MHA: A hunter in the world of heroes

Recreational games. Technically, these games are only for the public's entertainment and to help lift the tension left by the main events. Everyone can participate, but it is unusual for the finalists to do so. Killua has always been unusual, and that's why he was hanging for dear life from a half-broken pole avoiding touching the ground. You're probably wondering what's going on, so let's rewind a little bit.

It all started after the end of the cavalry battle. Everyone was still sending daggers at him and his team, it probably had to do with the shit-eating grins they had on, Killua would have done the same if he were them. There were times -in his previous world- when he was told he had a very punchable face, it had to do with the smugness and his natural aura that projected what people called 'a little shit'. He had no reason to deny that. 

"I guess I'll see you at the finals" Hitoshi muttered to them.

"Good job out there and good luck," Wendy told him, voice soft and still grinning.

"Yeah man, nice job" Killua easily agreed

"I didn't do anything" Hitoshi muttered

"That's not true, Support heroes are vital." Wendy was quick on his defense "Not to mention with a quirk like yours hostage situations will be swiftly dealt with"

"With a little hand-to-hand training, you'll be able to become a good underground hero" Killua patted him on the shoulder "In fact... my dad could probably help you, I can talk to him if you want" Hitoshi's expression was one of pure disbelief.

"But you hate my quirk"

"I do, but that doesn't mean it can't be used for good" he admitted, "I'm sure my dad will agree to teach you, and who knows maybe by next semester you'll join the hero course"

"But for that to happen... another hero student will have to transfer"

"Hero course students get transferred all the time, either because of their poor performance, their psych evaluation, or even because they want to" Wendy explained "The hero course is stressful and above all dangerous, not everyone can handle that..."

"This also means positions always open up, but transfers are always behind so it's a given that they have to give more than just 100% to their studies" Killua made a thoughtful face before adding "Which is why teachers always find kids from other departments -that their first elective was hero studies and didn't make it- and train them."

"You'd seriously do this for me?" Hitoshi asked bewildered.

"Look, the quirk doesn't define you. It's a weapon and it depends on how you use it. Whether you want to use it for crime or to help people; What you did before was a shitty move but I can see you're determined and that you truly want to be a hero. Whether it's for making a point, I don't know, but what I do know is that you'll do anything to achieve that. And I respect you for that" Killua looked Hitoshi in the eyes making sure to convey his point "I'm offering you an olive branch here, you don't have to answer me right now but think about it. After all, this is your future we're talking about" 

"I will... thanks Killua" Hitoshi muttered before leaving.

"You're surprisingly nice," Wendy said with a genuine smile, and Killua side-eyed her. 

"If you say so...Let's go fetch Sho"

"What for?"

"Recreational games, they look fun," He said with a grin "Besides I did say I would win the whole thing"

"I'll cheer for you," She said, she could feel cold sweat running down her spine. Killua had that grin on, the one that screamed trouble and she didn't want to do anything with his eccentrics. She liked him, but not that much. She turned around hoping to escape, but before she could even take a step, Killua's hand was on her shoulder, not painfully tight but the grip was tight enough so she couldn't escape. "I think Tetsu is calling me," She said trying to avoid looking at his sapphire eyes that had a mischievous glint.

"I don't hear anything... Come on it's going to be fun... wasn't the cavalry battle fun??"

"More like stressful" she corrected but even so, she did have fun and Killua was generally a fun guy to be around. She sighed and looked at him. "Fine, but only one game"

"That depends entirely on you" He smiled before walking off towards Shoto.

 **************

Shoto Todoroki had a difficult childhood. A father, one that was supposed to be a hero, constantly abused him under the pretense of training, while simultaneously neglecting his three older children because they were simply not up to his standards. His father's obsession with being number one was what drove his wife into a mental asylum, it was what killed him, what drove his oldest brother to train himself to death. His brother was burned alive, by his own quirk.

Needless to say, he hated his father. Which is why he wanted to prove to him that he would become number one, using his mother's power alone. Or at least that's what he wanted to do, whether it was possible or not was an entirely different story.

