Chaos would not be able to describe how events unfolded in the following few minutes. Izuku was aware of most of the things happening around him, but he wouldn't be surprised if some things had eluded him.

Two heroes had added themselves to the fight before Stain could take down the hero in blue, which seemed to know the boy on the ground personally. Stain was more than evenly matched, the villain holding his ground more than he was trying to attack. He knew that one wrong move could end up in them getting caught.

The tiny space that the alleyway offered was suddenly erupting with action, pieces of wall and attacks flying left and right and threatening to hit both friend and foe. The space gave Stain some advantage though since the heroes were unable to comfortably use their quirks without risking friendly fire.

Izuku wished he could help his mentor, but he was still stuck in his own conundrum. Bakugo had already blown a huge part of the wall behind Izuku to smithereens, apparently not giving a damn about collateral damage as long as it meant hurting Izuku, and in his attempts to dodge the blows the teens had already made their way to the end of the alley.

The more time that passed, the further away Stain and Izuku were, and the boy was not happy with that. He needed to find a way to get rid of his old friend and get back to his teacher.

But, of course, that was easier said than done.

Every time Izuku made any sort of move in Stain's direction, he would be met by fire and debris nonstop. Bakugo had probably told Izuku to 'just die' over ten times, which didn't allow the green-haired teen to focus properly. Had the blonde always been this loud?

He barely dodged a hit, his knife clanging loudly against the metal surrounding Bakugo's wrists. Had he not been in such a tight spot, he might have felt proud of how well he was keeping up with the other boy as far as speed went.

They both attacked and dodged, neither able to really land a good hit on the other. Izuku's left ear was still ringing a bit, but he could hear most of what was going on around him.

He heard the clear sound of someone wheezing for air behind him, and it was only the heroes' horrified gasps that told him that Stain had managed to take one of his opponents down. Well, the horrified gasps and the panicked screams of the boy on the ground. He was half cursing, half apologizing, but mostly just weeping uncontrollably. He probably knew the hero that had just died.

"Die!" Bakugo yelled again, finally landing a kick on Izuku's side and sending the other boy flying through one of the many holes in the wall behind them. Izuku was now on the inside of a building, with no sight on Stain and no immediate way out. He scoffed, rolling to the side and standing back up quickly. Bakugo stalked towards him, his eyes narrowed and his teeth bared like a wild animal.

"You quirkless trash, just what do you think you're doing?!" The blonde barked.

Izuku narrowed his eyes, knife clenched in his hand.

"Don't ignore me, you shit!" the other boy snapped, aiming his hand forward but not attacking just yet, instead reaching for his wrist and grasping a piece of metal. The smile on his face told Izuku to move as fast as you can. He jumped to the side and behind a pillar, barely avoiding the absurd flame burst that threatened to possibly kill him. The fire licked his arm, making his skin sting horribly and leaving a hole on his clothes.

It's fine, Izuku told himself, the more the burn hurts, the less serious it is. Keep moving.

He jumped out from behind the pillar, predicting that Bakugo would go for a full-frontal hit. He was met with another ball of fire, which he swiftly dodged, and twisted his wrist to slash at the arm next to his head. The blade met its target briefly, drawing blood and making Izuku wish that he had Stain's quirk at his disposal. He would have the fight in the bag at this point.

Instead, he got an elbow to the face. He landed on the ground painfully, debris digging into his side and making him gasp.

"You're a weak disgrace, you know," Bakugo taunted him, ignoring the blood dripping down his arm, "You should have just stayed in your place."

Izuku narrowed his eyes, still not willing to give the other boy an answer. Any wishes he'd had to speak to Kacchan were now long gone, replaced by a cold resentment. Besides, he couldn't afford to get distracted. The other boy looked angrier by the second.

Bakugo used his quirk to propel himself forward like a rocket, grabbing Izuku's arm before the other boy could avoid it and setting off an explosion right on his face. Izuku has sent flying backward and through the remains of some other wall painfully. From here, he could see a window leading outside, fire dancing through the glass.

