"Just… Just leave me alone."

A smirk stretches across the mouth of a bully. A bully that's so blonde and so familiar even if familiarity is an understatement when it comes to someone like Bakugo Katsuki.

He snatched away a book that he knows that his former friend worked on since he'd been there to see Midoriya create the first of these books when the two had watched All-Might and Wolverine fight against Hydra on tv. Which was something most people would do without the note-taking. Bakugo held it out of reach with the threat of blowing it into kingdom come ever present upon his hands.

Cruelty without reason.

"You're such a bitch Deku! You're never gonna be a hero, why don't just kill yourself and get your miserable life over with?"

It would've been easy to respond to it all.

One stray slip of the glasses and Bakugo could...

Bakugo would be gone. Yet it's more the question that brings on the want to do that more than the person asking it. There's a whole mess of reasons as to why and when, but at this small moment, Izuku's just standing still waiting for it all to be over. Bakugo, unfortunately, doesn't seem to like that whatsoever.

"Nothing to say Deku?"

"Kacchan.."

Instantly Izuku's got his arms over his stomach. This time he hadn't seen how fast the punch had been, but it was still a familiar feeling. Weeks stretching to months stretching to years with only one decade being added on to it.

"Don't call me that."

Overt screeching and over the top smirking wiped away, now there's just a cold and blank look upon him. It's something Midoriya knows means that there isn't anything fun about this anymore. If anyone was going to remind the blonde Inhuman about his past it'd be only his parents, not some mutant without a family.

Except that wasn't quite true. Hisashi and Inko Midoriya may have gone the way of the Dodo, but it wasn't as if his brother were dead. They were just separated. Being adopted together was just a possibility that hadn't panned out in the end. Not that the initial adoption had been an end, but Izuku had been unfortunate enough to not be adopted by anyone. In private Izuku used to blame himself for it, for not being a good enough child, for not being a different race, for not being interesting enough for an Atlantean or Inhuman to care. That blame hadn't entirely faded away, but it wasn't at the forefront of his mind anymore.

The pain softened out slightly, leaving Midoriya with the ability to walk away instead of doubling over from the pain. Yet walking away wasn't what popped up in his head. Instead, he decided to try and get his hero notebook back. It wouldn't be an easy thing to do with Bakugo so volatile right now, but he might just drop it if he could back down enough for-

Boom

An explosion rattled through his notebook, leaving it in absolute tatters. With a single toss, it flew out the window and fell to the pond below. Luckily it wasn't ripping apart so it could probably be recovered. Probably being the operative word in this foolish little situation.

"You know what that is Deku? That's-"

"You."

Midoriya finished for him. He'd said it solemnly, yet still fast enough to cut off Bakugo. He had to blink at that, his sunglasses going from crimson to black and back to crimson as he did so. As if something snuck up out of him and decided to ring at the side of his brain he usually kept under lock and key when Bakugo was around.

If it weren't for the fist that landed on his face and cracked his sunglasses in two, he might've even tried a trite smile. Falling onto the floor with his eyes closed hard and a nose not quite together. Instantly his hands were over his closed eyes as the once defiant boy moved closer and closer to the foetal position.

A few students decided that at this point, it's time to go. There's not much else to see after a move like that, especially with the behaviour Midoriya is expressing.

Even with the small, infrequent whispers of "No." that Midoriya is stating not one of the other students thinks about how Midoriya feels. Bakugo stopped caring about that sort of thing a long time ago and the teacher at the front of the classroom goes back to looking through random sets of homework, not wanting to do anything to either child at the back of his class.

One last kick to Midoriya's stomach and Bakugo walks out. When Midoriya was in this state he wasn't able to do more than just inflict pain. Which he could do at any point in time.

After leaving, that teacher sighs and makes his way over to the sobbing boy on the floor. Rummaging through his yellow school bag and finding a spare pair of the tinted red rose-quartz sunglasses that Midoriya wore all the time. Though one thing the teacher hadn't noticed before was the small indentation of a few words on the inside of the case.

