Swinging light fixtures flickered like their bulbs threatened to burst at any given moment. The slowly dying glow was all that illuminated a windowless hallway. A soft hum from the stressed bulbs echoed and bounced off of concrete walls. Its eerie atmosphere seemed to mix well with the tapping of shoes on the floor. The enclosed space became claustrophobic for whoever dared to follow it. Everything had been articulately crafted into a fear factor, and it was paying off.
A pro hero well suited for the dark ventured down the corridor, cautiously watching his footing and keeping observant. His quirk was strengthened by the environment, but he had to remain on guard. A villain reportedly informed the authorities that they had taken children captive. A hostage situation immediately developed and the evil doer responsible for it all specifically requested Tsukuyomi. The villain made sure to warn the Japanese police force about disobeying and moving in themselves, or worse, sending a different hero to interfere. If Tsukuyomi hadn't shown up, one of the kids would have been executed. This villain was truly a monster, willing to do anything to achieve their goals.
Fumikage Tokoyami had given in to the criminal's demands and currently seeked to negotiate for the freedom of their hostages. Aside from the cloak draping from his shoulders, Tsukuyomi covered himself with Black Ankh. His quirk, Dark Shadow, shrouded its user like a suit of armor. The general shape of a bird's head still glowered as he strolled down the hallway. His prowess didn't seem to sense the kidnapped children, making the mission ever more dangerous.
Tokoyami eventually reached a foyer, the concrete surfaces were covered by metal sheeting in this new sector of the building. The change of scenery also accounted for its lighting, it all looked like one small abyss. Fumikage warily stepped forward, the tapping on a hard surface now transitioning into clacking. The only noise in the darkness was Tokoyami's feet touching the metallic flooring. Dark Shadow started becoming restless, forcing Fumikage to recite his mantra. "Revelry in the dark.. Revelry in the dark..", Tsukuyomi's self assuring whispers were drowned out by a large clang. The hero spun around and prepared to strike at what could potentially be an enemy.
Fumikage's eyes finally adjusted to the darkness and he saw that there was nothing waiting behind him. He had accidentally bumped into what looked like a workstation, the table was made of metallic alloy as well. The desk space looked to be littered by several blueprints and journals filled with notes. Each handbook contained detailed descriptions of other pro heroes, making Tokoyami feel a sense of dread. An almanac in the center then caught Tsukuyomi's eye, it too contained notes about a hero.. about him.
Fumikage began to hyperventilate as he read the notations covering his identity, family, skills, weaknesses. Whoever wrote in the journal was clearly a stalker, but that wasn't all, the entry included a plan on how to kill Tsukuyomi. Tokoyami let a shocked gasp escape from the mouth of his beak, he read the scheme and finally understood why the villain had specifically requested for him of all people. His eyes fell onto one of the blueprints, it had markings and additional notes, which meant it was the same one he read about in the journal. "I have to get out of here!", the hero exclaimed. It was far too late for that.
A massive array of flashing strobe lights activated at that exact moment, blinding Fumikage. The sudden shift in lighting had not only damaged his eyesight, but it caught him off guard. Dark Shadow hissed and receded, removing the Black Ankh exoskeleton. Light was Tokoyami's weakness, and the villain knew that. A sense of urgency overcame Fumikage as he tried reaching out for the workstation, hoping he could at least balance himself in the blinding flashes. Instead of feeling the cold hard touch of a metal desk, he felt a smooth and soft fabric.. he wasn't alone anymore.
The villain responsible for this trap suddenly caught Fumikage's jaw with an uppercut. Tokoyami felt something warm leaking from the sharp pain in his mouth, blood began trickling down his beak. The hero tried defending himself by shielding his face with his arms. The villain hidden by the bright light array took this as an opportunity to jab at the unprotected gut of Tsukuyomi. The assault didn't stop there, a hard kick to the back of Fumikage's shin brought the hero to his knees. An elbow plowed into the back of Tokoyami's feather covered head, probably giving him a small concussion. The beat down was ruthless as swift kicks to the hero's side knocked the wind out of him.
Tsukuyomi could have reached for the device attached to his utility belt. The hero's personal gadget maker, Mei Hatsume, had invented a tool that could send distress signals to other heroes. If a battle ever became too overwhelming, he and others could send an S.O.S. However, Tokoyami knew that wouldn't work in this special case. The villain had prepared for that, it seemed the evil mastermind had every possible contingency set in place. The metal sheeting Fumikage was currently sprawled across, the blueprints he saw, it was all for a giant Faraday Cage. It was a grounded metal screen surrounding the entire room to exclude electrostatic and electromagnetic influences. Basically, no signals could be sent in or out of this specific location. His cellphone, his gadgets, anything electronic wouldn't be of any advantage. On top of that, his quirk was basically nonexistent thanks to the strobe light trap. He'd been rendered useless.
