Thanks to everyone who's read this story so far and as always, big thanks to those of you who left comments, bookmarks and favorites. Lastly, thank you to my Beta, VAspera for editing my work!

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XXX

Katsuki's Point of View- Monday

Everything Deku's endured- his blood, his tears, all his fears and struggles- have brought him here, stranded on the precipice of this reality. He'll either fall into oblivion or ride on fate's merciful wings, it all rests in the hands of some child attacking psycho. On principle, I like to exercise control over every aspect of my life and the idea of giving it all away to an unstable stranger is infuriating. Where I should feel excitement and hope for the culmination of what I could only describe as the most stressful few months of my life, I instead feel uneasy and powerless like my feet are bound together yet I've been commanded to run a race with my life hanging in the balance. In the back of my mind, I know I'm being ridiculous, that there's no real cause for this level of anxiety, but still it lingers.

Deku appears to be just as nervous, twiddling his thumbs while he silently stares out the window. While my nerves are powered by trepidation, his are bathed in excitement. He has every right to be excited too. A future he had given up on has suddenly become attainable, the chance to be a hero, hell the chance to make it into his 20's is real. I just hope on the other side of this, once she's fixed what she's done, he won't be left a broken heap on the floor.

"Kacchan, are you okay? You seem kinda pensive." A gentle touch to my shoulder, Deku's watching me carefully, worriedly.

"M' fine. Just anxious to get there is all." Typical midday traffic has slowed everyone down to a crawl. Just one more fucking thing that's out of my control.

"Mmm, me too. It's funny, I've dreamed about this day but now that it's finally here it all just feels so surreal. Like my brain can't accept that when I wake up tomorrow morning, this nightmare might be gone." He scoots a little closer to me, as close as his seatbelt will allow. My knee falls to the side, closing the remaining space and resting against his.

"Well one thing's for fucking sure- you're going to have to work your ass off to make up for the training you've missed out on because of all this. We can't be a hero team if you don't pass High School."

His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, jaw dropped low. Not sure what the hell this nerd's so surprised about but he looks like he's going into shock. "Y-you wanna be a hero duo with me!? Kacchan, that would be so cool! We could have our own agency and everything!"

"Hell yeah we would. Villains wouldn't stand a fucking chance." He beams at me, truly elated by the prospect of what our future could hold, and I have to agree it's a nice picture. "You know, this whole thing made me realize that in every scenario I ever pictured for myself, every scenario in the future anyway- somehow, you were always a part of it. I mean your role changed a lot since we were brats, but the meaning behind that fact has not. You were always meant to be a part of my life and I was always meant to be a part of yours."

My words seemed to elicit tear filled eyes while his chin wobbles dramatically. "Kacchan, you're going to make me cry!"

"Not like that's hard to do…"

"You're so mean!" Laughing, I lean over to kiss his cheek, his freckled skin soft and wet beneath my lips.

The overall drive to the station was short, when I stepped out of the little silver car, staring the building down, realization of what was about to happen hit me like a ton of bricks. With the fear nagging at me in the back of my head aside, we were about to do something life changing and for the better. Everything will be different after today. Everything. Deku seemed to be thinking the same thing as we stared at the building together, silently.

"This is it" he whispered, unmoving.

"Are you ready for this shit? To come face to face with the sociopath who did this to you?"

Nodding, the tepid look on his face evolved into steely resolve. He took my hand and led the way inside, his sure steps and even stride exemplifying his determination.

Just through the door, we're met with a tall, lanky woman with short brown hair and matching eyes. She's dressed smartly in a form fitting black pantsuit and crisp white undershirt. The moment she saw us she greeted us with a bow. "Ah, you must be Midoriya. I'm detective Ando." The station around her is buzzing with activity. Some officers are busy typing or taking phone calls at their desks, some are rushing around with a fire under their asses, trying to accomplish some important task. There's a lot of noise from it all and it gives me a goddamn headache.

Deku returns her bow with a smile. "Yes, that's me! It's nice to meet you, Detective Ando."

"I've been assisting detective Tsukauchi in this investigation. Your teachers arrived a few minutes prior and are waiting for you with everyone else in a private room. Please follow me." With that she turns around and strides quickly to a nearby door which connects to a hallway. She stopped halfway down the hall, opening another door and gesturing for us to enter.

Just as she said, everyone I would have expected to find was here. All Might and Auntie are talking quietly in a corner, Aizawa is leaning against the wall with his arms folded, staring intently at the pane of glass separating this room from the holding room while the rat's pulled out a chair and his humming quietly to himself, watching everyone else.

As soon as we walk inside, the room falls silent. Auntie walks right over to Deku and embraces him while ruffling my hair with her hand. "Izuku, you're here! Sweet boy, everything is going to be better after today. I'm so happy I just don't know what to do with myself!" She's crying but for once they're tears of joy instead of sadness.

"I'm happy too, mom." Deku nuzzles into her, lovingly returning her hug.

