Chapter Text
TITLE OF THE FIC
Like most of my projects, I had a title almost immediately. I can’t remember if I came up with title and then the basic plot, or the opposite, but either way wouldn’t surprise me. The title refers to two separate things— a line drawn in the sand is a way of saying that there is a boundary established between two groups (ie heroes and villains). But (in my opinion) there’s also the implication that since sand is weak, that line can be shifted or erased or crossesd. It’s not like you built a wall between them, and if the line can be erased that easily, was it ever really there at all?
The second reference is that there’s a fine line between winning and losing, aka the ending. Sure, they lost the game, but they won the war. They crossed the line of winning and losing and made their own game, so to speak.
THE ENDING/SOLUTION
The solution was always going to be that they were expelled. I did change the solution a bit when this fic was very early on, but all of the hints still led to this conclusion regardless. Originally, the solution came in the form of what I called the Donner Clause (the name is dumb and was just a nickname in my notes lol) which is basically that the villains would have to expel each other rather than the heroes in order to win. That was the original loophole/Donner Clause.
However, I definitively changed that by the time the first trial rolled around because I didn’t want the villains to be able to vote, since that played havoc with my numbers. So I changed that and I changed the Donner Clause into the modern iteration.
Not as many people guessed this solution as I thought (only one got super close) despite all the hints (which were very subtle tbf) and I’m very glad of that! I hope it was a good ending and that you can reread or look back and see what led to this point, as is always my goal!
VOTING IN THE FIRST TRIAL
I actually did all math for the votes but I lost my napkin that I wrote the numbers down on <T_T>. If you followed along with people’s suspicions in the chapter and who knows who is a villain among the hero students, then you can figure most of it out still.
DANGANRONPA REFERENCES (NO DR SPOILERS)
Obviously the trial system of this game was inspired by Danganronpa, and I’d only finished the first game by the time I wrote this. So I’d planned to write everybody’s cases in teh same manner for Danganronpa 2 and for Trial 2, but I never got around to finishing DR2. I still wanna, just haven’t had time :(. A few cases had truth bullets completely plotted out for them but since I didn’t do it for everybody, I won’t show them here (and those notes are a disaster zone lmao)
But each case name is a reference the name of a chapter/trial from the Danganronpa games depending on how I thought characters related to certain ones (ie. Mineta and the alt scene I wrote at the end of Ch13 based on a certain character’s alt version death) or just if I thought there was a cool pun to be made. Here’s the list of original case names on the left and my case names on the right.
Boy’s Life of Despair (DR1, Ch2) - (Trial 1, #1) Boy’s Life of Villainy (Mineta)
All Star Apologies (DR1, Ch4) - (Trial 1, #2) Stone Cold Steal (Uraraka)
To Survive (DR1, Ch1) - (Trial 1, #3) To Survive (Hagakure)
A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero (DR1, Ch3) - (Trial 1, #4) A Next Generation Vigilante! Stand Tall Fake Hero! (Iida)
100 Mile Dash; Pain of a Junk Food Junkie (DR1, Ch5) - (Trial 1, #5) 100 Corrupt Cases; Pain of an Intrepid Informant (Jirou)
Trapped by the Ocean Scent (DR2, Ch3) - (Trial 2, #6) Trapped By The Burning Scent (Ashido)
Sea and Punishment, Sin and Coconuts (DR2, Ch2) - (Trial 2, #7) Pond and Punishment (Asui)
Destination Despair (DR2, Ch1) - (Trial 2, #8) Glistening Glamour (Aoyama)
Do Ultimate Robots Dream of Clockwork? (DR2, Ch4) - (Trial 2, #9) In the High Castle (Yaoyorozu)
Smile at Hope in the Name of Despair (DR2, Ch5) - (Trial 2, #10) Smile at Hope in the Face of Despair (Midoriya)
A few changed drastically due to limitations or for other references I wanted to hide, lik the Phillip K Dick one in Momo’s case. While some didn’t change at all. None of the case names really matter a ton in the scheme of things and it’s more fun that anything.
These are some DR1 character connections I played toward or just thought were funny. Didn’t influence my writing too much but I did note them occasionally.
-Mineta and Hifumi for the girl crazy type
-Kyoko Kirigiri and Jirou as the detective type
-Leon and Uraraka both try to get close to the main character for reasons
-Hagakure and Sayano are both kinda invisible/blend in until they need to
-Iida and Ishimaru are literally so similar lol
TRAITOR HINTS AND RED HERRINGS
The first few chapters of this fic were already planned and written by the time that the canon traitor reveal happened, so I told people from the beginning that the traitor would not be based on canon reasoning. However, it could’ve still been the canon traitor.
