Notes!:

I really can't write in English so this super cool user, TheHellAccount, translated my oneshot XD Thank you so much, you're awesome ;_;

If anyone wants to read incredible fanfics from TheHellAccount, you can find the author in AO3 with the same username :)

Notes2:

This is an AU that diverges from the original story (by a lot) and there are references to the deaths of certain characters. The plot revolves around Evil!Deku.

Heroes Shouldn't Exist

At some point, his path had changed. Or simply that path had never been for him.

The fact of the matter was that he was only destined to be a simple and ordinary human. However, couldn't he at least try? To be a hero that saved the world, a worthy heir to All Might. It was a ridiculous goal, he knew, but it was what motivated him to keep going forward every day.

Still, life had repeated, over and over again, with a weary and raspy voice that crept into his very soul, to give up hope. His life, just like his ambitions, ended up on the other side of the balance.

What did this mean?

It was something very simple, really. It meant accepting who he really was. He discovered it the day that a villain attacked Katsuki. When he saw his friend trapped, he didn't do anything to stop it. Of course, he was a child and was terrified but all he could do was call for a hero to save them. He didn't even try helping him and he knew exactly the reason why. Or at least everything was clear to him.

Seeing Bakugou helpless, this boy who had tormented him for years, calling him weak and damned scum, filled him with a joy much more intense than anything else he had ever experienced. Seeing how the boy lost to a being much stronger than him, seeing his lungs cry out for oxygen and the overwhelming desperation in his eyes, was utterly freeing. And entertaining. He could have watched it for the rest of his life without losing even a little bit of interest.

However, All Might eventually arrived and all Midoriya had to do was take those thoughts and hide them away in the darkness. Darkness that only All Might could light up. The hero, after defeating the villain, thanked Izuku for calling for help. The green haired boy smiled and told All Might that he'd been a fan since he was little. The hero thanked him and left, leaving the boy with a bitter taste in his mouth.

In the end, not even his hero could have known that Izuku desperately needed his help to prevent the darkness he had just discovered from devouring him completely.

After that incident, he thought that Bakugou had figured out on some level what had happened. Until the day of the UA entrance exam, the blond didn't bother him anymore, not even with those hateful words. All of it had been reduced to one or two uncomfortable looks and something almost like disappointment. But that wasn't important anymore. Neither All Might nor Bakugou could taste the powerlessness of knowing that they would never realize their dreams, that they weren't destined for greatness and had to content themselves with a plain and stupid life. How could they understand that if they had been privileged from the moment they were born?

Eventually, he had to pick a school. It was unbearable.

A while ago, maybe since the incident, a question took shape in his head and made him lose his mind at times, but now it attacked him mercilessly.

He hadn't left his room for days, not pulling back the curtains of his room or even touching the food his mother left for him in the door. That idea consumed him with such strength that for a moment he was afraid of himself.

If I can't be a hero, why should anyone else be?

Because of that question, resentment started to invade Izuku's heart. It was gradual, so much so that he didn't even realize how far he had moved away from being a hero. The first thing he did was get rid of his application to UA. There was no point and, truth be told, he felt much better after burning those thin pieces of paper and scattering them to the wind. He no longer found himself bound with invisible chains to a destiny he had forced himself to achieve.

Heroes shouldn't exist.

That phrase had been born in his mind naturally. It was so certain for him that it became his drive to change the world. From that day forward, he dedicated himself to eradicating heroes from the planet.

He started to draw up his plans. The first thing he need to do was to figure out how the bodies of heroes functioned. Abilities, weak points, ability to recover, everything. First he would figure out everything about them. Then, if he was prepared enough, he would be able to destroy them.

The path wasn't easy. He had to study medicine, keep filling his notebooks and try to discover what it was that conferred powers to the heroes. Seven long years of watching Bakugou become Number One. The defeat of All Might, the villains that tried to kill off the remaining heroes; the number two hero, Todoroki Shouto, creating an invincible team with the blond. Sometimes, Izuku had to turn off the television and try not to destroy his entire room. He was furious that the heroes were so… so much like him, before his dream was destroyed.

One day, Shigaraki Tomura decided to talk to him. It wasn't a long chat. Shigaraki had somehow found out about how much he hated the heroes and Shigaraki's sensei wanted him to help them. Izuku accepted without hesitation. He had more chances to reach his goals if he was on the right side. His side of the balance.

He met this individual, a person that had become too greedy but the hatred for All Might (or what remained of him, since he was now just a man who looked more dead than alive) was something they had in common. Sensei was delighted with his work. He let him be and didn't ask even once what he did with those heroes that they captured (it wasn't as if Midoriya would want to reveal anything of the experiments that he did) but their relationship, such as it was, worked well that way.