It wasn't the alley, but it would do.

When Bakugo landed on top of him, Izuku used all his strength to stab him on the leg and push the other boy away. Before Bakugo could recover, Izuku was running towards the window, covering his face with his arms and crashing through the glass without hesitation. Bakugo's attacks were big, and so the tiny space put Izuku at a disadvantage. Maybe the main street would prove more beneficial for him.

But just like the building had been falling apart inside because of Kacchan, the outside seemed to be transforming into hell itself. Everything was on fire, small storefronts were smashed to oblivion, heroes ran all around him and people screamed in terror as they tried to evacuate. No hero noticed him, as they all had their attention on three bizarre-looking figures.

They were inhuman looking, their frames big and muscular and their brains in full display for everyone to see. Their eyes were wide and unfocused and they were putting up one hell of a fight. One in particular, one with wings, was gracefully avoiding all attempts made at taking it down. The other two were pretty much wrecking the heroes at the scene.

Getting distracted this time was entirely on Izuku. He let the chaos around him surprise him and so he couldn't really complain when he felt Bakugo's boot hit him in the back of the head. He was thrown down the street like he was nothing, not losing consciousness by some miracle but feeling like the world around him was spinning. He'd also let go of his knife in that last hit, which was really bad.

"You were always so fucking annoying," Bakugo said behind him, noticing that Izuku was unarmed and disoriented, "Always going on about how you'd become a hero. And all that for you to end up here."

Bakugo kicked him again and then pulled Izuku up by the collar of his shirt, his hand poised to strike one last time.

"You're just a stone in my way, Deku."

Izuku looked up at Bakugo, blinking to focus his eyes. There was so much hatred in those red eyes, so much distaste, and disgust, that Izuku didn't even know how such feelings could be real. Not only that, he realized just how ridiculous those emotions were.

He started laughing.

Bakugo looked slightly taken aback at the reaction, Izuku leaning forward to look the other boy directly in the eye.

"Were you always this petty, Kacchan?"

Izuku smiled and, before Bakugo could respond, he leveraged himself using Bakugo's arm to get himself out of the way. He timed it almost perfectly, one of the wounded heroes around them flying in their direction and colliding with Bakugo harshly. They both tumbled away and Izuku took the opportunity to locate his knife, recover it and run.

As much as he wanted to fight the other boy (and he did, surprisingly), he had to find Stain first and foremost. They were stronger together. But when he went around the building he'd come out of, there was no one left in the alley. At least no one that mattered, Izuku thought, noticing three different figures on the ground but not recognizing any of them as Stain. He didn't bother trying to find out if they were alive or not, instead looking around and searching for his mentor. Just as he caught of glimpse of red and white, he had to dodge a new barrage of fireballs courtesy of his old classmate.

"Die, you piece of shit!" Bakugo yelled, and they were suddenly right back where they started. Izuku was far more wounded than the other boy, but he still managed to stay on his feet attack after attack. Both teens were landing as many hits as they were receiving, burns and stab wounds aplenty in both their bodies, but they both refused to stand down.

Izuku blocked out the noise around them, only focusing on Kacchan. The other boy was livid, but he still maintained perfect control over his movements and attacks. He'd always been like that, no matter how much things got an emotional reaction out of him, he'd always be able to function under pressure.

But that makes two of us now, Izuku thought coldly. He refused to give in. The sight of Stain striking down one of the two heroes going after him was enough to light a fire in his chest. He knew what Stain would do in his place, he was certain of it.

His knife felt incredibly light in his hand and he squared his shoulders. The pain from the burns and the wounds on his body subsided, and the world around him slowed ever so slightly.

The next explosion seemed to go off a second too late because Izuku had more than enough time to get out of the way and swing his knife to make the tiniest of cuts on Bakugo's side. The same thing happened over and over, with Bakugo hitting Izuku multiple times but never knocking him down until the blonde was dripping blood from a multitude of small cuts.