I had several red herrings and traitors hinted at through the fic, with different levels of difficulty.
-Sero (in the background, kinda doesn’t do much in terms of story, also kinda as a tribute to one of my all time fav fics that’s been on cliffhanger for like 2+ years where it’s almost-definitely revealed at the cliffhanger that it’s him)
-Todoroki (he basically is a traitor in spirit lmao)
-Shouji (silent, doesn’t say a lot, not really hinted at tbh)
-Aoyama (he’s so invisible in the fic intentionally and also because of canon)
When I first started the traitor arc at the USJ I wrote down three “suspects” and leveled them easy/medium/hard with a 65-25-10 percent chance of commenters guessing them respectively
(EASY) Hagakure (since she’s invisible and the canon hinted at her forever + I swear she’s everybody’s suspect)
(MEDIUM) Kaminari (lies about having no siblings, very forgetful, just a common tratior suspect, plus Midoriya reveals in his case file early in the fic that there’s something up Kaminari’s family)
(HARD) Kirishima (actual traitor and his reasons aren’t super well developed past what he explained in the fic. I have a hesitant idea for a later work with this so I won’t say too much more)
“IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THE RULES, CHANGE THE GAME” AND SHERLOCK HOLMES HINTS
Ahh one of my favorite book quotes. This quote is based on the book Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo in which the phrase is ‘If you can’t beat the odds, change the game.’ I thought it worked perfectly with my idea for this fic and I incorporated it a ton in the later sections to really hammer it in because I thought it was the perfect subtle hint toward the ending.
The Sherlock Holmes hints are a bit more scarce, but they’re very prominent in all of the Nezu meetings, especially his last one where we see his perspective. I also tried to incorporate some hinting toward Reichenbach Falls and “The Final Problem” story from Sherlock Holmes where both Sherlock Holmes and the villain Moriarty are assumed to have died. Unfortunately, I kept calling the end of this fic the solution, and putting the word ‘solution’ into that title would, uh, have unfortunate connotations to say the least. So I didn’t do that but I had some small hints toward the Reichenbach-esque ending of ‘dying but not dying’ or losing but not losing.
RED VS BLUE REFERENCES AND INSPIRATIONS
If you’ve read fics in MHA, especially villain 1-A fics, then you’ve definitely run across the fic “Why Are We Even Here Again?” by cloud_nine_and_three_quarters. I love that fic dearly, especially for the fact that the title quote is from Red vs Blue, one of my favorite series ever (and the one that got me into fandom!). I haven’t reread that fic since I stared mine, since I was paranoid that I would accidentally lift something from it without meaning to. As much as my fic is similar to theirs, I do think it’s different enough not to warrant a ‘works inspired by’ link for various reasons, mainly the structure of the program and the amount of villains and the trial system.
“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?” is the first line in Red vs Blue (RVB) and its referred to constantly throughout the series. There’s plenty of other quotes that are references to Red vs Blue which I’ll point out more in the chapter breakdowns. But I really love this quote in the context of this fic because of the parallels with All Might’s “Because I am here!” but also because of the context of the villains being at UA and wondering why they’re even enrolled.
Here are some other RVB quotes I refer to throughout the fic…
One of the most heartbreaking quotes, I swear. “Never say goodbye. If you don’t say goodbye you aren’t really gone. You just aren’t here right now.”
Didn’t quite use this one word for word but I snuck pieces in here and there. “You know, Caboose, I used to not care. I just went along with orders and hoped that everything would work out for me. But after all that's happened to me, you know what I've learned? It's not about hating the guy on the other side because someone told you to... Not because they're Red, or because they're Blue, but because you know them, and you see them every single day, and you can't stand them because they're a complete and total f**king douchebag."
This quote isn’t directly anywhere I don’t think, but I definitely used the sentiment several times. “The past doesn't define who you are, it just gives you the starting point of who you're going to be.”
The final lines of Season 13, aka the finale that wrecked my life for months, so *MAJOR SPOILERS FOR RVB13*: “Hey guys, If you’re hearing this, it means you did it. You won. You kicked the shit out of Hargrove’s forces, I knew you could. But this is my last stop. See when I came into this world, I was really just a collection of someone else’s memories. But with your help, these memories, they, they took form. they became my voice, my personality, and after a while I began to make brand new memories of my own. All of these things are what make me who I am but they’re also holding me back. I can’t run this suit, as Epsilon, but if I erase my memories, if I deconstruct myself, the fragments I’ll leave behind will have the strength to get you through this. I believe that. I wish there was an other way but I’m leaving this message, as well as others, in the hopes that you’ll understand why I have to go this time. It was actually Doyle who made me realize something I never thought of before. There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero never gets to see that ending. They’ll never know if their sacrifice actually made any difference. They’ll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith. Aint that a bitch.”
