Bakugou Katsuki had never once felt regret in his life. Not even when he started bullying Midoriya Izuku. Not even when he convinced all of their classmates over the years to bully his childhood friend along with him. Not even when he told Izuku to commit suicide.

He was too proud to feel anything but pride, rage, and hatred. Pride in his incredible strength and Quirk. Rage when he felt that he - someone better than everyone else - was looked down on. Hatred - along with rage, this is what he felt towards Midoriya.

But somehow, now... now he was feeling regret. And not just a small twinge of it. It was like all the regret and sorrow and fear he should have been feeling all these years was hitting him, all at once. It was overwhelming.

What was stupid Deku doing there, with the Villains? Why?! How dumb was he?! He had been missing for a year, making his mom and Katsuki's mom and lots of other people worry, only to show up now?! Like this?! He was glad that Izuku was alive and that he looked healthy, but-! But-!

"The fuck're ya doin', ya stupid Deku?!"

Rage, and maybe even a hint of concern and an even smaller sprinkle of relief dripped from his voice as he gazed upon the green-haired boy and shouted out to him, though his voice became slightly more shrill as his former friend willingly and fearlessly walked right over to the Villains. Willingly and fearlessly took one of their outstretched hands.

Katsuki's comrades had all fallen, bleeding and unconscious and possibly even dead. The only one still standing after the attack, aside from himself and the Villains, was his childhood friend whom he couldn't stand being near - and a Quirkless civilian at that - a Quirkless civilian whom, again, had been missing for the last year - Midoriya Izuku. Help from more experienced Heroes was still far from them, and they were out of time. Adding to Katsuki's stress, the stupid Hero-loving nerd was going with the enemy?! The hell was going on!

He scowled, baring his teeth when the Villains laughed, but he softened his frown slightly when Izuku finally looked back at him. The look on Izuku's face caused his brain to pause all function. He'd never seen anything but an idiotic smile on the face of his former friend, but this expression was anything but that. Izuku's eyes were tired and dark lines ran deep beneath them. His smile was gone, replaced with nothing but a dead frown as he stared coldly at Katsuki.

"You must be stupid if you can't tell!" A Villain spoke from beside him - a girl with a wide smile and blonde hair. It snapped Katsuki out of his trance.

"The hell ya mean?!" He glowered, shouting back. He was keeping his distance, but her annoying remark paired with Deku being stupidly close to those dangerous people was almost enough to get him to charge. It was taking everything he had in him to not explode from frustration, to not just run over there and pull that idiot away from them and out of danger, to—! To... to be a Hero. The Hero he was training to be.

He was taken off guard again, though, when Deku suddenly smiled. It was lifeless. Filled with hate and suffering and glee and torture all at once. It was... it was wrong. All wrong. Unnatural, especially for someone who was usually so damn happy. It was worse than the frown he was wearing just moments before, and that wasn't something that Katsuki thought would be possible! It caused Katsuki to freeze all over again, his earlier problem of being unable to think repeating, especially when Izuku finally spoke up and addressed him.

"Ah... Ka-! I mean, Bakugou-San." Katsuki almost visibly flinched. Deku never formally addressed him. Even after all those years of bullying and growing up and drifting apart, Deku always called him by the nickname he gave him back when they were kids - Kacchan. "What my friend here means is, well... I'm a Villain." He giggled at the end of his boldly-declared statement, his smile still tired and emotionless, but also sickly sweet and full of deception.

"The hell—?!"

"Allow me to elaborate. Remember when you told me how I could become a Hero, Bakugou-San?"

Katsuki felt sweat drip down his face. His eyes widened, his pupils shrinking to the size of pin-pricks. He felt himself start to tremble, and he didn't know why.

"Wha...What does that...?" All at once, his rage was defused.

Izuku simply giggled again, letting Katsuki ponder the meaning for a moment before continuing.

"Well, Bakugou-San, you see... Before I helped you with that Sludge Villain, I ran into All Might. He told me what you and everyone else were always saying... that somebody like me, somebody without a Quirk, could never become a Hero." He averted his eyes, then lazily let them wander back to Katsuki's face after he scanned the surrounding area. Strangely, he seemed surprised to see Katsuki standing before him, as though he had nearly forgotten that Katsuki was there and that he had been speaking to Katsuki in the first place. He almost looked afraid for a split second... then, the surprise dulled down and he was back to how he was before his eyes went adrift, his gaze now fixated on Katsuki rather than being allowed to wander. Just like his voice, his stare was distant. It was like Izuku wasn't even truly there. He had been answering Katsuki's questions when asked - sort of - and his body was there, but he didn't seem to care enough to be emotionally present, and it was very disturbing for Katsuki to see. Seeing Izuku acting so aloof in such a grim situation was beyond unnatural. Then Katsuki tensed as, finally, Izuku cleared his throat and continued with his thought, finishing answering the question that had been left open in the air for Katsuki to try to interpret on his own. "Between that and everything else that I was going through... And with what you said... Well, I tried to do what you suggested. I was so tired, you know? I didn't want to live anymore."

Silence. Katsuki's own heart seemed to stop, and he finally looked up, directly into those dead, distant eyes. He was looking for any sign that this was all some big lie, a big, bad, elaborate as fuck joke.

He found nothing. Just a tired smile that screamed volumes to Katsuki about Izuku's state of mind, no matter how emotionally distant Izuku currently was.

