Khan dropped into the seat at the back of the room. Low-level staff, no name on the big board, just a chair with his ass in it and enough fake respect in his spine to stay forgettable.
The teachers were watching the Entrance Exam feed, pretending to care more about potential than the drama. The room smelled lukewarm coffee, day-old sweat, and bureaucratic disappointment. Someone laughed at a kid tripping over his own boots. Someone else muttered about "hero spirit." Bullshit, all of it.
Present Mic leaned forward, squinting at the screen. "What the hell is that green-haired kid doing? All he's done is stare around so far. Didn't even hit a single robot."
Khan's grin cracked wider. He knew the name before it popped up on the screen. Midoriya Izuku.
And he'd succeed eventually. Because the Zero-Pointer was coming. And that soft-spined, no-score loser was gonna do the dumbest, most heroic thing on instinct, and get blessed for it.
The Khan that used to sit here, that version got his exit cue weeks ago. Dead in his bed with a minor stroke and a major case of wasted potential.
This Khan had System access. The body was the same. Wasn't much to brag about. But inside was a different beast entirely. Reborn from Earth, memories intact, canon burned into his brain. He knew how this world worked better than the people who ran it. He knew every Pro Hero's PR weakness. Every future headline. Every public scandal that hadn't dropped yet.
And that alone would've been enough to fuck things sideways if he'd been patient.
But the System didn't run on patience.
[Fucked-Up Karma] came online the moment he opened his eyes. Without any tutorial or warning.
At first, he couldn't even understand how to work it. Then, a widow came to his door. Late forties. Lived a floor down. Real put-together type, always polite, always nervous, always in denial about how lonely she was. Old Khan used to buy her groceries. Little weekly favor, a neighbor's duty, all that good-boy garbage.
But the new Khan saw the look in her eyes when the bags didn't show up this time. She waited three days before showing up at his door, biting her lip, escaping her eyes.
"I... um. I was worried when Mr. Khan didn't show up to drop off groceries by now? I thought maybe... something happened to you." Her voice cracked halfway through, clearly she was embarrassed to even say it. Khan leaned on the doorframe, letting his eyes sweep up her figure. She didn't dress sexy, probably didn't know how anymore, but there was a body under that guilt and routine.
He didn't even fake sympathy.
"I was thinking... how about a little payback this time," he said. "You've had a year of free groceries. Bed's over there. Let's settle the debt."
She froze. Stared. Opened her mouth to argue and closed it. But she didn't leave. She didn't slap him. She stepped inside. She hesitated, sure. She trembled. But she bent.
That was the first time the System rewarded him.
[+Allure +Social Immunity +Household Control Unlocked]"
The stats meant nothing at first. But the perks hit hard. Her next visit wasn't hesitant. She cleaned his dishes and moaned while doing it. She started texting. Calling. Asking if he needed anything.
Khan never asked twice.
Now he sat in that teacher's lounge, back pressed to the chair, watching Izuku Midoriya sprint toward that towering metal monstrosity like a dumb, brave little idiot.
Khan almost clapped.
Everyone else was shocked. Murmurs. Gasps. A few raised brows. But no one said shit with real weight.
They didn't know what he knew.
That this was the start of the canon. He didn't really care all about that.
Khan didn't want the spotlight. He wanted to own the people who stood in it.
Let All Might play mascot. Let Aizawa brood in the corners. Let Recovery Girl patch up their dumbass injuries. He had different plans.
Plans with leverage. With a student body about to be filled with hormones, desperation, and the kind of emotional instability that made perfect prey. They'd come to him crying. Broken. Rejected. Denied by their Pro idols and Quirk ceilings.
He'd give them what they wanted. And take what he needed.
[Fucked-Up Karma] didn't give points for kindness. It paid out for ruin.
So he played polite. Sat through these meetings like a good little nobody. Let the staff keep forgetting his name. Let the students walk by without a glance.
He needed victims, not attention. He needed toys.