"That worked out better than I'd expected.", a voice that could only belong to the villain spoke up. His cheerfully relieved statement was followed by a thrilled laughter. Their pitch sounded distorted and turned the cachinnation into a delusional hyena's cackling. Fumikage narrowed his eyes to see through the bright field and noticed the person's face was concealed by a mouth piece shaped into a grin to resemble sharp teeth. Their eyes were currently also covered, most likely to remain unaffected by the blinding light. Tokoyami stared into the pitch black lenses of what looked like welder's goggles.
"Wh- What are you going to do to me?", Fumikage squawked through a strained voice. He spat another mouth full of blood out after gargling it to help with the raspy feeling in his throat. His whole body was in agony and incapable of moving, the beating he received had been quite severe.
The villain chuckled like the hero had made a joke. "Nothing more than I've already done.", the evildoer plucked one of Tsukuyomi's feathers while responding. Tokoyami grunted with a flinch of pain, making the laugh from his tormentor more drawn out. "I bet you feel pretty useless right about now. To feel powerless.. quirkless.. It must be quite insufferable. You were over reliant on 'Dark Shadow' and that's why you lost. It's okay though, I understand, I used to think just like you. I thought quirks made people indestructible, that heroes were unstoppable. Then I noticed something painfully obvious. All quirks have their drawbacks.", the villain taunted Tsukuyomi during his monologue.
"Why.. Why do this?", Fumikage could barely rasp out his question. His eyes began to slowly get used to the bright setting he had been lured into. The villain's appearance became more clear in the glowing atmosphere. Messy green hair matched the color of the dress shirt he wore beneath a black waistcoat. The villain's black khakis were stained by specks of blood much like the bruised knuckles that were used to inflict harm on Tokoyami. Before Tsukuyomi could stare any longer, his face was slammed into the hard surface beneath him. Fumikage cried out in pain as it was scraped along the metal, the evildoer was dragging him by the feathers.
"Why? Why? Why? You're asking me why? That couldn't be more cliché if you tried! Don't pretend to care, it only pisses me off that you're JUST NOW showing concern when it means your life is at risk. You're no different from the rest of them.", an irate voice burned into Tokoyami's ears louder than Present Mic would be capable of managing.
Fumikage could only manage a pained moan in response before slumping further into the floor. The villain sighed in frustration before regaining his composure. The previously furious man suddenly looked just as sane as any calm & collected individual. He began to stroll towards the exit with his hands tucked into his pockets, acting casual. Tokoyami wondered if that was all the villain wanted, if his suffering was finally over. Fumikage had been humiliated and failed as a hero. The monstrous menace stopped his waltz and looked over his shoulder to bid a farewell. It wasn't over.
"If it's any consolation, there was never really any hostages, much less children. That was all just a ploy, a simple ruse to get you here. Not that heroes ever cared for kids in desperate need of help..", the revelation was a small comfort for Tokoyami. The hero hadn't failed to rescue this villain's captives, he had been the only victim. Fumikage was grateful for that in the end.
As the final part of the villain's blueprint proved to be true, Tokoyami reminisced on his past. The flashing of strobe lights twinkled across his eyes along with his life. He had been ridiculed by cruel children while growing up, his dark themed quirk had been considered one that a villain would use. Fumikage felt a small smile twitch at his beak as he recalled going to the most prestige hero school in Japan, he'd gone to U.A and passed. Tokoyami proved all those people wrong and became the pro hero called Tsukuyomi.
Time ticked by with the bomb's countdown, Fumikage didn't know how much time he had left, but it felt like enough. He got to experience what it was like to fall in love. Tokoyami made a silent apology to Tsuyu, he wouldn't be coming home to his wife tonight, or ever again. He wouldn't get to see her smile in person anymore, all he could do was imagine how much joy it gave him. Her beauty was etched into Fumikage's mind like a perfect painting. He would miss her, and she would miss him.
The detonation was bound to happen any second now, he had enough time to appreciate one last thing. The friends that he had made, the ones that accepted him despite his quirk. Hitoshi Shinso had empathized with Fumikage since his brainwashing quirk had also been ridiculed. Mezo Shoji had a quirk that altered his appearance and often scared people, he too could empathize with 'Dark Shadow'. Shoto Todoroki had shaken his hand countless times, one of the most powerful heroes respected him. He was thankful for getting to experience another beloved culture of life.