Izuku, with the passage of time, felt more at ease with them. For once, he even believed that he had finally found his place in the world. He was close to finding a way to neutralize quirks and worked without rest for weeks. In that time, Sensei only asked for him once.

Even though he had the impression that Sensei thought a bit more highly of him than the rest, the walk to his room always made him nervous. Tomura had once mentioned something like "Don't think you're special" and although he wanted to just let it be, he swore to himself that after he finished off the heroes, Tomura would be next on the list. There was no escaping it, every day that he passed glued to his books, notes, formulas, and cadavers, had changed his soul. No one could ever tell him again that he was less, not even Kacchan or Tomura, if everyone lost their quirks and ended up being ordinary humans just like him.

In spite of the initial fear, Sensei demonstrated the same equanimity as ever. Behind his old wooden desk, with nothing more than a hard chair so that he could sit, Sensei asked his usual questions and Midoriya responded with the same calm as ever.

"Can you replicate it?"

"Yes, but I only have one or two for each one of us," Midoriya replied.

"That's more than enough. Now, Midoriya, someone has been investigating you."

"Do they know I'm here?" Midoriya asked, visibly upset. Had his residencies in medical school gone on for too long? Had his mother maybe asked after him in the hospital and been told that he hadn't been on call in weeks?

"No," responded Sensei. "But the time of our battle is getting closer and I believe they won't take long to find you."

"What does that mean?"

"It's interesting, really. The person investigating you is your friend Bakugou and I know that you would be delighted to help us capture him to use in your new experiments. Besides…"

"Bakugou? Are you sure?" Midoriya interrupted. He had never been able to imagine that that person would suspect him. Wasn't he just an insect? Had he not been given the nickname Deku for that same reason? He felt himself grinding his teeth and clenching his fists hard. Bakugou ruined everything, he had made him what he was. And now Bakugou was hunting him? It was a tasteless damned joke.

All For One waited for the boy to calm down. To tell the truth, he found all of it amusing. Izuku's friend hadn't been the cause of his decisions. Izuku himself, aware of what kind of scum he was, had taken on hatred and resentment of the world. Even then, he was delighted by the way Izuku forced himself to blame someone for his own decisions. Hatred in its most pure state, self hatred dumped onto someone else, was something he had only seen a few times. He gave himself the luxury of laughing under his breath. Midoriya was too entertaining.

"Now, there's something else you should know," said his Sensei when he noted that Izuku was calmer. "As you know, I have the ability to confer quirks to people. My question is: would you be inclined to receive one?"

"Me?" He'd asked Midoriya a stupid question. A quirk? He didn't want a quirk, not anymore. He didn't want to save anyone, he wanted to destroy everyone who was a hero thanks to a quirk.

"No." With more confidence than ever, Midoriya responded to the man in front of him. "I can't turn myself into something I want to destroy."

"You never would have been able to be a hero," the man asserted, laughing under his breath.

"When I finish off the heroes, the villains are next," Midoriya warned, looking at his sensei. "And when I'm done with you, I'll do it to everyone else with a quirk. And if when I'm done, I'm the only one left on the planet, that would be…"

All For One assessed that argument. Nevertheless, the idea seemed to him like more of a challenge.

He was delighted.

"That seems fair, Midoriya. Now you should go and catch this Bakugou."

The boy got up from his seat and went to the exit. He didn't have anything left to discuss.

Catching Bakugou was easier than he thought it would be.

Midoriya didn't go to the laboratory for weeks. He went about his life as a medical student and every day was boring and monotonous. Opening wounds, cutting skin and bones, prescribing medicine and evaluating patients wasn't enough anymore. The expressions of his patients were hopeful. The expressions of his experiment subjects were totally terrified. He missed those expressions.

He missed the way they writhed with each injection, the coloration that their skin took on when the lethal liquid spread through their veins and the lovely screams that left their mouths before they were sealed forever. However, he did it for a greater good. When he could sleep (something that was very difficult) he imagined Bakugou's face deformed by pain, with tears running down his cheeks, teeth clenched trying not to scream and, more than anything else, the hatred in his eyes.

One day, he was finally able to see Katsuki. Midoriya was eating in the hospital cafeteria. He had just come off of a relatively long shift, so he was tired and very bored.

"Deku," he heard someone say. Instinctively, he lifted his gaze to see his childhood friend, who was standing in front of him.

"Kacchan, what a surprise," he commented and looked back down to eat the ramen he had just bought. For a second, he savored the victory.

"DEKU!" Despite the fact that he'd known him for years, he didn't explode everything around him. A big improvement for him. Still, he struck the metal table hard enough that Izuku's bowl spilled the food all over the table and floor. Midoriya, expecting much more than a simple blow, had already stood up to avoid staining his uniform.

