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In a dark, cold, isolated police holding room there are four people. One is pale with gaunt cheekbones and dark circles. His hair is tangled and matted with blood and sweat. He sits hunched over and looking down- hiding the speckles of blood on his face from all who spectates. It shows genuinely why he was there with chafed wrists from the handcuffs. One leg is bouncing showing all who would pay attention that he was restless or nervous. One man sits across from him. His head held high but his eyes showed how exhausted he was. Brown short hair clearly shows their own restlessness. Papers splayed out in front of him and an already cooling coffee in his hands. He leaned forward and pressed a button on the tape recorder. It clicked and he began. The other two stood behind one-way glass. In the darkroom, they watch with bated breath and clenched jaws. They both once knew the boy in handcuffs. And they both failed him.
“My name is Detective Tsukauchi. I will be conducting your interrogation. Due to protocol, I must announce that I have a lie-detector quirk. I will be able to tell when you lie. This will also be recorded for later use. Do you have any questions or concerns before we start?” He started with the mandatory introduction for the interview. He was met with silence for a few moments. Just as he was about to speak again, he was interrupted.
A deep raspy voice spoke. “It wasn’t meant to happen like this.”
“I’m sure.” Tsukauchi has heard that excuse used quite a bit in his career. “Now, you mentioned fantasies in earlier escapades. They started...a year ago? Two? When?”
“One-year ago.” He clears his throat and leans forward to rest his head on his cuffed hands for a mere moment. “They start the same. It’s always the same thing.”
Tsukauchi quirks a brow and takes a moment to take a sip of the cold coffee. He’ll have to bribe Shouta to get another one for him after this. “And how do they play out, Mr. Midoriya?”
The man now known as Midoriya to anyone who could be watching pauses all signs of movement. His breath, his leg, and the subtle twitches of his fingers. Izuku raises his head revealing empty, cold, pale green eyes. So different than the vibrant emerald they used to be. They weirdly contrast with the dried blood on his face. Some sort of twisted person would even say he was beautiful covered in blood like this. Midoriya, or should they say Deku, meets Tsukauchi's eyes and slowly smiles. Not one of his sunshine smiles the people behind the glass knew him just a year ago. It was broken but held some sick emotion. The dark-haired male will forever deny the tear that slipped from his last working eye as he realized his former student was truly gone. The frail blonde man watched on as his successor fell out of his hands completely. His enemy had finally won the war. They just didn’t know how.
“I prepare for immolation,” Izuku removes his eyes from the detectives and instead stares into a dark corner of the room. “I’m calm because I know the truth. I know what’s ahead and I know no one can stop me. Including myself.”
Tsukauchi narrows his eyes at Midoriya intrigued with his choice of words. The men behind the glass also notice the strange choice of words. “Do you target the people who have wronged you?”
Izuku’s eyes wrinkle in silent laughter and he turns back to stare at Tsukauchi. “You have it all wrong, dear Tsuki. It’s the people I like.” Izuku holds prolonged eye contact, a slowly growing closed mouth smile adorns his face. It looks almost...pained. His eyes seem to be unfocused as if remembering a moment in the past. “And I happen to like you heroes quite a bit.”
Midoriya stands at the edge of a cliff. Staring out not acknowledging the people around him until he’s brought up in the conversation. A blonde-haired female at his side turns to him, “Wait Deku, you knew him? Personally?”
“I knew all of them,” he murmured. He stared at the city laying in front of them. Blood bathed almost every surface. The fire raged and consumed everything it could take. Heroes rushed around trying to save what they swore to protect. They lied and failed like they always did. He ignored the loud brash voice of a certain hero that was screaming with heartbreak true in his voice for him. "At least, I think I did. Once. A long time ago.”
“What were they like?”
Some crumpled copy of a smile crossed his face. “They were going to change the world.” The words “and I was supposed to help them” go unsaid but they both know the truth. He was supposed to be a hero hand in hand with another but something changed. Only Deku knew what.
Midoriya seems to come back to himself and continues to speak, “Some of them begged for mercy. Some of them begged for me. The one they once knew. That boy they thought was their friend never existed in their timeline. He died before I even knew he existed........I don’t feel sad.......I don’t feel anything,” Tsukauchi briefly notes that the last part was a lie as the one across from him chuckles as if in amusement. “It’s a dirty corrupt world we live in and honestly, I’m helping them. Helping to take them away from the dirt and lies and the vomit that runs the streets. I’m helping to take them somewhere clean....and kind. Somewhere where society does not destroy the hopes of little children.” Izuku smiles. It’s a sad sort of smile. The one you see at funerals on the faces of the families that are remembering their loved ones. Tsukauchi wonders if this person in front of did lose someone. Someone other than himself.
“It’s time everyone goes to that place Tsukauchi.”
And around them, the world burned.
And alarms blared.
----
The hand gripping his throat pressed harder against his neck and quirks shifted under the surface of their skin. “You will do it for him or the one you love will die in front of your own eyes and you would not be able to do or say anything.”
His eyes shed a single tear as they met theirs. He shakily took in what oxygen he could. “Yes.”
His eyes rolled back and he was no longer in control.