Ever since he started high school he also started having doubts. Yaoyorozu and Bakugo were impressive and Midoriya was a dangerous opponent with his sharp mind -and if he were able to control his quirk, then he was all kinds of dangerous- but even they couldn't compare with Killua. His only friend was scary strong, his quirk wasn't all that impressive, but his innovation with it was a whole other story. No one even knew that Lightning manipulation could grant you superspeed or self-healing abilities, not to mention superstrength, how was that even possible? 

Shoto Todoroki was abused to get stronger but he wasn't the only one, his scars didn't run as deep as his friend's, and he didn't have as many.

Shoto's parents weren't villains. 

He knew Killua was trained to kill, he knew his friend had already killed before, maybe multiple times. How couldn't he when he annihilated Nomu with ease? and even before that, he had his suspicions, Killua was silent, he could be beside you and you wouldn't even notice, he was fast and unparalleled in combat, whether it was hand-to-hand or with his quirk.

By all means Killua should be considered a villain in this hero-based society where heroes are praised, even when they were taking money from civilians as protection fees, even as they acted more like idols than heroes.

While villains were EVIL no matter their stories, a man who has to steal to feed his family is a villain, and a kid who tries to survive in the streets is a villain. Actions are judged but no one considers what drove someone to do those actions, they only see the result. 

So Killua is a villain, no matter if he was forced to do those actions by his parents, the result is the same.

But Killua ran away and he's trying to change, he's nice and he can be kind. He cares for Aizawa-Sensei and his friends. How can someone like that be a villain? Someone who's already powerful but keeps training so he can protect the people he cares about? Someone who is still struggling to figure out who he is and who he wants to be. 

Killua is a villain but he is a GOOD friend. He's someone who will understand and won't judge Shoto's past, and Shoto won't judge Killua's past if Killua ever decides to share.

Thoughts like that passed through Shoto's mind as he watched his friend interact with his team. He was smiling. That was one major difference between the two of them, Killua never allowed the pain his family caused to break him completely. Shoto didn't either but he was still allowing the pain to control his actions. He had his father's fire, it was his quirk but he never thought of the fire as his own, always as his father's. Was that wrong? Probably, but it was that fire that destroyed his family, and brought pain to them. 

'Fucking pervert, reminds me of my freaky brother' Shoto remembered Killua's words from before the cavalry battle. 'Brother, he put so much venom in this one word.' He was so lost in his thoughts that he flinched when he heard his friend talking to him.

"Hey Sho, you ready for the games" Shoto blinked blankly at Killua.

"What games?" He asked 'Surely he doesn't mean the recreational games, those are only for the students that didn't pass. It's a chance for them to show their skills '

"Obviously the recreational games," Killua said with a smirk. 

'I stand corrected' Shoto thought. "We are finalists"

"Don't fight it Todoroki-kun, I tried and I'm still here" Wendy tried to sound tormented but failed, she was excited, and even he could tell.

"I said I was going to win the whole sports festival," Killua said as it was supposed to be obvious.

"Okay, good luck then" 

"You're joining us"

"Why?"

"Because then we might be able to pull that stick out of your ass"

"KILLUA" Wendy cried.

"Iida is over there" Shoto pointed at his rule-loving classmate.

"Like you're any different. No offense man but you need to relax a little and the games are perfect for this."

"Besides it might be fun" Wendy put her two cents on it.

"I don't see the point. I mean do we even earn anything from them?"

"You mean besides more 'screen time' and hero offers?" Killua questioned with some incredibility "They're fun and can be stress relieving, but most importantly they build team dynamics"

"Now that you mention it, the recreational games are always mostly team-based," Wendy thought out loud.

"I don't really need the attention" Shoto tried to instill some logic in his friend. "And I'm not a team player" he mumbled.

"I wonder what the first game is," Killua said as if he hadn't rampaged his dad's notes the night before, completely ignoring Shoto.