"Bakugou, this is a hospital. If you can't stay calm, I'll ask for some of your friends to come pick you up," Midoriya threatened. For the first time, he felt in control of the situation and it delighted him. He observed how Bakugou went from being irritated to something calmer. "I need to talk to you," he said, looking around. "Alone, if that's possible."

"I know a place."

"Whatever it is will be fine."

Everything was so perfect that Midoriya almost had a fit of laughter.

Midoriya drove him to his favorite bar. Obviously, it was in the opposite direction from where he had his laboratory. Katsuki watched everything carefully, trying to remember every alley, every store and building to make sure that he would be able to return and do his investigations. How much had he underestimated Midoriya to think that he would give him all the information so easily?

"Are we going to your lousy apartment?"

"The neighborhood is horrible, I know. College is expensive so this is the only place I can afford. And we're not going there, but somewhere more interesting," Midoriya replied. "Ah, in fact, we're here." Izuku turned left, down an alley with nothing but a single red wooden door at the end of it. There were foul smelling trash cans off to the sides of it, and since it was an alley surrounded by ridiculously tall old buildings, the place was illuminated only by its fluorescent sign and a dirty streetlight that had been put there no one knew how many years before.

"Red? What an original name," Bakugou commented. As always, making fun of everything. "You can't believe I'm gonna go in there."

"No one is forcing you. But I have to tell you something: I know that you've been asking questions about me. I don't know how long and the truth is that I don't care. However, there are one or two responses that are rather interesting in here." Midoriya opened the door and held it open for the blond to go first. "After you."

Bakugou thought about it for a few seconds. He still had trouble believing that the green haired boy was his only lead, which meant that in reality he didn't have a choice. "Idiot," the blond commented as he entered hurriedly.

The bar, just like the alley that it was found in, was almost completely dark. There was a bar off to the right where men in ragged clothes drank from bottles that were probably illegal. To his left, there were a series of dusty tables that were so close together that it was hard to move around. Still, as if Izuku ruled in these places, he moved between the tables and sat at one of the ones in the corner. It was far enough away from everything else that no one would be able to hear what they talked about there.

"What do you have to tell me, Bakugou Katsuki?" Midoriya asked as he placed his elbows on the table and rested his head on both his hands.

"What are you planning, Deku?" Bakugou spat without even stopping to evaluate the situation.

Midoriya laughed softly. Bakugou underestimated him. And he was ahead of him. Who had guaranteed that the boy didn't have a trap made especially for him?

"You know, these last few days, I've been very busy. The shifts at school, my mom who you know has a touch of paranoia…"

"Your mother says you smell like death," the blond interrupted, watching him intently.

Izuku rolled his eyes. It was a rather subjective and stupid remark.

"And she also said that she didn't want to see me in her "home" and those first few days the house was full of police. She forced me to life in a neighborhood like this and doesn't want me around. But that isn't what I wanted to get to."

"Are you going to maybe one day get to the part where every patient you treat ends up being kidnapped or even worse, abandoned as a sack of bones in some city garbage dump? Who do you work for, Deku?" Bakugou asked, his voice gradually rising until the few customers in the bar looked in his direction.

"Bakugou, I'm only going to warn you once: if you don't let me finish, your investigation ends here. Maybe you put me in jail, but I won't say anything. So I recommend that you lower your voice and listen for once in your life." Midoriya felt the hatred grow inside him. He had to control it. There was a place to let it go free, but this wasn't the moment. The blond, completely taken aback, returned to his seat.

"Thank you." Izuku obviously didn't apologize much so his thanks sounded dry and devoid of emotion. "Your damned nonsense is making me thirsty." He turned toward where the person in charge was and signalled for a bottle. A few seconds later the bartender placed that bottle and two glasses in front of them without saying a word.

"I don't drink."

"You will," Izuku said, pouring out the contents of the bottle into the two glasses. "You need a strong stomach." Izuku, seeing the blond's indecision, decided to calm him down a little bit. "It's not poisoned, the glasses are clean, and the bottle is completely sealed. If you care to know, this is the only place where they can sell stolen alcohol in the surrounding area."

"Who would have thought that little Izuku could be a bad guy?" Bakugou commented sarcastically and drank until he emptied his glass.

"First, can I ask you a question?" Midoriya asked, taking only a small sip of his drink. He felt a sense of wonder.

"Go on."

"Why did you come alone?"

Bakugou was surprised by the question. Why had he come alone? It had been years of not knowing anything about Izuku. In fact, the person in front of him was far from the same boy who aspired to be the hero that everyone longed for. Still, he was convinced that someone had given him money or some kind of influence for the information. Besides, if something happened, no matter how violent it was, he could handle it. Izuku was just a normal person.

