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Chapter 7: He who fights monsters

Present time...

Yukishiro aka Yukino Yukinoshita

The next witness they brought in wasn't famous, nor were they a hero, by any definition of the word. Takemi Shotaro was a mobster, evident from the tattoos and attire he bore. Supported by a nose that looked like it had been broken a few too many times.

His suit was sharply tailored. It had the image of a koi fish embroidered on the lapel along with the back. All the aspects of his appearance were painstakingly curated to show wealth and authority but still retain a note of thuggish swagger.

He had been a resource of Hikigaya for quite some time. However, my friend had always brushed off how he knew certain members of the criminal underworld, this man among them.

But right now, he didn't look like a feared drug lord; he looked like a scared little boy. He kept glancing nervously at Hikigaya, and how he visibly flinched when they made eye contact confused me. In his many tales that he'd shared, Hikigaya had never told me about a drug dealer. Let alone anything that would warrant this degree of terror

"Mr. Shotaro, please state your name for the court." The prosecutor tried to ease the man with a confident smile, but the criminal stayed silent.

"Just tell us your name." The prosecutor tried again, but his smile was more strained.

"We can't use your name to incriminate you." The prosecutor assured but changed tactics when the man stayed silent. "You realize that if you don't respond, then we're going to throw you in jail for contempt of court."

The man didn't look up or respond. Instead, he just sat there, shoulders trembling from fear. The prosecutor sighed.

"Have you ever met Hachiman Hikigaya?"

Silence.

"Have you ever been threatened by mister Hikigaya?"

Silence.

This man would give us nothing, no matter how much we threatened him. He was more afraid of someone else. Someone sitting across from him in the courtroom

~/~

Present time …

Samaritan aka Hachiman Hikigaya

It was the only way to get Bakugo the antidote in time. But, unfortunately, he refused to tell me, so I became a monster.

I felt disgusted with myself every time I thought about what I'd done, but I didn't regret it. I would throw away everything that I was for them. No question about it.

I stared down at the scum before me and spoke with my most authoritative voice. "Takemi, you are going to tell them everything that happened. I won't hurt you for this."

Well, at least this will distract them from the fact that I slept with Haruno. As a grumpy drunk once told me, take your victories where you can get them.

~/~

4 years ago …

Samaritan aka Hachiman Hikigaya

I burst through the thick set of wooden double doors and vaulted over the desk in a singular smooth motion. I used the momentum that carried me to slam the man into the cement wall behind him long before he could reach for his gun. Shotaro wasn't ready for my entry, his guards had been taken out silently, and I had hacked the security camera feed.

I was tired, dehydrated, and hungry and used drugs to stay awake. But I would keep on going. If we didn't find this cure, then Bakugo would die.

My body was breaking down, but I had dealt with worse. In that cage, fighting people every night and then with rats and roaches for food, catching the water that leaked from above. Bakugo had rescued me then. So I would save him now.

I grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt. "What the fuck kind of poison did you give them?" I screamed, trying to scare him into answering.

He laughed but didn't answer. I shook him violently and then asked again. "Oh, so the fairy fucking godmother made it. Tell me what the fuck it is? DON'T YOU DARE FUCK WITH ME!"

Again Shotaro didn't answer.

I changed approaches after a glance around the office. I looked at a picture of his family on his desk and tried to go for a more emotional appeal. "Look, one of my best friends has been poisoned, and I know you made it. There are trace residues of an irregular compound used to suspend volatile chemicals. The only other thing on the database with the same trace elements is Ecstasy, sold by your dealers. These people are my family, and I would do anything to protect them. I won't arrest you. I just need the formula," I pleaded, looking into his eyes.

He didn't respond immediately but croaked out after a few seconds. "I hope your friend dies a long, painful death. "I know he will."

I saw red. This monster could not be reasoned with. The only thing that he understood was fear, pain, and violence. He could only communicate with another monster, and he would only respect a bigger monster, so that's what I had to become. I hurled him into a wall, then grabbed him again when he impacted the cement. I shook him once more and then wrenched his arms backward, dislocating them easily. He shrieked and rolled around the floor in pain. Trying to stand but failing without an arm to prop himself up.