And UA would be the center of them. The prestige kids with pressure-cooked ambition. The side-character hopefuls barely holding it together. The Pro Heroes too busy polishing their rep to notice a worm in the system.
Khan was already setting traps. Girls like Yaoyorozu, drowning in privilege and anxiety. Staff like Midnight, jaded, frustrated, and one blackout away from regrettable behavior.
All he needed was access.
A day into the term, he'd start offering "advice sessions." Emotional support. Off-the-record "check-ins." The kind of open door policy that led straight to a leash.
And every broken moment would come with benefits.
As Midoriya launched himself into the sky like a dumbass green missile full of feelings and no knees, the Zero-Pointer did something it had no business doing.
It stopped.
Worse, it started falling back.
Hard reverse, full collapse, as if something yanked its mechanical spine out mid-stride. The towering fucker wobbled, lurched, then straight-up tipped. Right when Midoriya was mid-air, arm cocked back, eyes doing that desperate sparkle thing. His fist pointlessly shining now with no target to punch. His leg already dust. He flailed midair, tried to correct, couldn't. Gravity came for that ass immediately.
He wasn't gonna make it. He punched the ground on the way down to both slow his fall and release the power cracking his arm.
Did slow his fall but also blew out the radius. Shockwaves slapped the arena. Concrete cracked, dirt flung, and a bunch of bystander kids went airborne.
He hit the ground shoulder-first and didn't bounce. Just ragdolled. Body went limp. Then still.
In the staff room, the mood went full aneurysm. Chairs scraped. Coffee spilled. Someone knocked over a cup of instant ramen.
"What the fuck," Present Mic said, halfway to standing.
No one answered. Khan stood when they did. Putting on his best worried face. He followed the group filing out, a few muttering about medical response, protocol violations, safety checks. Nobody looked at him. He grinned without showing teeth.
Because yeah, he'd tampered with the Zero-Pointer.
Just a little firmware love note. Not enough to kill. Just enough to twist the script. Change the stage cue. Let the tin can play dead early. The boy was still breathing. The girl was fine. Recovery Girl would slurp their injuries back into flesh and call it a miracle. No real loss.
But the story changed. This was the canon's spine. And Khan just snapped it at the base with a screwdriver and a laugh.
He slid into the hallway with the others, moving as fast as he could, sweating in the process.
That robot shouldn't have backed off. That kid should've had his glorious hero moment. The camera should've caught it. The staff should've clapped. And the narrative would've stayed on track.
[Fucked-Up Karma
Major Canon Interference Logged
Target: Midoriya Izuku --- Hero Course Entry Denied
Status: Canon Deviation Confirmed
Timeline Anchor: Severed
ITEM UNLOCKED: Scandal Engine [v0.9 Beta]
Category: System Tool --- Passive/Active
Type: Reputation Saboteur
Function: Generates targeted rumors, breadcrumbs, and social misfires. Scales with influence and chaos.
Can seed one false narrative per week.
SYSTEM TAG: Instigator [Rank I]
Effect: Buffs your presence in scenes of tension, scandal, or breakdown.
+Persuasion in emotionally charged moments
+Control during group conflict or moral collapse
Tag ranks up with every canon shift or core bond shattered
SKILL UNLOCKED: Predator's Map [Tier I]
Category: Sensory/Influence
Function: Reveals emotional weak points and recent trauma of nearby people. Requires proximity.
Range: 10 meters
Scan Speed: 3 seconds
Can mark up to 3 targets at once
Marked targets become easier to manipulate, coerce, or destabilize
Tier increases with emotional wreckage caused]
Khan barely suppressed his grin.
[Predator's Map] was already activated in his mind. Three seconds of scanning, and the system dropped a flag so loud it may as well have moaned.
[Target: Uraraka Ochako
Status: Emotional Instability --- Acute
Tags: Financial Stress / Pain Response / Fear of Failure / Guilt-Linked Hero Worship]
And yeah, there she was, crumpled on the pavement, groaning, gripping her leg that was definitely snapped. Hair stuck to her face, sweat dragging streaks through the dirt on her cheeks. One sock halfway off. Blood at the heel. Cute in the worst way. The kind that made you want to offer help with a leash hidden behind your back.