'Free Courtesy Of Stark-Fujikawa'

Philanthropists always were being unnecessarily kind to random people after all, so the teacher didn't take much note of it and had to yank one of Midoriya's hands from his face just to get the sunglasses in that hand. Luckily he hadn't the need to handhold the student as he put the protective eyewear on. The teacher didn't even look back as Midoriya slowly gathered up his stuff and walked out in something similar to a crawl.

Finding his hero notebook ashen and wet, Midoriya began looking through its contents as he walked under an overpass. Though he shut it in dismay instead of getting an actual look through it. Blinking at the blurb he must've written on the back, he was a little confused as to why he didn't remember writing it.

'Stepping up. It's a simple concept. It means to rise above yourself; to do a little more, to show that you can be something special.'

It seemed a little too inspirational but gurgle.

Gurgle?

Trying to speak brought only more pain as Midoriya's vision began to fill with some kind of gooey green substance. He could feel it smother every part of his body like a vice. Feeling it slip and slide down his throat and up his nose. Choking and spluttering him to a decision he'd never wanted to come to.

"Heh. That's it kid, no struggling."

Frantically he tried to move his arms up to his face, desperately clawing at his sunglasses with determination he wouldn't have been showing in any other situation.

"What did I just say you little shit? Stop with the damn struggling."

More force was put into restricting his movements as the green sludge went deep down his throat. Sliding past teeth and tongue, slinking through the windpipe like a snake. Spots of black dipping into his crimson vision.

This was it wasn't it? Death under an overpass.

He'd thought of dying before. Letting himself fall from atop a tower wondering if anyone would truly care if he did. Wondering whether or not Bakugo would even think about it after the fact. Though he knew the answer to that.

He wouldn't.

No one was going to care if he died right here and now. The orphanage staff had known him the longest, they'd wonder. But it wasn't as if children with no parents never went missing. Teachers wouldn't care, his classmates had already forgotten his name.

Izuku had mostly forgotten what his brother even looked like. Doubting that his brother had even retained that much.

Oh, Alex.

Alex Midoriya. It was an odd name, an American name. He wasn't even Alex Midoriya. It had been something odd that he hadn't wanted to remember last he had heard.

Alexander Midoriya-Kazuho. They hadn't spoken in years, no letters between them.

Yet that didn't mean that he was gone.

Which was why he had to live.

Biting down hard on the sludge still trying to move through his mouth, he'd essentially cut off a body part with such a violent stunt. Sending the sludge villain into an instant shock which allowed Izuku to have enough space to grab his glasses and throw them to the floor. Smashing them into tiny shards.

Transparent vibranium it was not.

In a brilliant flash of crimson the optic beams that shot from Midoriya's eyes came forth, blasting away parts of the green sludge before he turned around and finally saw the rest of its body standing and melting in a big ball of green. Letting the villain scream in pain as more and more parts of it were blasted into nothingness.

Before Midoriya could kill the villain, (an eventuality that Midoriya wasn't even considering at the moment) the part of it still inside of his body began to move. Getting Midoriya to shut his eyes as tiny portions of it began to try and stick together.

Soon enough Midoriya's body reacted as just as any human should as he vomited out the contents of his lunch along with the rest of the villainous sludge. Just as he heard loud booming footsteps, he kept his head down facing the swirling chunks of vomit and sludge as tendrils began to work their way through.

Was it a good idea to let this thing go on and hurt more people?

No.

Crimson sparked out in fury down at the puddle of disgust, nearly getting to their target before something extraordinary happened.

Something got in the way.

Not a plate of metal, not energy but a hand. A mighty hand that seemed to not even be fazed by the optic energy searing into it from his eyes. Once again Midoriya closed his eyes and heard a large sweep of air before the distinct closing of a plastic bottle.

"Don't worry citizen! I AM HERE!"

In all the infinite coincidences of the universe, Midoriya was struck with a meeting he'd wanted for years. Yet now, with what he would have done…

How could he face All-Might when he's already soaked in blood?