Izuku couldn't feel it at that time, but the burns on his body were big at this point. His skin was irritated in some areas and covered in blisters in others, his constant movement only making them worse. He also couldn't know this, but Bakugo was aiming for those wounded places over and over again in the hopes that the other boy would eventually pass out from shock.

But Izuku just wouldn't go down. Not even when a barrier of ice threatened to swallow him whole in an instant, the wall separating Bakugo and Izuku momentarily after they both jumped out of the way in time. He could hear Bakugo on the other side, insulting some unseen figure for having intervened.

There was a boy (another classmate, maybe?) standing where the ice came from, red and white hair glowing in the light of the fire. Izuku stared, eyes wide like plates. But he wasn't looking at the other boy. No. He was focused on the towering figure beside him.

Endeavor. The number two hero in all of Japan. He was right there, surrounded in his own set of flames and he was staring daggers into Izuku.

There was no way that Izuku could fight him, he knew that much. The man was too strong and the teen was wounded.

But thankfully Stain appeared just then, the last hero that had been going after him nowhere in sight. Red eyes met green and mentor and student nodded at one another. Stain had his eyes squarely on Endeavor, a clear bloodlust emanating from him, and the hero soon turned his attention to the other man rather than the teen.

Just in time, because the ice barrier cracked under the force of one of Bakugo's explosions. The blonde flew out from the smoke and came at Izuku at top speed, tackling the other boy and tumbling a good distance before they both stopped bouncing on the pavement. They separated quickly, both assessing their situations.

Izuku's side hurt horribly, his burn marks raw from skidding against the ground. But Bakugo hadn't gotten away unscathed. From where he was, Izuku could see the blood cascading down the other boy's hand and it didn't take much to realize that the blonde was now missing his right ring finger and half of his pinkie; He'd collided with Izuku's blade with enough force to amputate his own fingers. It looked nasty, the edges ragged and a small piece of flesh dangling off, and Izuku half smirked.

The irony of Bakugo hurting himself beyond repair just to attack Izuku didn't slip past him.

"You idiot," Bakugo hissed, ignoring his wounds, "you think you can win like this, against heroes?! You're nothing!"

Izuku clenched his knife in his hand. He'd heard such things for almost ten years and he'd never had anything to respond. Every time Kacchan struck him down, a small part of him had agreed with his childhood friend. He did feel worthless most of the time. His lack of quirk had defied him for so long and the worst part of him had always told him that Bakugo was right.

He had been a waste. He'd been useless, and pathetic and weak. He'd been all those things and even less, at some point.

But not anymore.

"What heroes?" Izuku spat back, his smirk growing with every word. "The dead ones on the ground already? Or are you talking about yourself, Kacchan?"

"Shut your fucking mouth!" Bakugo barked, going in for a kick. Izuku received it, hugged the leg, and stabbed the other boy right on the thigh. They separated again, circling each other like dogs.

"Tell me, are you here because you knew I was with Stain?" Izuku asked, eyes narrowed. Bakugo scoffed, lunging back at Izuku with an absurd amount of force. Once more, they exchanged fresh wounds before circling the other again, the boys revolving exclusively around the other.

"You just wanna kill me with your own hands?! Or did you just miss your punching bag?" Izuku continued. Bakugo's shoulders were tense in a way that Izuku had never seen before.

"You're full of shit, Deku!" The other teen scoffed, "You talked so big just to become a fucking villain."

"What about you, Kacchan?" Izuku asked, dodging a punch, opening a deep gash in Bakugo's arm, and getting the skin on his shoulder blasted with fire. "You're gonna stand here and pretend to be a hero?"

"I don't need to pretend," The other responded, a familiar hint of smugness in his voice.