This quote was always intended to be the end of the fic, from when I first planned the ending ages ago. I always loved the symmetry of this line by Sarge (the boss of Red team in RVB) as compared to the two grunt Red soldiers that say it at the beginning of the series. “You ever wonder why we’re here? Maybe you’re all here because this is the only place you fit in. Maybe you’re here because you don’t have anywhere else to go. Maybe you’re here because deep down, you want to be here. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re here.”
DOES MIDORIYA HAVE ONE FOR ALL?
*Shrug emoji* I have some hints toward it, but there’s also never anything confirmed and I don’t think I will confirm it or not (at least not in this fic hehehe). Let your heart decide >:)
VILLAIN RECOMMENDATION STUDENTS
So when I first started this fic, I had the idea of both villain and hero recommendation students. But obviously, since Yaoyorozu is a villain student, she couldn’t be a hero recommendation student. And that’s where Midoriya and Kirishima came into play. They are the two new recommendation students (hero and villain respectively) and that parallel is intentional since one is the traitor and the other is hunting for the traitor.
TASKS THEMED WITH THEIR REASON FOR ENROLLMENT
The tasks have been set since day 1, though some had some slight adjustments made or tweaked along the way. But the core was always the same because the tasks are directly based on their reason for enrollment. I explain more in the student sections how that relates to each person, but each task is supposed to either remedy or expand upon why they’re here— since the program is to help them learn and grow after all.
THE GROUP CHAT USERNAMES
The nicknames in the group chat were mostly just a way to help the reader (And myself) keep track of who was who. I always really struggle with chat fics, even when tehy dont’ have a bunch of numbers like the first half of chapter 2 did. So the nicknames (ie Protection 2) are only visible on Midoriya (and the reader’s) end, but none of the villains can see them. In fact, they probably all have their own nicknames for each other.
Basically, the names were helpful for reading but not for solving anything. And on that note…
THE GROUP CHAT NUMBERS
So I believe five people solved the group chat hint, which was the numbers in the group chat are equivalent to their last names alpahbetized in the English alphabet rather than the Japanese alphabet (which is why the canon ones are out of order). Some of the students have the same numbers in both versions, so that kinda threw some of you off which was fun.
But with these numbers, you could figure out who every villain was before they were revealed. I set up this hint at the very beginning when I thought this would only be a few chapters, so it wouldn’t matter since everybody would’ve been revealed by like Ch5. But when I expanded the fic, I was really worried the mystery would be ruined if everybody solved it too easily. Thankfully, it all worked out.
HOW I CHOSE THE VILLAINS (AKA: OOPS ALL GIRLS!)
The very first thing I did when planning this fic was plan out the villains, even before I had the arcs solidified. I basically went down through 1-A and made a list of every idea I had for somebody as a villain, and I had 20 decent reasons. So anybody could’ve been a villain. But then I went through and selected the ones I thought I could develop the most and that I wanted to write.
And then it took two chapters for me to realize that all the girls were villains XD
THE ELEVENTH VILLAIN (HIDDEN GROUP CHAT VILLAIN)
So I revealed the to the secret solvers (aka the ones who figured out the numbers system by the midterm trial) that there was originally plans to be an eleventh villain, and Shinsou would’ve been the balancing act for the heroes. They were going to be lurking in the group chat and just very quiet and nobody would’ve expected them. But that was the thing. Nobody would’ve expected them because *I* forgot to hint at them for the entire first arc. So I scrapped that because that would’ve been extremely unfair. And the story probably turned out all the better for it tbh.
NOT EVERYBODY GOT GOOD SCREEN TIME/SCRAPPED THIRD ACT
I’ve mentioned it in a variety of places, but there was originally a different third act here. I had actually planned to make a lot Midoriya’s stuff with All Might a long one-shot but I thought that would be super disjointed. So I made that replace the original third arc and kept it a lot closer to canon than I’d intended (beyond a few key events obviously).
But what was the original third arc? Well, that was the Vigilante Arc! Some of the students were supposed to have a lot of screen time here, like Ojiro, Kaminari, Sero and Satou. It’s a bit underdeveloped in my notes because I scrapped a lot of it before writing an outline, but basically that’s why I was introducing Knuckleduster and the other Naruhata vigilantes. This arc was going to explore the difference between heroes, vigilantes, and villains and basically work on rearranging the status quo, specifically with Sero becoming a vigilante at one point. I wish I’d written this but at the same time, it would’ve added an easy 60k to this fic that I don’t have it in me to write at this moment. I have some ideas for my next fic about vigilantes to I might repurpose this to there….