Chapter Text
The days were starting to blur together for Katsuki. He really expected the heroes to come barging in by now to rescue him. Instead he was still strapped to a chair with the original Deku as his main company. He had already learned far more than he wanted about Izuku’s life during the months since they last met before the kidnapping. At present, Deku was showing Katsuki scars from the times he had almost died due to bullying.
Deku lifted his shirt to show a large scar on his back. “This one is from when a classmate pretended to lose control of their quirk and doused me in acid.” Katsuki winced. He had felt the sting from Raccoon Eyes quirk and knew how much acid could hurt. To have that massive a scar, it must have been pretty severe. Izuku just moved on like he had not just admitted to something horrifying. Katsuki glanced around and saw the discomfort on the villains’ faces. At least he was not the only one disturbed by all this.
Izuku lifted the hair that covered his forehead to show off a long jagged scar there. “This one and the long one on my arm are from when some classmates cornered me in an alley and tried to beat me to death.” Katsuki felt sick. He knew he had been a jerk to Deku in Middle School, but he would never have gone this far. He just wanted Deku to give up the impossible dream of being a hero without a quirk. He never truly wanted Deku dead. Izuku gave a sad smile. “A hero actually caught them in the act that time. For a moment I actually thought I was saved.”
A knot formed in Katsuki’s stomach. Just from the way Izuku said it he knew that this story would not have a happy ending. A big part of him did not want to know what happened, but his curiosity would not shut up. Either way, Izuku continued. “At first he was upset and told them to stop. Then they told him I was quirkless and in a moment his attitude changed. The supposed ‘hero’ went from telling them to stop to telling them not to go too far. He just pointed out that if I died they could get in trouble. Then he left. A man who claimed to be a hero left a child bleeding out in a back alley with his attackers still there simply because I didn’t have a quirk.”
“This is why hero society needs to be cleansed,” the lizard villain stated from across the room. “People like that have no right to call themselves heroes.”
“You’d be surprised how many heroes are really scumbags when outside the public’s view,” Scar Face added.
Izuku nodded. “Yeah, I learned that the hard way.” Wide green eyes looked into Katsuki’s own with a sad searching gaze. “Do you understand yet, Kacchan? Our society is flawed at the very foundation. After all, that’s why you bullied me. Right?”
Katsuki froze. His bullying may have been mild in comparison to what Deku had been talking about, but it had gone on for years. He knew it was why Deku had not come to him or his family for help in the first place.
“There was a time,” Izuku continued. “When I thought of you as my best friend. I miss those days.” Katsuki felt a longing deep inside him. He sometimes missed that too. Especially when compared to his followers in Middle School. Really Kirishima was the first friend Katsuki had made in years. The first real friend since Izuku.
“Do you think we could ever rebuild that?” Deku asked.
The question caused Katsuki to straighten up. He looked Izuku straight in the eyes as shock rolled over him. Could they be friends again? “Deku, I-“
He was cut off by a knock on the door. “Kamino Pizza delivery.” Things happened fast after that. All Might burst through the wall along with other heroes. Kamui Woods swung in and restrained all the villains. Other heroes followed quickly through the hole as well as the door. Soon, Scar Face and Smoky were incapacitated.
All Might removed the chains holding Katsuki to the chair, but as All Might looked over the captured villains, the hero froze. “Young Midoriya!? What are you doing here?”
Katsuki blinked. Oh yeah. All Might probably did not know about Mikumo having an identical twin. “That’s his brother,” Katsuki explained. All Might still seemed shocked.
Deku chuckled darkly. “Did you even realize that the boy who’s dreams you crushed and the one you chose as your successor were two different people? Or were you too absorbed in your own hubris to notice.”
“That’s not- I didn’t-“ All Might stumbled over his words, but in the end he did not have the chance to figure out what to say.