"You?!" Izuku laughed, this time going for the attack first. A new burn and new stab. "The one that tormented me for years? The one that told me to jump off a roof?! Say, Kacchan, did you tell your classmates proudly that you told me to just kill myself because I was quirkless? No, you wouldn't. Because then everyone would know what I've known for years."

For the first time since they met, Izuku saw Bakugo hesitate. The boy had been about to jump and fight again, but he stopped after barely moving an inch. It was brief, but it was there.

"I might be nothing, but you're no fucking hero," Izuku said, meaning every syllable from the bottom of his heart. Izuku made a move forward but was forced to jump back when another pillar of ice rushed past him.

He lost sight of Bakugo, but a tower of fire somewhere else caught his eye. Stain was fighting Endeavor, and it didn't look like it was going all that great. Much like himself, Stain had a big burn on his back, and he was mostly just defending at this point. Other heroes were focusing on the three monstrosities destroying Hosu, trusting that the number two heor could manage and going after the creatures, but it would only be a matter of time before they came back to help.

Izuku tried to step towards his teacher, but his leg buckled under him. He caught himself before he fell, but he was finally forced to assess the damage done to his body. He was covered in wounds, cuts, and burns of different degrees. The skin in his stomach looked red and consumed, and the lack of pain told him that the burn was truly serious.

He noticed that more than one place in his body felt numb, and he immediately felt like he couldn't move. He was still looking in Stain's direction when a thick layer of ice engulfed his leg, leaving him pinned where he was. Suddenly he became uncomfortably aware of the fact that Endeavor was much closer to him than Stain, icy blue eyes focused solely on Izuku now.

Shit, was all Izuku could think.

The next few seconds were a blur that Izuku was unable to fully process. Just as the ice was crawling up his leg, threatening to imprison him entirely, he saw Bakugo's familiar form jumping over the wall of ice just as Endeavor was rushing forward. The ice boy tried to stop Bakugo, probably noticing that both fire heroes were about to collide in their attempt to reach Izuku, but he was unable to do anything.

The first hit came from Endeavor himself, fire engulfing Izuku's side painfully along with a blow straight to the ribs. But that wasn't the bad part. Oh no. The truly finishing blow came from Bakugo, who hadn't noticed Endeavor (or had pointedly not given a shit) until it was too late and ended up hitting Izuku full force in the exact same place as the pro hero. In retrospect, he probably did it on purpose.

The result was a Hollywood tier explosion that destroyed the ice around Izuku and sent the teen flying a good sixty feet and into a parked, partially destroyed car. Izuku flipped over the top, glass scratching at his stomach, and landed in a heap on the other side. His clothes, hair, and skin were actually smoking, and the new glass wounds started to paint a puddle of blood under him.

All eyes were on his unmoving form, waiting, but there was not even a rise and fall to his chest anymore. No one said a word, but the same thought crossed everyone's mind:

Midoriya Izuku had just died.

Stain held himself up in a relatively high regard. He had to if he wanted to act upon his beliefs without hesitation or doubt. He didn't think that he, the individual, was all that impressive but he felt worthy by simply carrying out his philosophy. He tried with all his might to hold himself by the belief that he was just the messenger of an incredibly important message, and thus he tried to distance himself emotionally from what he did.

Of course, he got satisfaction out of his work and he felt pride whenever he added a new target to his long list of hits, but he attempted to keep his emotions out of it. He never stayed longer than he had to, he took down his opponents in as few blows as possible, and he never bragged about what he did. He tried to not make it personal.

But something odd happened after Endeavor and the other two kids attacked Izuku. He could feel it in his chest, far more physical than it felt mental, when the boy's body tumbled to the ground like a broken doll.

Something snapped inside him.

He jumped into action with his usual speed, but somehow twice the impulse. Of course, Endeavor was the one to try to stop him first, the other two boys apparently still shocked at the sight of Izuku's body, but what had once been an even fight now felt like a joke.