"It didn't work. As it turns out, I do have a Quirk. It won't let me die. No matter how much I cut, how many pills I take, how many times I break my neck with a noose, how high of a building I jump off of... No matter how badly I break myself, I just can't seem to die!" He laughed again, but then he quieted down when a sort of fog-man Villain said something to him. He sighed at whatever it was that he had been told, looking at Katsuki again as the Villains opened a portal to who-knows-where. This time, he hadn't forgotten who he was talking to after looking away and he didn't seem afraid or surprised when he looked back at the Hero-in-Training.

"That's when my new friends found me. After that incident... After I knew that I wouldn't be of any use to the world as a Hero or anything else - I mean, you know how bad I've always been at everything but studying..." he laughed a little despite himself. Katsuki didn't see the humor in the situation. "I went back to our school and jumped off the roof. Unfortunately, I lived like I did every other time I tried to die before then! Although, this time, it hurt a lot more. Some of my organs even exploded from the impact. It was very... Unpleasant." He seemed to shudder at the memory of the sensation, then he smiled again, leering at Katsuki. "Then, as I started to resurrect, I was found by our Master. He helped put me back together, helped my bones heal up right and told me that I wasn't useless, at least, not to him and his organization!" His smile wavered for a moment - somehow, Katsuki got the feeling that, even though stupid Deku was making the memory out to be a good one, it wasn't all that Deku was making it out to be. Deku had taken a nose dive off of a building, after all, so how could it be?! "I'm smart, and they helped me put that intelligence to use, and... and I'm actually really scary in fights now that I've had training." He turned away. "I would have made a great Hero." He stepped towards the portal, following after the Villains. He looked back just one last time, that murderous smile that screamed for help glued beneath his lightless eyes as he looked between Katsuki and the city. "But seeing the damage I managed to do here, with a little help from my new friends... I guess I make a better Villain, huh? I'm really not so useless after all, just like how my new friends say." He seemed to say that last part to himself, rather than to Katsuki.

Then he was gone, and the portal disappeared. Katsuki felt a shudder run through his body and he fell to his knees. He looked around him at his fallen classmates and teachers, then back to where the portal had been. He felt wetness pool over from his eyes and run down his cheeks, even though he stared unblinkingly at the spot where Deku last was, all the information he just gained hitting him at once.

Stupid Deku tried to kill himself.

Stupid Deku was kidnapped after what was probably a particularly nasty suicide attempt.

Stupid Deku was turned into a Villain.

Stupid Deku and his new Villain friends wrought devastation on the Heroes and Heroes-in-Training that Katsuki was finally starting to get along with.

And... it was all his fault. He gritted his teeth and punched the ground as hard as he could, causing a small explosion with his Quirk. "Dammit, Dammit, Dammit! That fuckin' idiot! Shitty fuckin' nerd, I'll fuckin' kill you if you don't get your ass back here!" Izuku was already gone, he knew that, but... he couldn't help but be angry. Even so... All he had to blame for this situation was himself. He pushed Izuku to commit suicide. He bullied Izuku to the point of breaking, all over... over what? Thinking Izuku was looking down on him, just for being a good friend and offering a helping hand to him when he fell in that water? Just for Izuku being worried that his friend might have been hurt back when they were kids?

Katsuki screamed at the sky as Pro-Heroes finally started to arrive at the scene - a city center and what was once a school for Heroes, leveled to rubble. It wasn't their fault that they were late. The Villains had attacked at many points at once, and it wasn't like they had known that the school was one of the Villains' targets until it was too late. Even if they had known, it wasn't like they could have done anything about it. Everyone had had their hands full. Everyone had suffered casualties to their teams.

For an attack to be so strategically coordinated, with Villains with Quirks that were strong against Heroes in each district sent specifically to those districts to give them the advantage in the attacks, well... only one person could have helped come up with such an impregnable plan. There was only one person that Katsuki had ever known who kept notebook upon notebook of notes on people and their Quirks - especially Heroes and their Quirks - and thus would know where to send each Villain.

Katsuki wailed as regret and sorrow finally overtook him.

He did this. He caused all of this. He had created who he was sure was to become the most feared Villain in all of history.

Izuku's eyes had cried for help like Izuku said Katsuki's had when he came to his aid during the incident with the Sludge Villain, and the only hand offered to him in his time of need was the hand of a Villain. Where were the Heroes? Where was Katsuki? He scoffed at his own train of thought.

Katsuki was telling him to kill himself.

It took him a while, but Katsuki shook his head clear of those kinds of thoughts and finally managed to calm down, determination now glittering in his eyes, fueling his ability to stand back up.

He could blame himself all he wanted later. For now, though, he had to help. He had to help his fallen teammates, help clean up the ruined city, help people find their loved ones - even if those loved ones were now no more than bodies hidden by rubble. After all, knowing was better than not most of the time as to the condition of a missing loved one.

As soon as he was done, his new mission would start. He was taking the vow, right here, right now.

No matter what, he would find Izuku... and he would save him.

"I promise, Deku... I'll become the Hero ya need. The one ya always saw when ya looked at me, even when I was nothing but a Villain to ya. I'll work as hard as I can to become what ya said I was, and I will save ya. No matter how terrible of a Villain ya become, I'll stop ya and I'll bring ya back. I'll fix what I broke." He looked to the sky, biting his lip a little to help sharpen his senses and keep his mind clear and focused. Izuku had helped him even though Izuku was thought to be Quirkless when his eyes had cried for help when the Sludge Villain had his clutches on Katsuki. Now, it was Katsuki's turn to save Izuku, whether he wanted or asked for help or not. Because his eyes were crying for aid like Katsuki's had way back then. And because saving someone, even without that someone asking... well, that's what Heroes do.

Rage and hate would no longer fuel him. Now, his pride was partnered with remorse and determination.