Chapter Text
Green sizzled against the red of blood, a strained expression on both their faces as they stood on the moonlit rooftop.
The rooftop was like an oasis of peace as Izuku and Hero Killer: Stain stood there, panting, their fighting had seized for an inexplicable second, and now they were standing here, surrounded by the city's cries on a completely silent rooftop.
"I want you to look kid, not just at the hero fighting the villain." Stain slowly rose out of his former crouching position, brushing the settled dust from his shoulders. "You can hand me in if you truly wish to, but at least try to look before you do so."
Izuku looked down the side of the roof, now standing peacefully next to Stain, the villain who he had previously been fighting, indulging him in a last favor. What he saw however was what he'd been expecting to see: Endeavour's flames circling a particularly nasty looking nomu.
"You're still looking at the hero and the villain, look at the rest. Look at the people." Stain instructed, his voice surprisingly soft.
Izuku shifted his gaze to the people surrounding the scene: they were shaking, shielding each other from the flames, one mother even mouthed soft words at the crying baby in her arms, while tears were streaming down her own face.
Izuku frowned, the horrors of the situation slowly settling in: the people weren't hiding from the villain, no, instead they were hiding from the outburst of Endeavour's fire, singing each other soothing lullabies in the rain of red hot sparks.
"Aren't these the people the heroes supposedly protect?" Stain looked at Izuku from the side for a moment before calmly looking back at the burning city. "Think about it, have you ever seen a hero, apart from All Might maybe, when he was alive that is, that actually stopped to care about the people?" Stain paused, letting the question echo in Izuku's head.
"Did any of the heroes ever wait to receive their glory after beating a villain and instead help rebuild the buildings they themselves destroyed in their fight?"
"Have you ever seen a hero that didn't bask in the cameras, the fans, the merchandise and instead stayed behind to help those who needed to be helped?"
"I hereby ask you kid, are these supposed heroes actually heroes, if they don't actually protect those who need protection? Because sure, they do so when in battle, but what about outside of battle? What about those whose houses are in ruins because of the fights? What about those who are homeless now? What about the innocents who die because of the cinders of battle?"
Down below Endeavour was still fighting, his flames engulfing the rock that the wailing baby and their mother were hiding behind, the fire licking viciously at her hair.
"Tell me, do the heroes really care about the people or are they blinded by fame? Are they really worthy?"
Stain looked at Izuku again, his face perfectly smoothed into an emotionless expression.
Izuku let his eyes wander over the buildings of the city: even the buildings that hadn't been destroyed by today's particular fight could already be called ruins, in a state of complete destruction by an earlier battle. "I don't know," he whispered eventually.
"Think about it, in your history books every century had something new, right? A new development, a new beauty to relish in, a new creation of the human mind, until quirks came, until everyone suddenly wanted to be a hero, that's when all human creativity came to a halt." Stain huffed a bitter laugh "Imagine where we could've been if quirks never happened! We could have lived in damn space by now! Or have flying cars! Instead of that, however, we live in a world of decay that basks in the ruins of the past."
"So," Stain continued, while looking back at the fight between the nomu and Endeavour: his eyes glazing over with a strange glint of something when Endeavour's flames burned the baby's tender skin. "I ask you again, do you think heroes are worthy?"
Izuku frowned looking away from the scene and up at Stain. "Why are you asking me this?"
Stain smiled, it wasn't sarcastic, sharklike or even bitter, no, instead it was strangely simple, friendly even. "I just want to make you see the society you're so desperate to be a part of." He cocked his head slightly. "And because I see potential in you, you do fight for the people, other than these other 'heroes', it's just a matter of choosing the right side."
Izuku hummed. "So, you're trying to convince me to be a villain then?"
Stain laughed: loud. "No, never that, villains are bastards too: they fight purely for vengeance. No, I'm simply asking you to join me on neither of the sides, I'm asking you to join me on the side of the people and only them. Not the fame. Not the spotlights. Not the fans. Only the act of getting rid of those who aren't worthy. The rest of society may deem us villains, yes, but we will never be that completely. "
Izuku didn't quite know how to reply to that, so he didn't, a minute of silence passed between them until Stain spoke up again. "Think about it, I'll meet you on this rooftop in two nights if you decide to join me."
And then Stain was gone, dissolving into the shadows, away from the city that was ever so thirsty for blood.
--
Izuku knew that he shouldn't be seriously considering this, yet he was, he couldn't help it. Stain's words kept coming back to him in fragments, adding to the doubt in his mind every time they did
And as he lay in his bed at UA, staring at the blank ceiling, he couldn't help but think about how his school was one of the prettiest buildings around, not in ruins like the rest of the city, perfectly groomed to luxury. It almost fit Stain's narrative too perfectly: houses for the common folk used as battle arenas, destroyed to the point of no return, while the buildings made for heroes were glistening in riches, riches they used on an everyday basis.
It was wrong, all of it, corrupt to the core.
Izuku had started to feel icky while walking through UA's pristine halls, struck time and time again by how starkly it contrasted with how utterly ruined the houses for the city's people were.