"You're not even listening, are you?" Shoto said with a sign.

"Just give up Todoroki-kun, we're not getting out of this"

"You say we but you look just as excited as him" Shoto pointed out earning an embarrassing small cough from Wendy.

 **************

Midnight sauntered onto the central stage, her costume hugging her curves as the crowd hushed with anticipation. With a devilish smirk, she tapped the microphone provocatively.

"Well, well, well...aren't you all just a bundle of energetic youth?" Her voice oozed with suggestive undertones. "I know you've been waiting with bated breath for the next tantalizing event."

She slowly ran a riding crop along her whip's coils, savoring every word. "The next event is..." She paused for dramatic effect, leaving the audience to hang in their seats "The scavenger Hunt" She said with excitement "The rules for the hunt are simple, but with a delicious twist, my lovelies."

Midnight's flogger trailed across a list projected on the large screen behind her. "You will be separated into five teams of ten people except for one team of eleven. Each team will be given a scroll with a series of vague, open-ended clues. You'll need to put those sharp minds of yours to work deciphering what strange, bizarre items match the descriptions."

With a wink, she added, "And just to keep things...interesting, some of those items may require a bit of persuasion to acquire from their current owners."

The students gulped nervously at the implicit suggestion of underhanded tactics, while a few teachers and unparticipated students grinned evilly. 

Midnight's tongue traced her lips. "Don't worry, I'll be watching very closely to judge your techniques. Creativity and style will earn bonus points, heroes."

She cracked the riding crop with a sharp snap that made everyone jump "The hunt will last for fifteen minutes".

With a salacious wink, Midnight concluded, "Tempt your minds, push your limits...but don't get carried away now. I want to see those dexterous hands in action, loves. The hunt is on in ten minutes, come and take your team color headband!"

"Let's join the blue team," Killua said excitedly.

'He reminds me of a little kid' Shoto thought.

"This is going to be so much fun," Wendy said with a wide smile.

'She's like a little kid too' he thought but said out loud "I thought you were forced to participate by that menace" 

"Why, thank you for the compliment Sho" Killua said, while Wendy turned crimson trying to form sentences.

"Not a compliment," he said frowning, thinking he wasn't clear enough.

"I'm still thinking of it as one".

They joined the rest of the blue headbands each of them had a list in their hands studying it.

"Check out this list, what the hell is wrong with the faculty???" Klliua questioned, "Most unhygienic: it used to have vibrant colors but are now faded and congealed into an unappetizing mess... that could be anything..." he whined

"I think this is even weirder 'unrivaled cuteness: A tiny bunny rabbit with a twitching pink nose and clouds of soft, cottony fur huddled in a cardboard box" Wendy read confused.

"Where are we supposed to find a rabbit in a cardboard box?" Shoto questioned.

"They don't literally mean rabbit Sho, just something cute," Killua said

They read and laughed with the list, their school's faculty certainly had a weird sense of humor.

The booming voice of Present Mic echoed across the festival grounds, "Alright, sports fans! It's time for the scavenger hunt event! Our teams of ten will scatter across the stadium to collect the weirdest and wackiest items they can find!"

Killua smirked, his assassin senses already tingling at the prospect of a hunt. Wendy bounced excitedly on her toes, eager to explore the campus. Shoto simply nodded, his heterochromatic eyes narrowing in determination.

As soon as the start signal blared, chaos erupted. Killua dashed off at lightning speed, leaving a bewildered Wendy and Shoto in his dust trails.

"W-wait for us!" Wendy called, using her quirk to enhance herself, and Shoto to catch up with the silver-haired menace.

Five minutes into the hunt, their team had already gathered an odd assortment - a rubber duck, three bricks, and a tarnished knight's helmet the school probably had put a knight's armor on display just for the hunt. They definitely were capable of going that far just to mess with them.

Killua skidded to a halt, holding up a greasy French fry plucked from who-knows-where. "Will this earn us points for 'most unhygienic?'"

