all the pains of directly taking in those quirks, including their drawbacks and then release with an outburst you just experienced now. You keep on using this quirk even once or twice, you'll die. And I doubt you can defeat me with that quirk of yours..."

Midoriya looked at him, his eyes widening.

"So, it's safe to say, you don't have much time left, boy."

Ah...

Ahahaha...

That's funny...

"I will die, huh?" Midoriya looked down, a smile on his face. "I won't."

"After all, I have to be the villain and I promised you a good bloody rain..." Midoriya said, "I don't know about you, All For One... But even if I was lying, my promises weren't empty. I'm a man of my words and you will see it first hand... Soon."

"Hm? Is that so?" All For One stated, "How about we ask for Tomura's opinion?"

As if one cue, the said boy cane out of the shadows. Midoriya took a step back. Shigaraki heard their conversation. Shigaraki knew about the lie Midoriya told him. He was probably going to kill him.

Was this a part of his plan...?

Maybe. Maybe not.

"Maybe your lie about 'my injury' got exposed before time. Don't worry, I'll let you two figure things out on your own." All For One said as he walked away. Possibly downhill to take care of the other heroes.

There was a moment of silence.

Shigaraki stared at Midoriya in anger.

Midoriya bit his lip, thinking of what to do next.

Todoroki couldn't be more worried about the situation.

"I should've known... You fucking liar... I shouldn't have trusted you..." Shigaraki mumbled, slowly taking steps forward.

"Todoroki, it's getting dangerous. I'm sending you all back to UA." Midoriya said without even looking at the other boy, his eye fixed on the villain.

"I'm not leaving you alo—!"

"Remember; C-9-4."

With that, Midoriya held his side and opened warp gates under every hero sending them to the one he opened at UA's coordinates.

The last thing Todoroki saw was Shigaraki placing his hand on Midoriya's face.

The disintegration began.

Todoroki was at UA High.