There was a tightness in the back of Katsuki’s throat that made him gag loudly. Suddenly, black slime burst from Katsuki’s mouth and surrounded him. He struggled to breath as flashes of the sludge villain overtook his thoughts. The slime only lasted a few seconds, but it felt far longer. As the liquid fell away, Katsuki coughed and looked around. No longer was he standing in the bar. Instead he and the villains were in the middle of some destroyed building. Some guy with a weird black helmet stood before them.
“Master,” Hand Creep addressed Wannabe Darth Vader. Great. Now they were with the villain boss and the heroes were nowhere in sight.
“Kacchan?” Izuku’s voice pulled Katsuki’s attention away from the rather terrifying villain boss. He turned to face the green haired boy who was giving him a small smile. “Don’t worry. He won’t hurt you as long as you stay with us.” The implied threat in that was not lost on Katsuki. He swallowed down the growing fear and turned back to where the villain leaders were talking.
The guy with the helmet turned suddenly and raised his hands in time to stop a charging All Might. It was clear from what they said to each other the villain knew the Symbol of Peace and had fought him in the past. That raised the questions of why Katsuki had never heard of him and why he was not behind bars. The answer to the second became too easy to guess as the guy held his own against the number one hero.
Villain Boss used a quirk, a different one than he had been using to fight All Might, to force the smoky villain to open a portal, even while unconscious. That was when the villains started trying to take Katsuki again by force. He fought back with everything he had, but there were so many of them that Katsuki could do little more than dodge. Some part of his brain was thankful that at least Izuku was not joining with them.
Suddenly, a gigantic spire of ice shot out from behind a broken wall. Katsuki stared along with everyone else as several of his classmates shot up the spire into the sky. Kirishima stretched out his hand and yelled, “Come on!”
Katsuki’s hands stretched out and he was about to launch into the sky after them when he hesitated. Fear and doubt flooded into Katsuki. Could he really reach them? What would happen to all of them if the villains tried to follow him? What would happen to Izuku if he left?
Katsuki was pulled from his thought by a hand taking his own. He turned his head to see Izuku’s pleading eyes. “Please, Kacchan. Don’t leave me.”
Katsuki hesitated. He looked back to the sky, but it was too late. His chance to escape was gone. He did not even realize when Izuku pulled him into the portal.
————
Despair was the only word Mikumo could think of to describe how he felt. Izuku was with the villains for some reason and Mikumo’s attempt to save Kacchan had failed. He did not understand why Katsuki had not taken the way out when they presented it to him. Did it have something to do with Izuku being there? Were they both being brainwashed somehow?
“What do we do now?” Kirishima was trembling with frustration as he demanded answers that none of them had. “Are we just supposed to walk away?”
“We have to,” Iida stated. “This battle is beyond our abilities and now Bakugo is beyond our reach.”
Kirishima clenched his fists and turned on Mikumo. “This is your twin’s fault. I saw him grab Bakugo when I called out to him. He’s the reason Bakugo didn’t come. The reason we lost him.”
Mikumo shook his head. “No. There has to be some kind of mistake. Izuku would never do something like that. He’s not a villain.” Even as he said it, Mikumo’s mind flew to everything that had happened to Izuku in the past year. The separation and disappointment caused by Mikumo getting a quirk and getting into UA. The severe bullying. And worst of all, the way their mother had treated him. Everyone had a breaking point. Had Izuku been pushed to his?
“Believe what you want,” Kirishima mumbled. “I know what I saw. And I’m sure the heroes saw, too.”
Mikumo swallowed hard. Kirishima was right and no doubt the heroes would have questions. Questions that Mikumo would rather not answer and others that he could not answer.
————
The next day the news was full of unhappy stories. Rescue of UA Student Fails. Brother of UA Student Joins Villains. All Might’s Secret Form Revealed. Is This the End For the Symbol of Peace?
Izuku scrolled through the stories on his phone while sitting beside a once more tied up Kacchan. It looked like thing were about to get interesting.