It wasn't long ago that Izuku had killed his first person. It was grisly, unexpected, and extremely traumatizing.
It also wasn't going to be his last. It was natural for a member of the League of Villains to leave manslaughter and murder on the list of possible options when dealing with an adversary. Training and mental preparation would help, but in the end it wasn't going to fully help someone go through with taking another's life. It was something you... had to get used to, for lack of a better term.
Kurogiri knew that day would come when the boy would need to take another's life. He quietly wished it would never come to pass, but such a pleasantry would never happen.
And so, he trained Izuku. He would warp himself and the boy to an abandoned warehouse, where he would set an intense training regimen. There, Kurogiri would make full use of his quirk.
The boy began his day running laps around the interior of the large building, scaling and jumping over the rusted machinery and tools. Occasionally, the bartender would open up a gate in front or beneath the boy, and if he didn't dodge, he'd reappear at the starting line, forced to start over from the beginning.
Afterwards, they would engage in sensory training. He would give the boy one of three things each day; a blindfold, a set of earplugs, or a pill. The blindfold would block his sight. The earplugs would deafen him. The pill would make his body go numb. Afterwards, he would spend hours dodging blades and wooden poles that would shoot out of warp gates at random intervals and angles. While the deprivation of sight or sound would create an obvious training exercise for the boy, Kurogiri hoped that removing his sense of balance and tactile input would allow the boy to operate better when he was drugged or recovering from a heavy blow.
Finally, they would end with some sparring. Kurogiri showed no mercy when fighting Izuku. Heroes wouldn't give him an opportunity, let alone rival villains. The boy could never beat him, but every time he was struck to the ground, he would grit his teeth and stand back up on his feet.
This day was no different.
Izuku rolled forward, out of the way of a warp gate that swung around. It had a thick wooden pole sticking out of it, Kurogiri's way of simulating multiple enemies. He reached back and grasped the weapon, his hand stinging as the blunt object struck him. He yanked it out, pulling it from the warp gate. He swung it at the bartender, only for it to meet empty air.
"It's good you've learned to take weapons when you can. But real enemies would have a stronger grasp on their tools."
A blade appeared next to the boy's leg, leaving a nasty gash.
"Don't leave your guard down, now that you have a weapon. You won't get second chances."
The warp gate swung once more, but it met Izuku's pole. They clashed for a good while, before Izuku felt a rush behind him. He dived sideways as a third weapon, a metal pole, came crashing down where his head was.
"You're learning to keep watch behind you. Always expect an attack where you least expect it."
Izuku defended himself from the knife coming out of the warp gate once again. He saw it nick and nick the center of the cheap wooden pole he held. After backing up, he snapped the wood along his knee, splitting it into two.
"You took advantage of your weapon's weakness and adapted before it became useless. But can you keep up now that you lost your main defense?"
He crouched low, gritting his teeth as it strained the wound on his leg. He batted the knife away once more, and rolled out of the way of the incoming metal pipe.
"It seems you understand that it's better to dodge and redirect attacks when you have no stable defense. Another lesson you excel at. However..."
Izuku was knocked to the ground as a dress shoe smacked into his face, sending him flying to the ground.
"Don't forget that you are fighting more than just a bunch of items sticking out of warp gates. I am here as well."
Kurogiri walked up to the prone boy. He was certainly beaten up, though most training days he looked just like this. He kneeled down to see the green haired boy's face. His eyes were closed, breathing shallow. It appears he had been knocked unconscious by that last blow.
"Forgive me for being so rough with you, Midoriya." He stood back up. "Let's go to Sensei so that he may-"
He was cut short as a hand clutched his ankle, yanking hard. As he lost his balance and fell backward, he saw Izuku pull himself up, eyes full of determination. Kurogiri's eyes narrowed as the boy clutched the wooden pole, bringing it down as they both fell. At the last moment, Kurogiri warped himself away, sending Izuku crashing to the ground once more, the weapon clattering uselessly against the floor.
"My, my, Midoriya. You certainly surprised me there. Had you been a little faster, you may have been able to land a hit on me."
Izuku shakily pushed himself to his feet once more. "That just means I need to try harder next time."
"Perhaps, but don't expect that to work a second time." Kurogiri paused, before a warp gate opened behind him. "You've done well, Midoriya. Let's get Sensei to heal you."
Kurogiri and Tomura had left some time ago to talk to someone. Probably to find new recruits or negotiate with some faction. That left Izuku alone in the bar.
The green haired boy listened in as some new faces entered the bar. The seemed to be new members of the League, though they really didn't seem all that powerful or interesting. Still, Izuku sat in the booth on the far corner of the room, Obfuscate activated. He watched intently as he wrote small notes to himself. He didn't have to worry about them seeing the pencil or notebook. Through experimentation, he found out that as long as he was carrying the object he wanted to use when he activated his second quirk, it would disappear from the minds of others just like he did.