Shoto wrinkled his nose in disgust but remained focused. Using his ice powers, he crafted a makeshift sled -or at least something similar, it was more like a rough ice wagon with some cutting edges- to stash their growing haul.

As they ventured deeper into the control room, they found Wendy trapped in a tangle of wires after trying to liberate a boxy unused computer monitor, Power Loader standing at the side and shaking with laughter.

"A little help here?" she squeaked, her voice muffled by the wires wrapped around her face.

With a snicker, Killua swiped a pair of safety glasses while Shoto carefully froze and shattered the wires to free the flustered Bluenett.

By the end, their team had compiled a mountain of bizarre treasures - a stuffed hedgehog, a cobwebbed mop, and a single massive oven mitt courtesy of a stall owner. 

But they were determined to find that one item. Uriviled cuteness, certainly the stuffed hedgehog would work but they needed for the 'dangerously cuddly: Prickly on the outside yet undeniably cuddly, this round little fellow looks perfectly content resting at the small chubby hands'. They said small and chubby, but Killua would never use that description for Vlad King. The blood hero was anything but small. 

Killua's eyes traveled to the stadium, he saw his competitors holding stuffed animals, they were either for the dangerously cuddly or for unrivaled cuteness. His eyes stopped at the teacher's lounge, and that's when he saw the answer to his missing item, he was a perfect fit. 

"Guys I found it" Wendy followed his gaze, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped while Shoto simply stared before looking at Killua as if he was crazy, the drone that had been following them ever since the Vlad King incident hovered even closer to them. Killua was certain at this point that Power Loader was messing with them.

"You're crazy," Shoto said but still followed Killua, Wendy's jaw was still hanging.

They arrived at the lounge and Killua's eyes locked on his target.

"Your grin reminds me that of Cheshire's cat, it certainly is alarming"

"Let's make a deal," Killua said his grin widening even more, he actually made his target gulp, and he was known for his calm demeanor and poker face.

"What kind of a deal"

"Come with me and I'll be your social case subject for the next week, I'll throw in an interview as a gift"

"Mhh... I've been trying for days to convince you to participate in my research... though I'm conflicted with your speed you would make an amazing errand boy"

"Sorry you have to choose only one"

"My research is more important" his precious, possible price item decided.

With the deal closed, in a blur of motion, Killua snatched the bewildered item right off his chair, looping 'it' over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

"K-Killua! Just what do you think you're doing?" Snipe sputtered indignantly, his hands waving.

"Collecting the weirdest item on campus, obviously," Killua smirked, not breaking stride as he rejoined his teammates.

Shoto arched an eyebrow while Wendy was in a gaze thinking of possible consequences.

his item huffed, straightening his jacket with as much dignity as someone who was just captured could muster. "Well, I never... To be manhandled and gawked at like some kind of knickknack!"

But the sardonic curl of its mouth betrayed its amusement at Killua's brazen stunt. Leave it to the former assassin to interpret the scavenger hunt rules so literally.

"Just be sure to treat this rare specimen with care," it warned with a wry smile. "It is one of a kind."

As they returned to the stage they were gawked at by the students and the audience. 

"I don't know if we should admire Killua for his open-minded thinking or be worried about his lack of respect" Aizawa commented. "In all of my years as a teacher, I've never seen someone with as much uncaringness as him"

"Isn't he your kid???" Present Mic said with a boisterous laugh.

"That's beside the point"

As Killua expected his unrivaled cuteness item earned their team the most points, Nezu seemed proud of the fact that he had earned so many points, and against all odds, the blue team won. Everyone expected that using the principal as an item would cost them several points, not being the defining winning 'item'.

 **************

"Alright, listen up!" Killua barked, his feral grin sending a chill down his teammates' spines. "the next event is capture the flag, and we're gonna win!"

Katsuki shot him a withering glare. "Why am I even here Speedy?"

"We need a plan to completely annihilate the other teams" Killua said darkly completely ignoring Katsuki.

Besides the explosive hero-in-training, Enjiro shrugged with an easygoing smile. 