And the day before his maybe-meeting with Stain was planned, Izuku made his decision.
"Hey nerd, you there?! You were fucking mumbling again." Kacchan was frowning at him, his glare pinning Izuku to the spot.
Izuku's nervous laughter rang through the halls not even a second later. "Yes! Sorry Kacchan! I didn't mean to!"
Strange how this would be his last conversation with Kacchan, not any different from their usual ones, just a simple walk to the dorms. It felt like their last talk as friends should be something different, something more moving or emotional, maybe even filled with Kacchan telling him to please stay. But then again Kacchan wouldn't ever say please, nor did he care enough about Izuku for him to even hint at him that he wanted him to stay. Izuku almost felt as if he should voice his final confession as a final goodbye, a final statement, but he didn't, he didn't because the Kacchan he knew wouldn't ever say please.
It wasn't necessary for Izuku to tell Kacchan where he was going tonight, he would find out sooner or later without Izuku's help.
"Oh for fuck's sake will you stop mumbling!"
Izuku colored red. "Sorry!"
Kacchan's frown didn't fade from his face after that, shifting short glances at Izuku during the entire duration of their walk back to the dorms.
Izuku liked to pretend that there had been an edge of concern to Kacchan's piercing stare.
--
The rooftop was still drenched in silver moonlight when Izuku came back to it two nights later.
"You're here," a voice coming from the very edge of the roof stated simply, no emotion staining the sound.
"I'm here."
The man who the voice belonged to turned around, his smirk seemingly alight in the pearly moonlight, as he silently extended a hand to Izuku.
"Take it and we'll fight together from now on."
Izuku threw one last look at the ruined buildings surrounding the rooftop before he, without any more hesitation, sealed his hand to Stain's.
--
Green lightning flashed all around Izuku and he felt alive as he jumped from building to building, dodging the hero's attacks with ease.
Today they were fighting the 'hero' Nightfall and her quirk was simple: she could control day and night, making it night when she wanted it to be and day with the same effortless wave of her hand.
Stain and Izuku had made her the next target when she had, in one of her recent battles, decisively ignored a bleeding man calling her name, in favor of receiving her fans and paparazzi instead.
No one at the scene had seen how she walked right past the yelling man, giving him just one fleeting look before walking off, but Stain and Izuku had noticed well enough, giving each other just one simple nod of acknowledgement before starting their chase.
She was fast, her dark cloak floundering behind her, seemingly struggling to keep up in her haste to get away from Izuku.
However, what she did not seem to notice was how Izuku never truly attacked her, instead he just simply chased her, and she was so riled up that she didn't see how she was being herded.
Then when he chased her to the meeting point: an abandoned neighborhood consisting of ruins, he simply stopped, dropping down into the alleyway that he'd chased her through, blocking her way out.
She came to a sudden halt when she finally noticed that Izuku was no longer after her, ruins of buildings cracking under her feet, dissolving into ash as she looked around in a frenzy.
"Show yourself!" Her panic was tangible in the air, practically swirling around her in desperate circles.
"Very well," Stain's voice boomed through the empty space as he seamlessly dropped down from a scorched building.
"Say, Deku, I think you should take this one on, don't you agree?"
"Sure, she seems easy enough."
Stain grinned widely at him. "My thoughts exactly."
All it took was one more smile from Izuku before he shot himself across the empty space, heading straight for Nightfall.
She, in turn, dodged him, but barely, as he landed on his own two feet, letting himself slide across the ash left behind by burned buildings, smiling, he cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders back and forth a few times, before focusing his lightning on his left arm and both of his feet.
"Now it's on," he simply stated.
He snapped the fingers of his left arm and let the lightning go, blasting it concentratedly at Nightfall in one large burst, while simultaneously firing himself up into the air, powered by the lightning from his feet.
Nightfall was clearly hit by the lightning in her chest as she fell backward from the strike. She didn’t even have the time to notice how Izuku had jumped up onto a building.
Silently Izuku leapt from building to building as she let out a string of rather loud curses while trying to recollect herself from his sudden attack. Izuku had her right where he wanted her as he went to stand onto a building directly behind her, watching Stain smirk at him from the shadows.
Izuku surrounded himself with lightning again, the sound of the crackle having Nightfall turn around wide-eyed.
And then, before she could do anything in retaliation, Izuku fired himself at her, launching himself across the ashy plane and straight for her upper body. He grabbed her shoulders tightly, basically doing a handstand on them, his arms strung tightly on both sides of her face. Quickly he focused all of his energy on his feet, making them ready for his next attack.
He gave her a small smile, and before she could do anything apart from widen her eyes even more, he swung his feet downward, launching the green lightning right into her heart, creating a c-shape with his body and using her for support.
Then fluidly he jumped backward, doing a head roll on air and landing calmly on his feet, while she fell backward onto the ash below.
As he took a few careful steps forward he saw how she was completely unmoving, her eyes dull and her mouth agape, chest no longer rising.
"You did amazingly kid, I'm proud of you," Stain said from Izuku's side, his voice loud in the gray silence around them.
Izuku smiled up at him, no remorse. "I know."