"I need to know what kind of poison you sold to Tomura Shigaraki," I told him, standing impassively as he writhed in agony.

"F-fuck you." He spat out a bloody glob

"Wrong answer." I leveled a kick with his nose, which crumpled like wet cardboard when the steel-toed tip of my combat boot slammed into it. It was a damp crack as he shrieked again, and blood gushed from the misshapen pile of cartilage that he now called a nose.

The blood was beginning to pool on the floor, and I tried again. "Tell me what the fuck it was."

He smiled a devil's grin. "You can't kill me; you need me. You think you're tough, but you're just some prick in a mask." I roared in frustration at his comment.

This time I stomped his legs when he didn't answer. I felt tendons tear and bones break each time my boot went down. But I kept on going and going. I didn't stop until both of his lower limbs looked closer to tenderized steak than they did human legs.

He cried out in pain. "Fuck, I'll tell you. Just … stop … for fucks sake, stop … please. The formula is in my safe; the code is 177013."

It was a rookie mistake, and I wouldn't have made it if I wasn't so tired, stressed, and thirsty. But I walked right over to the safe in the corner of the room and began to enter the string of digits that he'd told me. While entering the fourth digit, I saw him trying to inch backward subtly. of course, he would have countermeasures, my fingers stopped before they could enter the final pair of numbers, and I marched over to him. "Where the fuck is the real thing?"

"In the notebook on my desk drawer." He coughed blood and rasped as he breathed. Maybe I should've felt sympathy for him, but I had nothing left in the tank. The only way I was moving was pure willpower; I simply had no pity. I grabbed him by his (at the time) long hair and dragged him back to the desk.

"Which one is it?" I wrapped his hair around my fingers for a better purchase.

"The lower left one." I moved to open it but kept his head between me and the drawer he said contained the correct information to serve as an impromptu shield. "Wait, don't open that one, top right, TOP RIGHT, PLEASE."

I snapped out of my fatigue-induced haze and moved my hand (and his head) to that one. I pulled it open and found a thick college-bound notebook. I quickly thumbed through it and smiled when I saw the formula logged for sale to the league of villains.

It was clearly labeled, I assumed, because he never expected anyone to get this far. He was tucked away in a secret building with armed guards and extra security measures.

I wasn't going to hurt him if he had just told me what I needed to know. Because he hadn't, I needed to get that through his skull. I attacked again, more untethered and erratic, using my rage as fuel.

I took his hair and tugged with the determination of a man possessed. Then, with a sound like pulling up an old carpet, most of his scalp ripped off his head. More blood flowed, but I didn't give a shit. He had said he hoped Bakugo died slowly and painfully, then tried to kill me.

He tried to struggle away from me, and I laughed. "Oh, so now you're scared. YOU DON'T GET TO BE SCARED ANYMORE!" I finished my sentences with a scream.

I took the chance to throw a kick and land it squarely into his now shattered rib cage, it wouldn't kill him, but it would hurt like hell. He whimpered like a dog, not even trying to run, just staring up at me. "Please, have mercy."

If I wasn't so well trained, I might have had a heart attack, this supposedly ruthless drug lord was begging for mercy. After everything that he did. Did he ever show mercy? How dare this worm even have the audacity to ask?

I grabbed the sides of his head with my gauntlets and dragged him upward, putting him at a perfect height to hit with my knees. I kept going, feeling his lower jaw crack and watching him choke on his own teeth.

When I was done, he looked like a bag of flesh. I tried to pick him up but sighed when I looked at my watch. I had wasted a minute kicking the shit out of this guy and refused to waste even a second more helping him.

For the last time, I picked him up by his blood-soaked clothing and hurled him through a glass window. I watched as he fell to the pavement below, groaning some more so at least I knew that he wasn't dead.