As the signal blared, Killua instantly took off in a blur, zipping past the startled opposing teams with whiplash-inducing speed. Within seconds, he reappeared, two rival flags clutched in each hand.

"You guys owe me," he said tossing the vibrant banners to Enjiro. "Guard those with your life."

Wendy patted the unnerved boy on his hardened arm. "Don't worry, I've got your back!"

Meanwhile, Shoto and Katsuki exchanged a fiery look. They had their own little competition going on, but as long as it didn't affect their teamwork, Killua honestly didn't care, in fact, he liked to throw oil at the fire.

"Just try and get past my hellish infernos, you fuckers!" Katsuki yelled at the other teams.

A sadistic grin slowly spread across Shoto's face. "took the words right out of my mouth"

In a blinding flash of blue and orange flames, the two powerhouse youths unleashed devastatingly hot and cold attacks, clashing in an epic display, keeping the other teams in bay, few were frozen while some were thrown away by Katsuki's explosion

Seizing the distraction, Killua vanished again in a flurry of afterimages, reappearing behind the final enemy's base. He snatched up their flag with ease, leaving a dumbfounded team spluttering in his dust.

"Too slow!" Killua taunted, rejoining his triumphant squad with all three flags in hand.

As the pro heroes shook their heads in disbelief, Killua casually slung his arms around a grumbling Katsuki and starstruck Enjiro, Shoto had a small victorious smile and Wendy was outright grinning.

'Just one game my ass' Killua thought as he looked at her grin. "Told you guys I'd carry this team to victory."

 **************

The sports festival grounds had been transformed into an elaborate, lava-themed obstacle course of towering pillars, scattered platforms, and hazardous pits of swirling fake 'lava.'

"Last one standing wins!" Present Mic's voice boomed. "Heroes, avoid the lava at all costs! Mwahaha!"

At the sound of the buzzer, the challengers scattered, scurrying up the pillars and leaping across the deadly gaps separating each safe zone.

Killua scaled the highest spire in seconds, clinging to the narrow tip with feline grace. From his vantage point, he smirked as Wendy used her enhanced leg muscles to jump effortlessly from platform to platform.

Less graceful were Katsuki's erratic explosions propelling him in zigzag trajectories, and Enjiro's leaps.

A massive ice glacier erupted in the center courtyard, courtesy of Shoto's powerful quirk. The dual-haired boy smoothly surfed the frozen wave on a self-made ice panel, sneering at the other competitors struggling below.

One by one, distracted players tumbled into the bubbling "lava" pits, comically flailing until rescued by the amusingly dressed emergency staff.

Ten minutes into the game, the once solid pillars had eroded into a handful of unsteady spires, buffeted by artificial lava geysers programmed to erupt unexpectedly.

Wendy yelped, windmilling her arms futilely as her perch suddenly disappeared in a fiery gush. But Killua was there in a flash, snatching her in midair and depositing her onto the highest remaining pillar.

"Thanks, that was a close one!" Wendy gasped, flustered but unhurt.

Killua simply waved a hand, too focused on maintaining his precarious handhold. Sweat beaded on his forehead as tremors from the eruptions rattled his body.

With a tremendous rumble, the 'volcanic' arena began shifting again, reshaping the terrain. Shoto gritted his teeth, deftly freezing any wayward streams of lava that threatened to consume his ice path.

In a final, cataclysmic explosion, every surface disappeared - except for the solitary spire where Killua clung with all his might, suspended impossibly in midair.

"You... gotta be... kidding me..." he growled through gritted teeth, tendons straining.

Katsuki cackled maniacally, having jetted himself to safety on an overhanging beam. The two finalists glared at each other, neither willing to relinquish their perch. 

Then Killua grinned his eyes took an unearthly glow before zapping Katsuki off of the air.

As the klaxons blared, indicating Killua as the last one standing, even the unshakable assassin had to grin. These hero games, as bizarre as they were, certainly knew how to keep things interesting.