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It was supposed to be a normal day on patrol, Katsuki had been a rookie hero for about four months now. He had joined the Best Jeanist agency right out of UA, started to make a name for himself in Tokyo. He had just caught a purse snatcher in a random back ally when he saw it, the missing person poster.
Three years is a long time, but Katsuki still remembers it as if it were yesterday. It was within the days after Kamino Ward, after All Might revealed his smaller form.
The shitty nerd never made it home from the hospital.
They had found his escort, two officers dead in an ally, but he was gone without a trace.
Katsuki remembers Auntie Inko's wails over the phone when she told his mother the news. It was the last time he heard her voice not coming from the TV.
The first few months after Deku was declared missing was a blur, his face was everywhere. The news, social media, and flyers just like the one in front of him now.
Katsuki ripped it off the wall to get a look at it. It was his school ID picture; messy green curls, stupid freckles, stupid grin, green eyes full of hope, and his fucking tie. He knew his old man taught both him and Deku how to tie their own ties when they were children, right before middle school. His father was always more patient with Deku. His parents always joked that Deku was the nice, kind son they never had.
“Shitty nerd,” he muttered as he folded the ripped flyer and stuck it in one of the pouches on his belt.
When Katsuki got back to the agency he fell into his desk chair, seeing that flyer brought up memories that he wanted to forget. As he emptied his pockets for the day he found the flyer from earlier. As he unfolded it, to get one last look at the shitty nerd before he threw it out, all the screens in the agency went dark.
When they came back on, Katsuki felt as if his blood had been replaced with liquid nitrogen. Messy green curls, stupid freckles, stupid grin, but the green eyes were no longer full of hope. They were dark, and they promised revenge. Revenge on a society that had failed him.
As Katsuki looked from the screen to the flyer in his hand his voice came from the TV.
“Hello Japan, did you miss me?” As suddenly as Deku appeared he disappeared, and as the screens went dark so too did all the lights around him. As Katsuki looked out the windows he watched with growing horror as all of Tokyo went dark. He had hoped he would see Deku again one day, but not like this.