"Oi! I thought we were here to fix this shit. Where the fuck is she?" She isn't anywhere to be seen as far as I can tell.

Lifting a single finger, Aizawa points to the glass he's been staring intently at with a frown. "She's in there talking with detective Tsukauchi."

Stepping a little closer, I look inside and the moment my eyes land on her, I hear a sharp inhale as Deku spots her too. She's slumped miserably in a chair with her arms resting on a table. True to what Auntie had said about her, her hair is a rich, vibrant purple, eyes the color of lilac and skin a creamy alabaster. She's wearing tight, faded blue jeans and a gray, V-neck T-shirt with cats printed all over it. Her face is damp with what I'm sure are crocodile tears, the stupid whore probably doing her best to play this up as much as possible. Well guess what asshole? You. Don't. Fool. Me.

Wasting no time, Deku marches to the door and lets himself inside. I follow just behind him with everyone else milling in after us. His entrance startles her and it takes her a minute of looking him up and down before it clicks. Her bottom lip trembles as she takes him in until the whole dam breaks and she's thrown into a fit of hysterics. I have to admit her acting is spot on and if I didn't already know she was garbage I might have been fooled.

While the nerd just stands there, unsure of what to do about this, she gets up from her chair and without getting any closer, which is good cause I'd have blasted her if she did, she bows low to him. "I-I'm so s-s-orry! I s-swear I… just no idea. My quirk doesn't… it d-doesn't make p-people sick. I-I don't understand what ha-happened!"

Wait, what was that now? There's no way I just heard that fucking bald-faced lie slip off her tongue. No fucking way. "Oi! The fuck you mean you didn't know? If you didn't make him sick, then what the fuck did you do to him?"

She lifts her head and blinks at me over her stupid tears, fucking piece of shit. She looks between the two of us, probably confused as to who I am and why I'm also here to witness her miserable disgrace of an act.

Deku shoots a glare my way and I swear to god if he's succumbing to this shitshow of a pity party I will lose my fucking mind. "Look, what you did was- I just have no words. I mean, you took my childhood from me, left me to suffer because you had a grudge against my mother- who is an amazing woman by the way- and now you're telling me you didn't know what you did. I don't understand. If your quirk doesn't make people sick, then what does it do?"

Looking behind Deku, I see Auntie nodding her head along with his words, her expression fierce, like she's ready to maul the fucker. All Might is watching everything unfold from the back corner, Aizawa and Nezu next to him.

With a drawn-out sigh, she pulls herself together and begins her explanation. "I-I call my quirk Ransack. B-basically, it allows me to remove someone's quirk." Holy shit….

"You removed Young Midoriya's quirk?!" All Might looks as startled by that revelation as I feel. I don't know how to absorb that news. Deku wasn't supposed to be quirkless? What about his toe joint?

"Hold on a second. Are you saying I wasn't supposed to be quirkless? I- I had a quirk? And you took it…." Deku's voice breaks, a deep sadness has manifested behind that emerald gaze sparking outrage that this shithead had the audacity to take something so precious from him.

"I- I have no excuse that could possibly justify what I did to you. I was young and just…. Just so stupid! But after I did it, I realized it was a very bad idea. You were just a toddler and I attacked you out of the blue. So, I hid. I transferred to a different university and lived the next decade constantly moving from town to town. I didn't try to find you again because I just thought- well I thought it would wear off on its own." Silence sweeps over the room as we all try to wrap our heads around what she just told us.

"I have to ask, because your ability is familiar to me- how many quirks can you take and use at one time? That's a very dangerous ability…" Hitting the nail on the head, All Might's question brings thoughts of All for One to the forefront of my mind.

"Actually, I uh, I can't use them at all. I can just remove them and give them back. It's honestly not very useful. It made for some fun pranks when I was a kid, but I don't use it much as an adult." Okay, that's fucking lame, but it still leaves a major question left unanswered.

"Oi! Why the hell is he sick if that's all your quirk does? Doesn't make any fucking sense."

"Um, well I don't actually know…" Of course, you fucking don't.

"If I may, I think I might have a possible explanation for this interesting occurrence." The rat walks up to Deku, his expression curious. "From what I understand, quirks are deeply ingrained in our DNA. They are as much a part of us as the color of our eyes or the shape of our noses. What then do you think would happen if that integral part of our genetic makeup was forcibly removed? We know of others who have had this happen, but they've either not lived from the experience or have not been without a quirk long enough to determine if they'll fall prey to illness like Midoriya has." The fucking rat might be onto something here…

"That makes perfect sense to me. Young Midoriya's body is falling apart because his DNA was severely damaged from the removal." All Might focuses on the trash standing before us, beckoning to her with his outstretched hand. "If you give him his quirk back then perhaps his body will right itself!"

"I can try, but I'll have to touch him if that's okay?" She tentatively reaches her hand out to him. My instincts are telling me to snap her arm in half and laugh as she withers in pain on the floor, but I grit my teeth and hold myself back.