The building was much easier to exit than it was to enter because the twenty guards I had taken out were no longer an obstacle. I ran to the curb but stopped abruptly.

I held back a sigh, doing the right thing sucked. I radioed Zaimokuza. "I need you to send an ambulance to my current location." I cut it off before he could respond and revved my bike. The engine roared in response, and I shot off. I had to get to the hospital.

I still had a friend that needed saving.

There would be time to be sick at what I'd done later; their safety came before my feelings.

As long as my hands stayed wrapped around my bike's handlebars, they couldn't tremble.

~/~

5 years ago …

Creati aka Yaoyorozu Momo

As I stood at the head of the class and began my Wednesday morning briefing. I scanned the seats for attendance while making a concerted effort not to think about Hikigaya when my eyes slid over his empty desk. Besides Hikigaya, only Bakugo was absent.

I had to bite back an urge to sigh and then rub my temples in frustration. Bakugo had taken Hikigaya's death the hardest of all of us, still refusing to believe that his friend was dead. His excuse had been, No fucking way that asshole is gone, no body, no proof, so shut the fuck up.

Anytime people, both trained professionals or friends, tried to make him confront his grief, his response had been volatile, to say the least. Any friends who tried would be treated to the sight of him storming out with clenched fists. But I specifically remembered one grief counselor who had insinuated that perhaps Bakugo was happy that his friend was dead. That it lowered competition and how he had almost been decked in the face by Bakugo. Only a well-timed use of creation to make a lasso had stopped it.

At least, though, Bakugo wasn't trying to take his anger out on anyone. He was just grieving in his own way. So, despite dissent from various parties in class, we had ultimately decided that the best course of action would be to let him work through his emotions.

Each of our grieving processes was unique; in that regard, Bakugo was the same. He mourned by using the gym. Whenever he was late, I just had to send Yukino or Yui to the fitness center, and he would be there. Usually, he would work out furiously, but each Wednesday, he would just sit quietly on the second level. Looking out at the empty gym.

We all knew why; Wednesday was his and Hikigaya's sparring day. They would spar in the morning, lunch, and dinner. They would keep on fighting each other for hours. That was their thing, and now it was gone with Hikigaya.

In a dark way, I wished that Hikigaya had died in Japan. So Bakugo could have seen it for himself so that he wouldn't reopen fresh wounds each time he insisted that his best friend was alive. But instead, Hikigaya's corpse was probably a dried-out husk being picked at by buzzards in a foreign desert.

The Joint Force International Coalition refused to say where he had died. All that they said in the official statement was that Hachiman Hikigaya had been killed during a still ongoing special operation. 'The loss was regrettable, but in honor of his memory and the determination that guided him,' we will keep on going. They had trussed it up with some buzzwords, but that was the reality.

But those words were of little comfort to his sobbing family during the funeral. At least Bakugo had channeled his rage constructively while there. He scared off the Coalition's representatives who wanted to talk to Hikigaya's family and several enterprising paparazzi who tried to take pictures of the bereaved.

I was just preparing to send Yui or Yukino to go fetch him when said blonde burst through the classroom door.

"He's alive. I told you, that bastard is way too stubborn to die." Bakugo's eyes were wide and his smile manic.

It was Midoriya who tried to interrupt. "Bakugo, I know that it's been hard for you, but-"

The red-eyed boy barely even acknowledged Izuku, choosing instead to link his phone with the projector and unpause a video.

It was a blurry video of about twenty seconds, shot shakily with a throng of people screaming in a foreign language. The focus, I assumed because it was so hard to tell with such poor cinematography, was a pit ten meters below the stands about the same distance in diameter. A man faced down a bear roaring on its hindquarters.

In his left hand, he held a large hunting knife. The bear swept out a paw that the fighter leaped away from, narrowly escaping disembowelment by a small margin. The bear followed closely, swiping again. This time, the man in the video ducked under the attack and leaped forward. The muscles on his back rippled as he deftly cut the beast's throat, its roar fading to a choked gurgle as the crowd stayed silent.