The camera feeds weren't on her, though. Nobody cared about a poor girl. They were too busy circle-jerking over Midoriya's heroic tumble into a coma. The poor baby broke his bones for nothing and the robot didn't even let him finish. Failed in glory, failed in points. Managed to get dirt in his teeth and his whole "I wanna be a hero" speech choking on its own timing.
Khan stopped a few feet from her.
Uraraka didn't look up right away. Her teeth were clenched, eyes glassy. Trying not to cry but already losing that fight. Her leg looked like it bent in two different directions depending on how she shifted.
"You good, Miss?" Khan asked, voice dipped in false concern, smile painted on, innocent and approachable.
She flinched. Blinked up at him through a haze of pain and embarrassment. "I---" she winced hard, breath catching, "---I think my ankle's twisted…"
Bullshit. Khan crouched beside her, resting one elbow on his knee. His face dropped into a perfect frown. "That looks worse than a twist," he said, tone soft. "You can't walk on that."
Her eyes welled up. Not just from pain, though that was part of it, but from the panic underneath. The big realization was hitting now.
"I--- I can't walk to school like this," she whispered.
There it was. Worried about money. She was planning to walk to school every day. On top of that she was worried if this would affect her entrance exam. How about her leg? How much would it cost to get it fixed?
Her lips trembled.
[Scan Updated
Panic Spike Detected
+Manipulation Chance: High]
"I can carry you," he said. "Don't worry."
She looked up, surprised. Probably heard that from her dad once. Or wished she had.
He smiled wider. "I mean, if you don't mind. Wouldn't wanna make it weird."
Uraraka gave a shaky nod. "Th---thank you…"
Khan slid his arms under her without another word, one beneath her knees, the other behind her back. Her weight wasn't much. She gritted her teeth when he lifted, sucking in a sharp breath through her nose as the ankle moved.
"Sorry," he said, the word hollow and sweet. "I'll try not to bounce you too much."
Her fingers curled into his shirt. He walked slowly. Let the other teachers speed ahead.
"Hey," he said after a few seconds, turning his head to catch her flushed, sweat-slicked cheek, "don't beat yourself up about this."
"What if this affects my score?" she mumbled.
"Don't worry about the test," he said. "Worry about recovery. You're probably not gonna walk without help for at least two weeks. That ankle's really injured. Ever been in a cast before?"
She shook her head.
"Oh." He smirked. "Then you're gonna hate it."
Uraraka huffed a laugh. Her chest jerked, and she immediately hissed when the pain hit again. Her grip on his shirt tightened.
"Sorry. I just… my parents can't really afford all that…"
Boom.
There it was. The golden ticket. That financial instability crack right down the middle of her confidence.
He didn't jump on it yet. That's what a dumbass would do. This wasn't about pressuring. It was about setting the hook. Letting it sink in gently. Emotional debt always paid more than physical favors.
"Well," he said, keeping his tone light, "UA's got support funds. Discretionary aid. Quiet stuff. Usually for injury, trauma, you know… the drama kids." He laughed. "I could probably get you in. If you want."
Uraraka looked up at him, startled. Hope bloomed so fast it damn near shattered her through the pain.
"You--- you'd do that?" she whispered.
He gave her the kind of smile that said I'm your friend now, don't question it.
"Sure," he said. "I help where I can. Gotta watch out for the ones who fall through the cracks, yeah?"
[New Thread Initiated: Dependency - Uraraka Ochako
Status: Light Attachment Forming
+Trust Threshold: 23%
Estimated Leverage Window: 2-3 Days
Optional Buff: Coercion Threshold - 15% Boost in Isolated Environments]
Khan kept walking. Her head rested against his shoulder now, her breath warm against his neck, shallow from pain but no longer shaking. She thought she found a lifeline.
He'd give her one.