Stain used all of his weight and agility to throw the hero off balance, not giving a damn about the burns he might receive, and landing a generous katana slice to the hero's torso. The pro wouldn't go down that easily, but for once Stain didn't care about how long it took. He half wished that the hero would take hours to kill, just so he could keep cutting him. He went as far as to not use his quirk on the pro, feeling dissatisfied with that option at the moment.

He landed next to the blonde boy he'd seen fighting against his protegee, the one he assumed used to dedicate his free time to antagonize and persecute Izuku before they met. It didn't take a genius to see that whatever deal that kid had, he'd decided to take it out on Izuku personally.

Endeavor used his quirk to force Stain to jump back, the hero placing himself between the killer and the teens as a sort of shield.

Fucking sham, Stain thought.

"You would really go after children, Hero Killer?" The man told him and had Stain been close enough, he would have decapitated the other were he stood.

"And you would dare pretend you didn't just kill a child yourself?" Stain bit back, poison dripping from his lips, "You're the worst type of scum I've ever encountered."

Both boys behind Endeavor seemed to flinch at the mention of Izuku, but Stain could see right through it. They were only worried that word would get out that they killed someone, a matter that was strictly prohibited to heroes. They didn't care about Izuku, or about what they'd put him through, they only cared about themselves. So young, and yet already rotten to the core.

Endeavor tensed, ready for a fight, and Stain straightened his back.

"Come on, then. Attack me! I'll kill every single one of you right now, you fake. Death is too good for you lot, but I'll deliver it gladly to you and to every other fucking imposter that crosses my path. I will swim in blood if I have to! So try to get me!" Stain's voice was rough, his pupils tiny dots in a sea of red. He looked wild.

Both boys looked terrified and even Endeavor seemed taken aback by just how enraged Stain was. If auras could kill, the three people in front of Stain would be choking to death right as he spoke. He took a steady step forward, calculating his next move carefully. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't waste his time on these three.

A small part of him needed to make sure if Izuku was truly dead.

He lunged forward, katana in one hand and a large knife in the other, which he immediately threw and replaced with another blade. He avoided both fire and ice effortlessly, his speed unmatched by the two youngsters and the wounded hero.

The first one to go down was Endeavor himself. He stayed at the front of his pack, but the ridiculous ice structures that one of the boys continued to make gave Stain a barrage of blind spots to use. The first two knives hadn't brought down the pro hero, but the sliced off leg sure did. His body landed with a wet sound, but Stain wasted no time in licking his katana to make sure that the sham would stay down. He was done playing games.

Ice suddenly stopped coming at him and Stain noticed with a bit of surprise that one of the boys had fallen on his knees, a completely lost expression on his face. When he threw a knife at him, it was the blonde boy that stopped the blade from killing the other one.

He heard one of the boys yell at the other to 'snap out of it' but it was already too late. The second throwing knife met its target, digging into the paralyzed boy's shoulder and sending him flying backward. He made no attempt to avoid the projectile and he was under Stain's boot in a matter of seconds.

That only left the blonde one. And Stain was almost glad that that was the case.

The teen pitifully tried to defend himself, a forced look of defiance in his eyes, but Stain had him on the ground after just a moment, a knife sticking out of his leg and the katana dug deeply in his unharmed hand to keep him in place. Stain noticed the missing digits on the other hand and smiled almost proudly.

"I see Izuku got you, huh?" He asked maliciously, the boy somehow keeping that defiant scowl on his face. Stain wanted to rip it right off.

"You know, you're the type of person that had me start my job in the first place," Stain added, twisting the katana slowly on the teen's hand and relishing on the vile sound of bones being forced out of place. The boy grunted under him but he was either too smart or too scared to open his mouth. Stain couldn't care less about which one it was.

"You're just the perfect target. So just die already."

With that, Stain slashed the boy across the stomach, the deep wound leaving very little to the imagination of just what the kid was made of; skin, bone, and blood. He stood there for only a second, took a deep breath, and then sternly made his way towards his student while ignoring the sorry gasps from the blonde.

