MHA : Shoto Todoroki - Modern-day Terrorist

"One day I swore I'd chop your head off and put you in a hole for eternity"

Shoto nudged Midoriya's freshly reformed head with the tip of his shoe.

"Seems like that time has come"

A car came to a screeching halt at the end of the plaza in front of Endeavor's Tower.

Shoto didn't look up, for the one inside held no value.

"Though you still possess this very irritating Quirk. If I hadn't known better I would've taken it myself. It would've screwed me, that's for sure, maybe even worse than Bate's would have"

Midoriya raised a shaky head.

"You never learn, do you ?"

Shoto crushed it mercilessly, fresh blood splashes covering darker blotches.

He watched with rapt attention as the bits of flesh crawled back to his neck like maggots, merging in larger chunks of whitish flesh that attached themselves to his skull. He was getting faster.

"I believe you've had quite an afternoon"

Shoto crushed Midoriya's half-reformed skull.

"aizawa's hidden behind this tank", said Shoto. "Probably regretting all of the life choices that led him here. He's next, though"

Nezu hummed noncommitally.

"I would ask you to leave him alive kindly. And whole. Not scarred either, though I think that's too late for that"

"Why would I do that ?"

Shoto played a bit with Midoriya's eyeball, making it roll under his shoe.

"You have no reason to", said Nezu. "And I have nothing to make you comply. I am simply calling on your kindness"

Shoto laughed mirthlessly.

"Have you watched what I've done mere moments ago ? I'm certainly one of the most prolific murderers in history and they all died by my hand"

He considered briefly the large reincarnation wheel he'd need to spin for his next life.

He'd probably become a cow. No, a cow was too good - an ant. A maggot.

He could steal Midoriya's Quirk, though. Become immortal and make sure this possibility wouldn't happen.

Though there was no point in living so long if everyone around you died, and most people he'd cared about were already dead because or from his hand – or they would, soon, which brought him back to the fact that he didn't want to live forever.

There was also the possibility that the One for All and Midoriya's Quirk had already started merging and should he steal the second he'd automatically get the first one which, he knew, would make him go insane – more than he already was.

"Japan is crumbling", said Nezu. "The United States will tip towards anarchy if nobody comes forward and get a hold of things very soon. Aizawa holds no importance to you whatsoever. You've won, Shoto"

Shoto stopped his nudging.

Had he ?

It didn't seem like it.

"Wasn't it what you sought?", asked Nezu. "Absolute power. Nobody able to stop you from doing what you wish to, ever"

Shoto scoffed.

Nezu was right : he'd gotten everything he'd longed for as a kid, the power and the fear-inspiring reputation that would keep everyone continents away from him.

Yet he'd lost everything and everyone in the process, he'd destroyed all of those he'd cared about.

If this was victory, he didn't want it.

"What do you want ?", he asked.

"I want Aizawa"

"No"

"Please"

And in front of Shoto's bewildered gaze, Nezu kneeled in a puddle of blood, red staining his fur.

From small his figure waned to tiny.

"Please", Nezu begged, voice brimming with emotion, and suddenly he looked more human than when he pretended to be one. "I care about him deeply. Please, don't take him from me"

Shoto examined him quietly.

He'd just planned on snapping aizawa's neck.

The man was no threat whatsoever, somebody he'd forget as soon as he'd killed him.

"I keep Midoriya"

Nezu rose.

"Thank you", he murmured. "Thank you"

He jogged to Aizawa.

Their voices were hushed, though Shoto could hear everything.

He kept nudging Midoriya's splattered head.

Nezu helped Aizawa back to his oil-slicked Mercedes.

Wasn't he gutsy, driving all the way here just to get one person back after what Shoto had done ?

Aizawa couldn't even look at him as they walked by.

Nezu opened the door for him and helped him inside, telling him to lie down.

As he was getting in the driver's seat, Nezu turned towards Shoto.

"There will be a private jet waiting for you Friday at Narita International Airport, should you wish to leave soon"

"Did you trap it ?"

"We both know you'd survive and considering what you've done to All for One, I do not wish to be on your bad side"

Nezu closed the door and drove away, leaving Shoto with the still reforming Midoriya.

"A hole", he repeated. "Let's get to it"

*

Soldiers were standing guard around the airport's terminal.

They said the government had retreated in Hokkaido and that half of the army had deserted.

They were nervous, armed to the teeth, and Shoto knew better than to think they were here for him.

"What a neat little army you have", he remarked.

Nezu waved his hand dismissively.

"Most of them had nowhere to go and no one to care. I merely gave them a job"

He was wearing a tailored three-piece suit that made him look like a campaigning politician.

"Did you ?", asked Shoto casually

"I've never been one to idly sit by and let things happen"

Things had turned well for Nezu even if they hadn't for anybody else.

"Why stay in Japan, though ? The country's falling apart"

Nezu shrugged.

"Did you know I was a lab experiment ? The product of research on Quirks and their influence on animals. They experimented on me for years. I didn't know what color was the sky. I didn't even know there was a sky or a world outside"

Amidst the sourness, there was pity for how ignorant he'd been.

"The squad which rescued me was Japanese. A woman among them fought for me nails and teeth. She didn't let them terminate me as was the fate of all of my other fellow experiments. She told me I had to show I could be useful, thus I showed I could be useful to them. Japan was the first country to consider me as an individual with a mind of his own. Here I wasn't an 'it', I was a man"

A slight breeze ruffled their clothes.