They seemed ready to do... something. They were muttering to each other.
He might not have been able to listen to everything they said, but he knew this type of villain. They joined because they felt the League was some type of insurance to them. They thought that they could do anything, and if they got in trouble that the league would bail them out. It was worrisome that they knew where the bar was, usually only those who were smart enough to be fully initiated actually knew where it was. Perhaps these guys stumbled into the bar on accident, and became members like that.
This annoyed Izuku. He's met 'walk-ins' like these guys, and they were the most unreliable. They weren't vetted by Kurogiri or Sensei, and the location of the headquarters was very sensitive information. He made a mental note to ask Sensei to wipe these guys' minds later. It would be safer that way.
After some talking, they both left. Izuku was alone once more.
He sat and doodled once more. It was almost a whole hour before the two villains he adored walked in.
Kurogiri called out, "Midoriya, are you there?"
The boy realized he never dropped Obfuscate, reappearing in front of the other two. He clutched his head as the headache from using his quirk for so long settled in.
Sighing, Kurogiri reached behind the bar, pulling out a bottle of acetaminophen. He placed it gingerly in front of the boy, with a glass of water.
Tomura smirked. "Never thought I'd see you get so used to your quirk that you forgot you were using it."
It hurt too much to speak, so Izuku just smiled at the praise. He stayed sitting until the drugs kicked in, after which he doted on Tomura for the better part of the night.
When Izuku returned to the bar from junior high the next day, no one was there. This wasn't the first time this happened, so he simply did what he always did in these situations; explore.
There was always some sort of random rubbish in the back room that he always found interesting. There was a large canister that he once found there that took forever to open. Once he did manage to wrench it open, he found it was full of kerosene. This time, in a dark corner, he found a large amount of weapons. Some of them looked familiar. He realized it was the weapons that Kurogiri would warp into the warehouse during their training sessions. He considered switching them around or moving them to mess with Kurogiri, but decided it was best that his training continue at a smooth pace, despite the fun he could have teasing the bartender.
He left the back room, climbing up the stairs. It opened up to a large bedroom, the same one he slept in when he killed that serial killer. He hopped on the bed, bouncing around a little. He looked over at the nightstand. He'd never touched it before, out of respect for his mentor's privacy. But now that he was alone, he wondered what secrets the man had to hide.
He gingerly pulled open the drawer on the nightstand, and pored over the contents.
He had expected to see some sort of diary, or some picture of a family he never met. But in reality, none of that was there. It was all functional items. Pencils, paper, highlighters... in fact, in the bottom of the pile was a small stack of three notebooks. They were the same brand Izuku used, but had nothing written on them. Confused, he pulled them out and flipped through them. They were just as empty as they looked. However, his eyes caught something as he looked at the back of the front cover. In neat, black handwriting was some simple kanji.
'Midoriya Izuku'
"...was he keeping spare notebooks for me?" Izuku mused.
He snapped his head to the staircase as he heard the sound of the front door open and close. Frantically, he put the notebook back in its place, before closing the nightstand drawer. He flopped into the bed, throwing the covers over his head. He could pretend he was just taking a nap in Kurogiri's bed-
Wait. Something wasn't right. No one called for him. They always called for him when they got back.
He peeked his head out from under the covers as he heard the person walk up the stairs. He froze in place as he saw who came to the top of the stairs.
It was a large man, face covered in a small black bandanna that covered his upper face. He was wearing a large brown trench coat, and his fists were covered by some sort of metal studding. Immediately, the man locked eyes with the kid, before rushing over and throwing the covers off of him. Izuku flinched, expected to be attacked. The man froze, before clenching his fists.
"To think those thugs would go so far as to kidnap a child!" He growled. He tried to grab for the boy, but he backed up to the wall.
"It's alright kid! I'm here to rescue you!" He gruffly reassured.
"Y-You don't lo-look like a pro hero I re-recognize!"
"I'm... not affiliated with the pros. My name is Knuckleduster. Don't sweat it kid, we're getting you out of here!"
He grabbed the kid by the hand, pulling him onto the floor. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" Izuku replied.
'So this guy's a vigilante, huh? Well, at least it means the bar isn't completely compromised.'
"Where do you live, kid?"
"Wait! There's- There's another person like me trapped downstairs!" Izuku looked down, closing his eyes. "They were beating him pretty badly. I can show you where they're keeping him!"
Before Knuckleduster could say anything more, he began pulling the man down the stairs. Once they made it back to the ground floor, the boy let go and rushed to the back by himself.
"Hey, kid! Don't go running off by yourself!"