It was just as bad as he'd feared, but also worse somehow.

Izuku was face down on the concrete, tiny pieces of glass sticking out of his uncovered arm and back. His skin was an angry red, the places not covered in scratches brandishing terrible burns. His left arm and side were the worst, Stain certain that he could almost see the muscle in some spots.

It was bad. They'd utterly destroyed the kid.

And yet, Stain thought as he crouched next to the boy, he put up one hell of a fight.

He reached for the boy's neck, two fingers searching for something he didn't expect to find. And then he froze.

"You stubborn bastard," Stain almost laughed, cherishing the weak pulse that pushed against his fingers defiantly. He briefly wondered if the kid would ever stop surprising him. Stain didn't care how or why, but Izuku was still alive and that was all that mattered at the moment.

Under other circumstances, he would have taken the time to make sure that Izuku was in a stable enough condition to be moved, but there was no time to lose and so he used the kid's scarf as well as his own to immobilize the boy's neck as best as he could. The other heroes had gone after the weird villains from before and, with Hosu falling apart, he guessed that a man carrying a kid on his back would be par for the course, so he carried Izuku away from the scene.

He walked down some alleys and fast as he dared, worried that too much movement would end up killing the kid. He saw an immeasurable amount of people coming and going, many hurt and most panicked but he paid them no mind. He didn't care about any of them.

They arrived back at their hiding place half an hour before sunrise, and it was here that Stain took the time to assess his student's current state. He was beaten to hell and back, but the shaky rise and fall of his chest was a clear indication that he was still clinging to life. Stain felt an odd mix of pride and worry stir in his chest, but he pushed it aside forcefully. He had to act fast. They needed to get out of Hosu, but he had to clean Izuku's wounds before they left.

The killer spent the next hour disinfecting cuts with alcohol, picking out shards of glass, cleaning burns with water, and moving Izuku's extremities little by little to see if anything was broken. Thankfully, only the boy's left hand cracked when he twisted the wrist, but he was otherwise miraculously in one piece. His nose was broken too, maybe even his cheekbone, but those could wait. The cuts weren't deep enough to damage either arteries or nerves and only a few of them required pressure to stop bleeding.

The worst part were definitely the burns.

They were all over the teen's skin, making him look almost like a map of sorts. One burn on his stomach, one in his left shoulder, and a huge one on his side were all third-degree burns and the rest varied from first to second. Only the one on his side, the one that the two shams had given him, was worryingly deep.

But he was breathing. He flinched slightly at the alcohol and he even grunted from time to time.

He's alive. Stain felt relief flood his system and he pushed away his mask to run a hand down his face. He stayed where he was, crouched next to the teen's limp body, for a long moment. Urgency to leave was tugging at his chest, but he found himself needing a minute to just stare at Izuku's chest to make sure it hadn't stopped moving.

This kid had followed him around Japan for almost a year now. At first, he'd only seen the opportunity to mold a young, promising mind towards his way of thinking, he'd seen the boy as a sort of back up plan or successor if he ever got caught. But the boy had slowly grown on him, first as a companion and now…

Now what? Stain wondered, his shoulders shaking for the briefest of moments. As much as it clashed with his way of life, he truly did care for the boy. He cared a lot more than he was comfortable admitting.

He couldn't waste any more time like this. He gathered their things hastily, giving Izuku one last careful look before he stepped out of the tiny house momentarily. The sun was already making its way up the sky when Stain returned in an old vehicle he'd hotwired, the license plates belonging to a totally different car he'd found abandoned a few blocks away.

He swiftly threw their things in the car, placed Izuku in the back seat, and removed his mask so he could drive without calling too much attention upon himself, only half-covering his nose. He hadn't driven in over seven years, but he knew how to do it and by the time the sky was blue, they were already driving away towards the only relatively safe place that Stain could think of.