"I can't leave", he said. "I love this country too much. Years ago I dreamed of an era when I'd be able to shape it as I wish to, to make it the greatest nation on earth. At last, this time has come"

He smiled at Shoto, his small, pointy teeth shining like a shark's.

"I have to thank you for that"

Shoto's eyebrow twitched, but Nezu was looking far ahead, lost in the contemplation of the dawning era to notice it.

He said it as though Shoto had done him a favor.

Everything had turned so well for Nezu.

The country was ablaze, but Yuei was intact and he'd gotten his broken kingdom served on a golden platter.

"Circumstances made you lucky"

"Circumstances, of course", muttered Nezu.

Suddenly he clasped his hands together as though coming back to reality.

"It was a delight knowing you, Shoto Todoroki. I hope you'll have a safe journey back to Italy"

Shoto nodded, searching Nezu's face for something he didn't know and couldn't find.

His left foot landed on the jet's first stair. He paused.

"The Commission didn't let my father die, did they ?"

His voice was cool, casual, frighteningly sharp.

"I am not aware what the Commission may or may have not done"

Something was rubbing Shoto the wrong way, a detail he'd deliberately not bothered with as he had a murder spree to plan.

"Then how Katsuki could've known ?"

Nezu frowned.

"Could've known what ?"

It wasn't Nezu's tone that betrayed him ; it wasn't a thing he said or a mistake he'd committed.

It was the fact that the smartest man on earth was acting as if he were not aware of the discussion Shoto had had with Katsuki in Yuei's precincts, the exact one that had made him snap when there wasn't a centimeter there that wasn't littered with bugs.

Shoto's heterochromatic eyes swirled to red as he looked Nezu over his shoulder.

"You told Katsuki the Commission let my father die"

A bead of sweat shone on Nezu's fur as it rolled to the crook of his collarbone.

"I did no such thing"

"You made him swear not to say anything knowing damn well he would tell me anyway"

"Listen Shoto-"

Shoto took a step forward and Nezu instinctively moved back, animal instinct taking over, despite knowing it made him look guilty.

"- I think your paranoia-"

"Do not dare lie to me !"

Shoto was foaming, veins throbbing on his forehead. The air grew hot, the smell of cinders floating between them.

Nezu's mouth snapped shut.

"You used me"

Shoto stalked forward and Nezu kept retreating, shaking his head vehemently.

"I did no such thing"

"You weaponized my grief", he spat venomously. "You directed my anger at them knowing I would wipe them out"

Lightning crackled around Shoto's clenched fist.

"Whatever you did was done out of your own volition"

"I killed all of these people because of you"

"I'm sure we can-"

Shoto thrust a lightning-fast Chidori at Nezu's chest.

The rat squirmed, his paws moving from down to up, and a chunk of the ground broke, pushed aside by a mud wall that rose to protect him.

Shoto's fist cleanly broke through it though his lightning scattered into the earth.

He looked in quiet wonder at the mud wall.

"You didn't want to recreate the Nomus", he said, realization dawning on him. "You wanted a Quirk for yourself"

"I wanted power to protect myself. You can't blame for I know that had you been in my position, you would've-"

Shoto's hand wrapped around Nezu's neck.

Nezu's little legs flailed helplessly as Shoto held him at eye level, his nails digging into the soft flesh beneath the fur.

"Was it worth it ?", Shoto snarled in Nezu's choking face. "You were king for one day and won't last long enough to see the sunset on your kingdom"

Shoto's features twisted, a vengeful glint in his eyes.

"As it is", he said. "I'll make sure the sun never sets again on your precious home"

Shoto shot towards the sky, holding Nezu by the collar of his shirt, wind slapping against both their faces.

He abruptly stopped close around two thousand kilometers above the island, looking down at the place that had once been his home.

Nezu instantly turned red, the lack of oxygen making his mind foggy.

Shoto's blood was bubbling – gas embolism - though he was actively fighting the phenomenon with chakra ; Nezu, though, felt like he was cooking from inside, his saliva boiling at body temperature.

Shoto grabbed Nezu's neck and forced him to look down at their country.

"Look at what you've done"

He raised his right hand, focusing on the swirling waters around Japan.

The sea retreated.

For a hundred kilometers, in a perfect oval around Japan, the sea rolled back, as though pushed by an invisible force.

Shoto paused, a humongous, continuous water wall standing watch over the island.

For a moment he pondered over his actions, heart throbbing with rage.

This wasn't a faraway city he'd never seen. This was his home, those were the people he'd known, there were the streets he'd walked and the places he'd grown accustomed to.

This was more than a hundred million people.

A hundred million innocent people, babies and children, and friends and young people full of hope.

These were real, tangible beings made of flesh and blood. These were people who'd done nothing to incur his wrath.

There was a thin line between vengeance and senseless murder.

He'd tiptoed over the line for long enough as it was ; this was a line one shouldn't cross.

"Don't do something you'll regret", wheezed Nezu, paw tapping lightly on Shoto's hand. "You're better than that"

Rage ignited Shoto like a fireball lighting a candle.

He let go.

The water wall collapsed, the waves crashing onto each other, cascading and colliding as they rushed over Japan, smothering Shoto's guilt with it.

Nezu squirmed pitifully as their country was swallowed by the raging waves, disappearing completely under the floods.

"Those are the consequences of your actions"

Half of his body was burnt to a crisp, another frozen and covered in a thin sheet of ice.

"Goodbye, Nezu"

Shoto watched from high in the sky as Nezu's shrinking form fell through clouds, vanishing kilometers below in the fuming sea.