Chapter Text
Katsuki breathed heavily, his vision tunneling in on the three before him and ignorant of his two companions.
They were the only two he trusted not to betray him. When Creation Bitch told him that there was a traitor in the heroes, he clung to Shitty Hair and Pink Cheeks with a fervor that scared him.
He clung to certainty and let it be his downfall as the rest of his teammates were dead.
“Isn’t it time you grew up?”
When Izuku said that, Katsuki couldn’t hold back his roar.
“You’re the one who needs to grow up!”
Although Izuku’s hood hid his hair and eyebrows, Katsuki could vividly imagine his inquisitive expression–exactly like Auntie Inko had taught him.
“You hid behind a mask like a coward, and now you expect anyone to trust you? How fucking naive can you be?”
When Katsuki sucked in a breath, for a moment, everything was still. The next, he felt like he was watching his body from an outside perspective.
“Oh, Kacchan,” Izuku cooed, except, it wasn’t Izuku. No. The one wearing the Anemone mask lifted the hood to reveal untamed purple locks. His voice-changer fell to his chin to show his wide smirk.
“Aren’t you the naive one here?”
The one on the left of him reached up and took off his mask to reveal the real Izuku grinning in victory.
“Bakugou, blast the two next to you hard enough to count it as a kill but not hard enough to harm them permanently.”
He was a prisoner in his own body, unable to break free as he watched himself blast his last two teammates into the rubble. They put up a decent fight, but Katsuki knew they were no match for him due to their exhaustion.
It only took a few minutes for them to be declared dead, and then they were gone, taken away by two Ectoplasm clones.
Awareness kicked back into Katsuki, and he sucked in a deep breath. He barely even noticed when three more masked people joined them in the rubble as he was too busy holding his stomach.
“Aw, what’s the matter? Not fun when you’re not beating up the useless old Deku?”
It was the real Izuku speaking that time, having stepped around Troll Doll–who had taken out his green contacts and put on his Buttercup mask–and on Katsuki’s level.
Katsuki couldn’t speak, though not for a lack of trying. Yet the only sounds able to escape his mouth were harsh pants.
“Do you need a reminder?”
“Kacchan, won’t we be heroes together?”
He blanched.
Fuck.
That was Izuku’s voice, yet his mouth didn’t so much as twitch from its cruel smile—an imitation of Katsuki’s. No doubt, just to spite him.
“K-Kacchan please stop!”
“Don’t hurt him!”
“I p-promise not to follow you anymore–please leave me alone!”
Katsuki remembered these moments.
He remembered the burning hand he shoved into Izuku’s face. He remembered the tears that caught on Izuku’s lower eyelids. He remembered the feeling of pride when he saw Izuku’s defeated limps home.
Now, all he felt was shame.
“St-”
“Kacchan, I thought we were gonna be heroes together?”
“Stop-”
“I thought we’d be like All Might together?”
“Sto-”
“Why did you abandon me, Kacchan?”
“STOP IT!”
Katsuki couldn’t see.
He couldn’t hear.
He couldn’t breathe.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it!”
“You left me, Kacchan.”
“I didn’t!”
“You hurt me, Kacchan.”
“No!”
He spun around.
All he could see was green.
Green hair.
Green eyes.
Green bruises.
Green, green, green.
“Kacchan, why did you hurt me?”
“IT’S NOT MY FAULT!”
“Yes it is.”
Katsuki looked up into the cold, toxic stare of his regrets.
“It’s your fault I jumped, Katsuki.”
He didn’t mean it.
“Bakugou Katsuki of the Hero Team has been killed. The Villain Team wins.”
Katsuki looked down, tears blurring and dripping onto the ruble when he saw the red splotch on his costume.
He saw Izuku’s sickly sweet smile before the smoking gun. The boy’s hands didn’t even shake, unlike Katsuki’s, which rose to the fake wound on his abdomen. That was all before his vision blacked out.
Unconscious before his head even hit the ground.
I’m sorry, Izuku.
~~~
Izuku sighed, his chin cradled by his palm as he looked out the window.
Before he started planning, he knew that things would never be the same or that his classmates would never see him as a friend again.
But then Uraraka bounded into the room, bandages wrapped around her head despite Recovery Girl’s healing, and came over to his desk.
“Good morning, Izuku.”
Izuku stared at her, shocked, before a small, genuine smile grew on his face.
“Good morning, Ochako.”
She returned his smile to him tenfold before going over to Tsu. The girl got glass in her tongue when she went to the apartment building, so her mouth was a little swollen.
Despite all the stares, Izuku looked down at his desk and felt warmth in his chest.
‘Maybe not everything is ruined.’
“Alright Hell Spawn, sit down.”
Everyone sat at their desks, and Izuku noticed the one behind him was empty.
‘Does that mean?’
“We’ll be talking about what happened during the assignment, but first, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, Mineta is not here. He has been expelled–”
Izuku smirked at all of the cheers, and he even saw Mr. Aizawa’s slight smile before he buried it in his scarf.
“Ahem. As I was saying, he has been expelled. Please say hello to your new classmate, Shinsou Hitoshi.”
Izuku brilliantly smiled as Hitoshi walked into the room, and Izuku couldn’t resist blowing the boy a kiss.
“Bro, what about Todoroki?” Izuku turned and saw multiple of his classmates looking at him in distrust. Iida looked especially outraged; face scrunched like he wanted to lecture Izuku about his immoral actions. Izuku just gave them all a slight smirk, finding their recoils amusing.
“I have two hands, you know.”
Kaminari got it first, looking between Hitoshi and Shoto’s fond smiles and red faces.
“Oh my god, Midoriya bagged two hotties.”
They laughed, the tension in the room fading somewhat as Hitoshi took the seat behind him.
Izuku was content, even though Kacchan refused to look at him and ran away whenever he tried to initiate a conversation. He had two boyfriends he liked, now both in his class. And he had shown his true self, with the hope that he would be accepted by all those he considered friends.
Content could only describe a fraction of the feelings swirling inside Izuku.
“Midoriya, please head to the Principal’s office after class. You’ll be excused for next period.”
Izuku looked into Mr. Aizawa’s eyes, saw the horror there, and grinned. Complete and majestic in the way that made the corners give an evil little curl.
It made Ochako smile.
“Yes, sir.”
Aizawa shuddered, which Izuku found amusing, and continued going over everything that happened during the assignment, including the villain’s objectives—even the last goal, which was Izuku’s favorite that he hadn’t told anyone about.
Make the hero leader cry .
That made Katsuki growl, but he thankfully remained silent. At least it got giggles out of the rest of the class.
Izuku spent the rest of homeroom vibrating in his seat with an ever-growing grin and ignoring his friend’s concerned looks.
When the bell rang, he wasted no time sending Hitoshi and Shoto air kisses, then raced through the halls, much to Iida’s displeasure.
He arrived on short notice to a plain wooden door that opened on its own when he went to knock.
Walking in with a straight back, puffed-out chest, and intense eyes, Izuku sat before the principal, who stared back.
It was like looking into a weirdly warped mirror. Maybe a funhouse mirror, Izuku didn’t know. But as their staring contest slipped into the minute mark, they simultaneously burst into maniacal laughter.
“I’m glad to finally be meeting you, Midoriya Izuku.”
Izuku hummed, the most him grin painting his face.
“Me too, Principal Nezu.”
Nezu gave a matching grin.
A grin of the geniuses.
A grin of the outcasts.
A grin of the most humane monsters.
“Please.”
A grin of those ready to tear the world apart piece by piece.
“Call me Sensei.”