MHA/BNHA react to For The Want of A Nail by Clouds part 1

V:TGG 19 Progress

Shigaraki: At least he's taking a break.

His only consolation about the whole thing was that he knew that none of the heroes were missing him. In fact, they were probably just grateful that he was staying out of the way,

Joke: No! They do miss you!

and he knew he was being selfish for wanting to feel useful again, but... he just wished there was some way he could still help while he was healing. It would be amazing if he had a quirk that let him see the streets remotely, then he could just call the heroes and send them to where they were needed. It didn't even have to be a quirk! If he even had some sort of drone he could fly without being suspicious, or even just some sort of camera...

Izuku sat straight up. Security cameras! Why hadn't he thought of that before? They were all over the city, and sure, they didn't cover every alleyway, but they had to be better than nothing! It was probably completely useless, since there was no way that a deku like him would be able to become good enough at hacking to be able to access the city's security cameras without getting caught, but... well, he needed another elective anyway and programing would be a good skill for the future.

Mei: And there's another one who's learning hacking.

Midoriya: Is this a sign that maybe I should learn it too?

Nezu: Probably.

He found a class on programming basics and signed up just as Mom arrived with the ice cream. He knew he shouldn't get his hopes up; it would only hurt that much more when everything went wrong again.

Shouta was struggling to focus on his investigation. Really, he hadn't known Viridian for that long, so why should he be this affected by the fact that he... disappeared. He just disappeared. Shouta didn't have any evidence to the contrary and it was completely illogical to assume the worst possible outcome. But he also didn't want to keep his hopes up, only for the kid to have been dead the whole time, just like...

Mic(whispering): Oboro...

Well, he should be getting back to work. There had been more and more cases of instant villains the last few weeks, and the last time this had happened, it had been followed by the next level villains. It was almost as though whoever was behind the villain factory was gauging potential for villains the same way he did for heroes.

Which led to the next major mystery. Before his disappearance, Hamasaki had said something about the symbol of evil. The phrase tickled at the back of Shouta's brain, like he'd read it somewhere before, but hadn't paid any attention to it, but try as he might, he just couldn't remember the significance of the epitaph. It seemed to have some significance to Tskuauchi, but when Shouta had pressed him for answers, he'd simply said that it wasn't important. He'd said that it couldn't be the man he thought it was, because that one was already dead and had been for years. Shouta just hoped he was imagining the way that Tsukauchi had gone pale during the conversation.

Tsukauchi(groaning): Oh come on other me! He's still alive! Just tell him already!

It was frustrating. The biggest lead they'd ever gotten about the villain factory, and it was a dead end. So what next? It just wasn't practical to put every single trigger user in protective custody in case the factory started abducting again, so they were on the back foot until the villains made another move. If only they knew what kinds of quirks appealed to the villain factory. Shouta knew that it wasn't necessarily strong quirks, because they had a lot of ways to strengthen them artificially, but there didn't seem to be any common denominator in the victims who got abducted and those that didn't.

Mt. Lady: This is complicated...

Mirko: Since when has it not been?

If only the kid were still... of course, even if he was alive, it wouldn't be fair to bring him into such a dangerous investigation. Even if he was a vigilante, he was still a semi-suicidal teenager who wasn't prepared to deal with the danger that came from investigations like this. But still, the kid had a talent for quirk analysis. He hadn't been able to spend a lot of time with the notebook, but from what he'd read, he had a sneaking suspicion that if anyone could figure out how the villain factory was picking their victims, it was Viridian.

Uraraka: Yeah, Deku can, definitely.

If Katuski didn't know he was the best, he might be tempted to think he was an idiot. Seriously, how hadn't he noticed how messed up Aldera was? Were their teachers secretly villains or something? Because that was kinda the only explanation Katsuki could think of that would explain how they willfully ignored kids getting beat up right in front of them.

Jana: Depends on the world. There are some where they literally are villains.

Bakugo: That makes so much sense it's not even funny.

And that wasn't even getting into the verbal bullying that happened right in the middle of class. The teachers didn't ignore that, but Katsuki thought ignoring it would be preferable to what they were doing. They seemed to be actively creating opportunities for the students to make fun of the less popular students, and often joined in the mockery by publicly shaming students for tiny offenses that wouldn't even get Katsuki a sideways glance.

It was messed up. But what was even more messed up was that Katuski didn't know how to stop it. He was supposed to be the best, but he wasn't about to pretend that he had any sort of moral authority here. He'd bullied Deku and all those other extras for years, so he couldn't just turn around and tell others to stop.

Toga: Yeah, that would be hypocritical of you.

Kirishima: But it's the heroic thing to do.

Why had he even stopped? It had taken Deku literally saving his life to even get him to lay off the nerd, not that he'd ever forgive Deku for that, but still... he'd messed up way too badly to say anything now.

The best that he could do was stop acting like a villain. He'd thought it was pretty clever to volunteer at that villain rehabilitation group. Volunteering and !@$# always looked good on hero school applications, and maybe he'd even be able to learn something or some (*&%$ without jeopardizing his clean record. Not that he deserved a clean record, but... he needed to be a hero. He wasn't about to let his idiot teachers ruin his chances at being the number one hero just because they couldn't be bothered to do their jobs.

Hawks: This is frustrating but I get where he's coming from.

Aizawa: Hopefully he still does the right thing anyway.

That Amplifier @(#$^ had sent him home with some paperwork to do, but he'd be attending the next meeting. He'd just have to deal with being in the same room with villains without exploding them on sight. Katsuki glanced over at his teacher, who was correcting essays while Fingers scratched at that one kid who could make bubbles.

At least he was getting some practice.

(Jana noted the lack of conversation, probably still thinking about Todoroki's kidnapping, and went to the next chapter)