And then the video ended.

Bakugo turned to face us. "You see, that had to be Hikigaya. That dodge by an inch, so they overextend is his classic move." He grinned in a way that none of us had seen him do since before Hikigaya died.

I didn't want to be the one to crush his spirits, but it was my duty as a leader to speak for the class and tell the truth. "Bakugo, some random video is hardly proof that he's alive. He would've found a way to tell us if he was alive." I clenched my fists; there was no use tearing up right now. I had to be the pillar that the class leaned on.

"FUCK YOU ALL! HE WOULDN'T EVER STOP LOOKING UNTIL HE FOUND A BODY!" Bakugo yelled and marched right back out the doors.

A somber mood took hold of the classroom, and I buried my head in my hands. I can't believe there was ever a time when I thought I wanted this job.

~/~

1.5 years ago

Yukishiro aka Yukino Yukinoshita

"Yukino, what do you want to do when this is all over?" Hachiman asked. He was performing rapid-fire push-ups. Which, for him, was akin to maintaining a light jog.

"I don't know. This war has gone on so long it doesn't feel like it will ever end."

"I know how you feel." He replied, still exercising like a man possessed. "I just want to get away from it all when it's over. Leave Japan and see the rest of the world."

I blinked. He was always the one who led by example, but here he was saying that he was tired of being a hero. "What will we do without you?" The question was half serious and half facetious.

He snorted. "You guys don't really need me. I'm just a man out of his depth." He popped up from his push-ups, and for a moment, I thought he would begin doing burpees. "Yukino, would you want to come with me, maybe Katsuki or Yui as well?"

My eyes widened. Could I do something like that? Leave with my friends and not look back. I knew that Yui and Katsuki would say yes. I worked to keep the tremor out of my voice. "Where would we go?"

"Wherever we want to. We all have plenty of money." He smiled as he looked at me. Hikigaya wasn't a pretty boy like Hayato, but his face had character. A chiseled jaw and a few scars added to the rugged appearance.

"What about being heroes?" Despite my desire to, I know I could never just walk away from people who needed saving.

"We can still save people. But I'm tired of the Commission and Nezu; no more being puppets, let's just help those who need it." He offered, and I considered my options. I wanted nothing more than to run away with my friends. But nothing was ever so simple as that.

~/~

1 year ago …

Deku aka Izuku Midoriya

"What the actual fuck were you thinking?" Hikigaya raved at me, his hands gesturing aggressively. "Did you think you were being a real hero?" It was rare to see the commander so furious. I felt a sting of shame. He had been waiting for me in the courtyard the second that I touched down. This tongue lashing was going to take place in front of everyone.

"I wanted to help. Keeping me locked up in headquarters isn't saving anyone." I protested, standing my ground. He turned away from me and took several deep breaths. As he turned, all the observer's eyes found something in the distance to look at.

Slowly, tension seeped from his shoulders. But my danger sense didn't stop screaming at me to be cautious. He wasn't calm; he was just forcing himself to appear so in front of the others. "Midoriya, you may have saved a few people tonight. But Shigaraki took the opportunity to lead an attack a few hundred miles in the opposite direction. Many more people died because you weren't here tonight."

A feminine voice piped up and cut off the verbal beatdown he was providing for me. "Oh, come on, Hachiman. The boy was just trying to help." Haruno Yukinoshita perambulated across the marble tiles used for the outdoor space. The second-ranked hero laid an arm over Hikigaya's shoulders. "Don't be too hard on him; it was an innocent mistake."

Our leader frowned. "He's not a boy, nor is he unaware of the consequences of his actions." This confrontation was a long time coming, and for once, I wanted it. He had the things I wanted and attained them without ever seeming to chase them. The press labeled him as All Might's successor and the leader of the next generation. He had Katsuki's undying respect, loyalty, and friendship, the two of them proving multiple times the unbelievable lengths they'd go through to help the other. The worst thing of them all was how he made me feel inadequate without even trying.