"You know what I think?" Izuku commented without waiting to see if the blond would decide to respond. "That you still think I'm the same boy you used to know before, but in this you're mistaken Bakugou. I don't long to be like you. It irritates me to see your face over and over again in the news and if I could kill you now, I would."

Bakugou could only manage to laugh loudly. "Kill me? Are you insane? The only thing you could kill would be a cockroach, Deku. So tell me, who are you giving information about the heroes? Who is torturing them? Who are you working for?" Bakugou tried to get up from his spot, but he felt like his strength abandoned him shockingly fast.

"What…?" All the blonde could do was sit back down. The world started to spin around him and although he tried to keep his vision clear, he was unable to focus on anything.

"Before anything else, I have to confess something to you. Your drink was poisoned."

When Bakugou opened his eyes, he was met with a small, impossibly white room. He was lying down face up on the hard floor and when he tried to stand up, his strength abandoned him. He tried to remember what had happened, but after the conversation with Midoriya, his memory stopped cooperating. Sitting up on the white floor, he inspected his arms. They hurt too much and felt heavy and like they barely worked. There were bandages on each of them.

"Bandages," he repeated. There had been bandages on the corpses that the police had found. Alarmed, he took off the bandages as much as he could and examined his arms. The veins of his arms stood out horribly, colored yellow. That couldn't be blood. Besides, there were hundreds of pockmarks completely covering them from his shoulders to his wrists.

"What the hell?" Ignoring the nausea and weakness that he felt, he tried again to get up. When he had managed it, he knew he had to get out of there. He concentrated on his immediate surroundings and tried to activate his quirk.

Nothing.

He tried it again and again and again. The result was the same. Desperate, he shouted, hoping he would be heard.

"Deku! You piece of shit, what did you do!?"

He shouted until his lungs couldn't anymore and his throat begged for a break. He let himself fall to one knee. What was happening? He couldn't comprehend it. Deku had done this? How? How long had he been like this? Why couldn't he have predicted this earlier?

After hours, or what he thought was hours, he heard footsteps growing closer to him. Clack, clack, clack, he heard the sound of shoes hitting the floor. The footstops stopped and he heard the handle of the door open. He saw Deku on the other side of the door, smiling.

"I hope you didn't miss me too much…"

Katsuki, before the boy said anything else, rushed him. However, before he could get close, Izuku was already prepared for him. Trying to control his force, he hit Katsuki in the stomach, making the blond fall back.

"I'm sorry to tell you that you're so weak right now that I could defeat you over and over again. And I could become addicted to this," Izuku commented, closing the door behind himself.

"What did you do to me?" Bakugou shouted, using what little air remained in his lungs. He was curled into a ball, clutching his stomach. He felt as if his stomach had been split in two.

"Your mistake, Bakugou, was thinking that I was just a pawn. Think about it: who could find the best subjects for experimentation if not me, the same person that would use those bodies for my search?"

"I don't believe you. You're just… an ordinary human," Katsuki replied between small moans.

"That's your problem, you always underestimated me. And the other heroes too. Even so, there were some that treated me with respect. I remember the best was one named Kirishima. And then he was pulverized, did you know that? You, the hero that knows nothing of strategy jumped in recklessly and your friend had to go and save your ass."

"Don't say Kirishima's name! Don't say it!" The blond, using what little strength he had left, tried to get up but Izuku only needed to kick him in the face to make him behave again.

Katsuki felt the pain in every pore of his skin, but, he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing him scream in pain. Blood filled his mouth and he had to breath in intervals. For the first time in his life, he fell prey to fear.

"That's not important anymore. Tell me, hero," Izuku knelt at his side and and brushed the hair away from the boy's eyes. "What does it feel like to not have your quirk anymore? Oh, don't think it's going to return. I've taken it out of your blood… Literally."

His expression was fantastic. Izuku enjoyed how eyes filled with tears that he refused to let fall. His trembling lips tried to form some words, unsure if they wanted to beg for help or to try to tell him that it wasn't true.

But the blond already knew. His quirk had disappeared.

That face, marked by terror, was the best reward for the green haired boy.

Izuku stood up in spite of not wanting to do so. There were things to do and in reality he didn't have much time. He left the room and closed it with a key. Outside, Tomura was waiting for him.

"Are you going to leave him to rot there?"

Midoriya couldn't do more than laugh. "Come on. There's still things we need to do. And I can visit him every day if I want to."

That day, the world finally seemed to lean more towards his side of the balance.

–Fin–

N/A: that you so much for reading this oneshot!

If would be fantastic if you could leave a review, so I can improve my stories :D See ya!