He ran to the door, and when he opened it, he saw Izuku standing there, looking worried.
"Come on, hurry! The others could get back at any time!" He ran off again, but this time his foot caught a pile of junk and he landed flat on his face.
Knuckleduster ran to the kid's side. "Are you okay?!"
The kid muttered something, but the vigilante couldn't make it out. He knelt down to listen in.
That would be his last mistake.
A large blast of air caught him off guard, knocking him off balance. Izuku reached out to the man's ankle, yanking hard. The heavy set man began to fall backwards. Before he could even react, he felt the boy jump up onto him, a knife clenched firmly in his fist. As they fell, Knuckleduster felt the knife sink into his neck with a surprising amount of force.
Izuku pulled the knife back out, and watched as the man clutched his neck and began gurgling something to the boy. He couldn't make it out, but he was pretty sure it was some form of cursing. Both of them were breathing in as deeply as they could.
Izuku reeled back in shock as the man's hands left his own wound and began grasping for the boy. Eventually, they found his mark, gripping him tightly by the neck. The green haired boy kicked and squealed against the man's grasp. He thrust forward with the knife again, feeling it sink into the vigilante's chest.
"Just stop!" Izuku cried. "Please stop moving!"
Desperate, he pulled the knife out again, thrusting it forward as hard as he could. He could see the man's blood pool beneath him.
Somehow, Knuckleduster still had the strength to move, and pushed himself forward. He was on top of Izuku now, hands clenched around the boy's neck. Izuku screamed as he continued attacking with the knife. Eventually, he felt the man's grip weaken. Izuku continued his frantic attacks, until the man fell on him. The green haired boy felt the hilt of the knife press into his stomach, the rest of it lodged in the man's body.
The man tried to say something, but whatever it was had been to incomprehensible for the boy to hear. Izuku gasped, trying to wrench himself from the body.
He didn't know how much time had passed until he heard the front door to the bar open again. He still couldn't move from under the body of Knuckleduster.
"Midoriya, are you here?"
It was hard to breathe under the weight of the corpse. He tried calling out, but it hurt too much. Luckily, the door to the back room was still open. Kurogiri would investigate and find him.
The first thing the bartender noticed about his place of work was the open door to the back.
The second thing he noticed was a strong smell of blood that came out of the back door.
Kurogiri slowly walked into the back room, ready to teleport out should anything prove to be a threat. That strategy went out the window the moment he saw Izuku trapped under a dead body.
"Izuku!"
He grabbed Knuckleduster, roughly rolling the muscular man over. There was a number of wounds on his body, quite a few haphazardly placed around his neck and chest. The knife was still lodged in his ribcage, right where his lung would be.
Izuku lay on the ground, his uniform wrinkled and covered in large splotches of blood. He said nothing, staring at Kurogiri.
The bartender grabbed the boy in his arms, carrying him out of the back room. He set him down on one of the booths, looking him over for signs of injury. There was some heavy bruising around Izuku's neck, likely from the intruder. However, Kurogiri knew the man was strong enough to kill Izuku if he wanted. He probably just wanted to knock him out.
"...I did it, Kurogiri." Izuku whispered.
The villain didn't respond.
Izuku grabbed the man by the vest, pulling his head into Kurogiri's chest. "I know you didn't want me to, I'm sorry."
After making sure it was just the bruising around the neck, Kurogiri sat down next to the boy.
"You were bound to have to kill again, Midoriya. Did he attack you?"
Izuku chocked back a sob. "No. He was a vigilante who found out where we were. I led him to the back and..."
Kurogiri nodded. The boy had a different air about him. Despite his cries and whimpers, his voice didn't shake, and he didn't seem as physically ill as the first time he took a life.
He was learning. It was only his second time, but he was getting used to it.
"I'm sorry, Kurogiri."
The bartender ran his misty hand through the boy's hair, trying not to tug any knots in the messy curls.
"Don't apologize. You did it to protect us, didn't you?"
Izuku nodded.
Kurogiri looked up to the ceiling. He knew this day would come. The boy was truly on a path to villainy. It was time to teach him something more than just combat and dodging.
"Midoriya, when you feel better, we'll start training again... I'm going to start adding lessons on killing effectively, okay?"
The green haired boy nodded again. He looked up, wiping his eyes.
"I'm... It's not as bad this time."
"I know, Midoriya." He rubbed the boy's shoulder. "I know."
A/N: Hey, everyone! Decided to drop another chapter since I was feeling it. Hope you guys like it!
As always, leave a comment with your thoughts and criticisms. They really help!
ALSO I DECIDED IMMA MAKE A TUMBLR. Blog name is the same as my username, Auresalia. Go ahead and drop me a line while I figure out how the hell it works!