Yes, maybe dying now wasn't so bad. He would embrace the explosion that was set to go off in five seconds. Tokoyami would find revelry in the dark that would follow his death. He would die with a smile, the expression that served as the symbol of peace. He opened his eyes and watched as the countdown hit the three second mark. "I love you, Tsuyu.", he forced himself to speak his final words. Then, the room combusted with the bomb's detonation.
Fire engulfed the entire building before it toppled, burning debris rained down and the place was reduced to rubble. Onlookers screamed and looked on in horror, their gawking mouths getting filled by the ash. Police tried to push back the coughing and gagging spectators, replying with choking fits of their own. It was an unholy sight as firefighters desperately worked to extinguish the flames and paramedics shifted through what remained of the building in search of survivors.
Only the remains of Fumikage Tokoyami's body had been found. As far as anyone knew, the villain responsible had either killed the children or kept them as future leverage. It was a dreaded night that would be remembered by all of Japan.
Tsukuyomi was marked as the first victim of 'The Hero Hunter'.
Many feared he wouldn't be the last, and some pros had even retired out of fear. Only the vengeful few dared to take the case and willingly challenge the villain. Tsuyu wanted to avenge her husband while his grieving friends wholeheartedly agreed to help.
Everyone was regrouping in recovery from the incident. Everyone.
"Way to draw attention to yourself, you dumb nerd.", a blonde teen criticized the hero hunter's actions. "I thought you were supposed to be smart.", the insults and taunts were never ending. An aggravated villain listened to them all and angrily threw his mouth piece at the wall. The adolescent bully found glee from this and burst into mocking laughter.
"Shut up, Kacchan, shut up!", the green haired evildoer had no comeback for the teenager in his base of operations. The blonde boy had an appearance that resembled something villainous more than the actual bad guy. 'Kacchan' wore a skintight suit that made him look like a living grenade, the tactical outfit made him have an appearance that felt extremely dangerous.
"They'll be looking for you now. It's gonna be harder to pull off your shitty schemes. Are you sure you're ready to deal with that, Deku?", that struck a nerve in the villain. The hero hunter grabbed the nearest object, a coffee mug, and threw it at the blonde bully. 'Kacchan' side stepped and easily dodged the item that shattered on impact with a wall. "And you told ME to watch my temper..", the living grenade had a smug grin in reaction to his own joke.
"Don't ever call me that name ever again.", the low growl from the hero hunter held every fiber of a threat. Katsuki Bakugo had been childhood friends with the villain, the two referred to one another by the nicknames they had given eachother. The blonde named Bakugo was called 'Kacchan', and Izuku Midoriya was mocked by the title 'Deku'. The nickname was a cruel way to shorten Izuku and read it as 'useless'. Midoriya had been called worthless and weak due to his rare case of being quirkless. 'Deku' was just a constant reminder of that.
"It's better than 'Hero Hunter'..", Bakugo scoffed. "Seriously, you got the lamest name as a villain. Weren't you going to dub yourself as 'Archive' or something stupid like that?", Katsuki crossed his arms expectantly of Izuku's answer.
"I don't really care, Kacchan, just leave me alone while I work..", Midoriya tried waving off the blonde and walking away. As always, Bakugo was waiting for him at the desk in which all plans to kill heroes were formulated. "Why can't you just leave me alone?!", Izuku shouted in aggravation. Katsuki's berating comments were always there to welcome the villain back, and he was getting sick of it.
"You know why.", was the only response Bakugo offered. Katsuki's smug grin grew wider as Izuku hung his head, Midoriya already knew the answer.
"Because.. you're not real."
When Izuku looked back up, the hallucination of his former friend was gone.
…
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
First of all, welcome to this story: World So Cold!
As you can tell, it's an AU oriented around the idea of a 'Villain Deku'.
This particular version of 'Evil Deku' is QUIRKLESS and will strictly remain quirkless.
Another thing I'd like to point out, is the reason behind this story's title. I was listening to the song by 12 Stones – World So Cold, and the lyrics really felt like they applied to the Villain Deku concept. If you haven't listened to that, I highly recommend you do so.
Then there's my shameless plugging. If you like the concept of a quirkless Izuku taking on the world, you might like my other story revolving around the 'Vigilante Deku' concept. It's literally called Quirkless!
Last, but certainly not least: please leave a review! I love reading your reviews and will personally reply to them! They can be positive or negative, feedback is always appreciated and I'll work to improve my writing that way. I've been known to even cater to fan requests in my previous stories, so you can always run something by me.
Okay, I don't think it's even possible to ramble on more than I already have. That being said, I hope to see you all next time in Chapter Two!
~MentalMind