Twelfth Hypnovember commission!

Once again, the client was someone whom I'll refer as AF, who wanted a story with the Personality Change prompt. The idea was simple, an OC of them have an encounter with a few heroes and uses a mask to take control of one of them. Again, I recommend you to see this as an episode from the anime.

If you are interested in getting a commission, I still have some options left for the month.
https://www.deviantart.com/mindtasker/art/Hypnovember-2024-Commissions-Read-Description-1113301324

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Under the Mask

“Your move, heroes!” The villain said while taunting the heroes.

Years after graduating from the U.A. High School and becoming Pro Heroes, Uraraka, Tsuyu, Tokoyami, Yaoyorozu, Shoji, Kirishma and Mina started working with some organizations, doing their best to protect the city from the ones that wanted to cause chaos and destruction. Because of the lack of reports related to criminals, the seven heroes believed that their night as guests on the academy would be a calm one, but suddenly, the evening was interrupted by a strange-looking person.

Froppy and Tokoyami knew who he was as they encountered him a few days ago. His name was Cane, a mysterious villain that stood out thanks to his outfit, wearing mostly a dark motif that included a hood, pants, boots and gloves of the same color, a skeleton gauntlet on his right hand and a mask had details from multiple animals, looking mostly like a wolf skull with antlers from a deer, a ram and a goat. The heroes didn’t know what he was doing in the academy or how he went past the security, but what mattered the most at that moment was to stop him before he harmed anyone.

Cane was aware that his presence put them on edge and while he was there for one thing in particular, the mysterious villain decided to tease the seven heroes a bit, avoiding their attacks and making them crash between each other before he escaped to the forest that was close to the academy. “What should we do now? We follow him and call back-up later or call back-up and as we wait, we think of a plan?” Tokoyami asked while looking at his friends. As all of them were Pro Heroes, they knew that both options had their risks and while they might be outmatched by Cane, thanks to Uraraka, they all agreed on going for the former.

“Whatever you do, don’t separate from the group,” the short-haired gal commanded before she and the six heroes ran to the forest, oblivious to the fact that the villain with the dark outfit was watching them from afar. His quirk was an interesting one as he was an expert in illusions and dark magic, easily casting spells that would trick his enemies before going for the final blow. His clone tricked the heroes into going to the forest, giving him the perfect opportunity to go forward with the next part of his plan.

To see them looking around and trying not to panic was a captivating sight and while it was tempting to take more than one, Cane quickly dropped that idea and preferred to follow his original plan, having his eyes on Uraraka. As they heard him sum a calm yet eerie melody, the heroes waited for the hooded villain to jump from out of nowhere, but instead, he walked towards them as he finished his melody.

“Congratulations, you found me, but are you sure you can take me?” Taunting them again, Cane fought against the seven heroes, but unlike the first time, where he had the upper hand, he was easily defeated by them. Kirishma and Shoji were a bit skeptical about the villain’s defeat, one moment he was an unstoppable force and then the seven of them incapacitated them. Of course, this was part of Cane’s plan, giving his enemies a false sense of security and making them be close to him. “I surrender…just stop…” he said, smiling behind his mask as the heroes felt for his act of the defeated villain. What he wanted the most was Ochaco to walk closer and as he hummed the same melody as before, he was delighted to see the short-haired heroine doing what he expected.

“Can any of you call Aizawa and tell him that we f-” before she could even complete her sentence, Cane got up from the floor, held Uraraka and used one of his spells to him and the heroine to another part of the forest. The short-haired gal quickly saw her mistake by letting her guard down and quickly got free from his grip, but before she could even make her move, the hooded villain moved from behind and showed her a dark mask that had glowing red eyes. “What are you…doing?”

“I just wanted to show one of Japan’s greatest heroes one of the most important items in my collection,” the mysterious villain said calmly as he moved the mask closer to Ochaco’s gaze. The moment he held her shoulder, Cane could feel that the heroine’s body wasn’t tense. He knew what this meant as the mask and his hypnotic spell had the effect he desired to see. The hooded man expected her to resist a bit more, surprised to see that someone like Uraraka would easily give in to that state of bliss, but nonetheless, he was glad to know that his plan was going well. “Isn’t it nice? The bright red? The way it makes you feel? I don’t think I need an answer from you, just by looking at your eyes, I can tell what you are thinking about this.”

With his experience, having done countless inductions against his victims, the mysterious villain was aware about Uraraka’s state. Her red eyes meant that she got to the first stages of her trance, starting to embrace the ideas that Cane indulged in her mind and letting herself become her servant. She still continued to fight back, albeit poorly as she couldn’t bring herself to look away from the mask. If Cane moved it from one side, then Ochaco would follow it, making her even deeper.

“While I don’t think I can reveal much about myself, I can share one little detail with you: I’m only interested in heroes I consider the best,” he was both manipulating his victim and telling the truth. From the moment he started his crime spree, Cane was only interested in going against the best, preferring to die during a battle against a powerful opponent than to have an easy victory with someone who saw as weak. With Uraraka, he knew about her involvement during the Final War, where heroes and villains fought till the end, and her status as a heroine now, Cane was set from the beginning to have a battle against her and win. “This is a reward for your efforts. So, if you please, stay like that…and let me continue being in control.”

As he finished talking, he carefully put the mask on the heroine before helping her get up. The sensation was strange yet nice and Ochaco didn’t know how to react. Again, her reaction pleased Cane and he didn’t need to ask her about how she was feeling as the red eyes on the mask changed into swirls. Slowly, the heroine was starting to embrace those thoughts in her head, not of being a hero or someone that might help others, but just a loyal servant of Cane. She still had some doubts, mostly because her memories remained with her, but at that point, Uraraka lost the fight.

It went like that within a few minutes, with the short-haired gal remaining silent as the spirals in her eyes moved at a faster pace. Cane felt that his plan was a success and that Uraraka became his to control, feeling so proud of himself that he started thinking about his next servant and how he could use the heroine to do whatever he commanded. It was indeed a good moment for him, but as he tried to think about what to do next with Ochaco, he was pushed down. Turning around, Cane could see that the six heroes finally found him and the heroine.

As Kirishma, Mina and Shoji held him, Tsuyu, Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu helped their friend by taking her mask off her head. Uraraka felt a bit groggy and it took quite a bit for her to remember what they were doing there. They asked her about how she was feeling or if she was hurt and even though the short-haired gal assured them that there was nothing to worry about, and that they needed to go back, there was something strange about Uraraka. Froppy even asked her best friend the same question again, but like the first time, all she got was a simple answer. “I’m fine, really. For now, we have to take care of our impromptu guest.”

“If you say so,” the frog gal still wasn’t sure about the state of her friend yet, after being called to help them check Cane, she walked away, not noticing the change on Uraraka as her eyes glow red and she started to smile. She might still look like the heroine everyone knew, but after what the hooded villain did to her, Ochaco had a new mindset, willing to help Cane and not caring about if she had to go against her friends. Before leaving, she carefully picked up the dark mask that the villain used on her and as she chuckled, thinking about the induction and how she was feeling. As she followed the other heroes, Cane eyed his new servant, who hid the mask she used on him from everyone else. He might have lost that battle, but he also didn’t lose as his plan was successful.

Uraraka now worked with him and the best part was that no one else knew about it.