He had achieved just as much as I had without any outside help. Despite the many detractors, he never let his quirklessness slow him down. He had somehow even turned Katsuki into a supporter.

Once more, he changed the battlefield as he sighed and then slumped wearily. "Midoriya, you saved people. I know that's what you want to do, but sometimes being a hero means doing what's best even when it's hard. I know that sitting back and training feels pointless, but that is the most heroic thing you can be doing right now." At that moment, the stress of these years seemed to catch up to him all at once. He looked tired and sad.

I couldn't find the words to respond. All that I could do in response was nod slowly as he shrugged off Haruno and walked back inside.

I no longer knew what it meant to be a hero. At times like these, I really miss All Might. His advice always made me feel better, and even as he died, he still seemed larger than life. I could go visit his gravesite, but unfortunately, the dead never talked back.

~/~

7 years ago …

Jägerin aka Haruno Yukinoshita

My car pulled up, and Hikigaya leaped out with the grace of a panther. He pulled the suit jacket I'd had in the back of my car around his bare torso. It was too small for his frame, wrapped almost skin across his shoulders.

He landed silently and turned to me. "Well, shall we?" He offered an arm.

I bit back a snort. "Nice try, maybe in a few years."

He thought fast and put on a confused expression. "You mean walking next to you."

I leaned in and whispered in his ear. "Something like that." And he shivered. This was going to be fun.

He swept forward, and I followed. Inside the illustrious hall were some of the most influential and powerful people in the hero community; he had made them wait. How interesting.

The front doors slammed open as he marched through. As he entered, all eyes were on him, but Hikigaya kept his head high. I followed behind and took a seat next to my sister.

"You were supposed to bring him here on time and in one piece." My little sister hissed.

"Relax," I checked my watch. "We're only twenty minutes late."

Her gaze followed him and drifted lower than was appropriate for a lady. "Why is his jacket two sizes too small for him?" She complained but didn't look away.

"Nezu gave me a suit and said to give it to him." I replied, lazily inspecting my nails. "Besides, you seem to like it on him." She blushed furiously and looked away from me.

Meanwhile, Hikigaya took the stage and was met with a smiling All Might. They shook hands, and Hikigaya was presented with a plaque. All Might, lay a Medal over his neck and the newly honored student turned to face the crowd and give his address.

"The Hero Commissary's Medal of Valor is the Hughes award that they can bestow." I bit back a sigh. When we met, I thought he would be interesting, but he was just as boring as everyone else.

"But I don't deserve this honor. I failed during dark seas, and the Hero Killer was defeated by my peers more than me. It wouldn't be right to place me next to legendary heroes like All Might." He gestured to the massive man, who looked as shocked as the rest of us, his ever-present smile for once fading."

Hikigaya stared straight into the cameras as he spoke. "I will be auctioning off this award; all proceeds will go to the victim's families." He then turned and walked off the stage. I may have been the first to break the silence as I burst out laughing.

He was so much more than interesting. He was the most entertaining thing I had ever come across. I wonder what he'll do next?

~/~

(A/N): Title from Nietzsche Quote. Beginning of the Haruno/8man backstory

XXxxxadisxxxXX: The storytelling style is for people who like the manner of the story. In many ways, the style is meant to be sort of like Slumdog Millionaire. Also, this allows me to skip boring parts of the story. Everyone who reads BNHA fanfic has read the training montage and entrance exam. Most people don't want to read it for the nth time. Besides, most of the more adult stories take place near the end (besides Hachiman's; but he's the exception)

Calderoneric758: Bakugo and 8man make each other better heroes. And eventually, his parents, of course, find out that he is stronger than they believed. Also, his relationship with Komachi is going to be complicated; they both care about each other but have their struggles in coexisting.

ZEDNEMwashere: Yeah, my goal was to convey that the friendship between 8man and Yukino is extremely strong. Also, Bakugo being a bro is fun to write; it's an enticing challenge to keep him abrasive but still functioning as a friend.

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