"O-okay, that makes sense. Here-" With some hesitance, understandably given what happened the last time she touched him, Deku reached out to her, taking her hand in his. Her eyelids flutter closed, face scrunched in concentration as a purple light glows around their connection. When it dies down, I wait with bated breath, praying to whatever god is listening that it worked.

A long moment later, her eyes open and she drops her hand to her side with this look of uncertainty tainting her face. Deku lifts his hand up and inspects it quizzically, equally unsure.

"Do you feel any different? Can you feel your quirk?" I finally ask because the silence and weird looks between them are pissing me off.

After one last look at his hand, he answers with, "not really" and nothing else.

When I look back over to the woman, she's got her hand covering her mouth and she looks like she's about to break down into another crying fit. What the fuck is going on? Everyone in the room watches her expectantly as a feeling of dread begins to push to the surface. "Oi! I know you have something to say about this, it's written all over your face. What's going on? Spit it out already!"

Her trembling hand drops to her side, her breath shaky and a fresh round of tears make an appearance. After a hard swallow she says, "I don't think it worked. I- I could always feel it as the quirk returned to its proper owner, kind of like how you feel air leave your body with each exhale, but in his case, I felt nothing. It- maybe because I waited s-so long, his body has changed since he was a toddler, and now it's t-too late."

Icy tendrils creep from a dark chasm planted so deep inside of me, I didn't even know it existed. They invade my system like a parasite, slowly slithering closer and closer to my beating heart, chilling my skin with its cool, vice-like grip. It probes at my consciousness, threatening to take over if I let it, but I'm a fighter. I won't bow down to this, not yet. "Un-fucking-acceptable." I swing my gaze over to the detective while trying not to lose control of my temper to the point I start exploding shit. "She's obviously fucking lying. She needs to try again right the fuck now."

He just looks at me for a second, stone faced and unblinking before slowly nodding his head. Everyone else voices their agreement as well, though the conviction behind it is slowly disappearing. "Angelina, will you please try one more time. Perhaps because it's been so long it will take more effort to return it."

"O-okay, yeah I can do that." Like before she reaches out to Deku who once again takes her hand. He's trying to be strong for all of us, squared shoulders and head held high, but I can tell he's unconvinced. His hope is slowly seeping out of him like blood from a fresh wound and I wonder what will be left of any of us when it's gone. The purple light glows around them again, her eyes are closed in complete concentration while the nerd studies the soft haze with interest. Even now, with everything on the line, his fascination with quirks is still at the forefront of his mind.

Once the light dies out, she's still grasping his hand with a white-knuckle grip. We all watch as Deku pulls his hand free, sighing heavily in distress, a single tear sliding down his cheek. They just look at each other for a moment, like they're silently communicating until finally, she whispers, "I'm so sorry" as she lets her hand fall dejectedly to her side.

And just like that, one of those tendrils wraps itself around my heart, squeezing for all it's worth. It hurts so much I can't fucking breath. Every time I try to inhale my body just shudders as stupid, fat tears spill down my cheeks. I want to rage, to throw things and burn the fucking place down, but my feet are rooted to the spot. I can't breathe, I can't move, I can't even feel anything outside of the horrible icy pain radiating through my chest.

Auntie's shaky voice rings throughout the room, completely devoid of its usual, cheery tone. "Sorry? You're sorry? How dare you tell us you're sorry?!" Furiously, she tries to march over to the woman, but All Might holds her back. "You've ruined his life! You're a monster! You can take your 'I'm sorry' and shove it up your ass!" Her thrashing intensifies, making it necessary for Aizawa to aid All Might in holding her down.

"Please calm down Mrs. Midoriya. We are all very upset by this but attacking her won't help the situation!" All Might's words seem to do the trick. She stops fighting them, instead taking a step back and crossing her arms with an indignant sniffle.

Dropping to her knees, the purple haired psycho sobs pleadingly to Deku. "P-please! I-I didn't mean… didn't mean to h-hurt you. Oh god, I-I can't believe I've d-done this to a-a child." She weeps pitifully at his feet, her words only serving to piss Auntie and me off more while Deku just stares at her blankly.

"Fuck off with that shit!" Blasts pop off in my hands, just barely controlled beneath the tidal wave of emotion coursing through me. I go to approach her but fucking Aizawa wraps his scarf around me, keeping me rooted to the spot, my explosions dying out from his quirk. "I hope you fucking rot in jail. He- he didn't fucking deserve any of this. You… you've sent him to an early grave, and I hope that eats you up inside for the rest of your fucking miserable life." The impassioned snarl that escapes from my lips is foreign to me, sounding nothing like my usual, confidence. Even though it's useless, I still thrash violently against Aizawa's hold. I'm so furious and I just need to take it out on something- anything.

Finally, Deku breaks from his trance like state, locking his eyes on mine with this sad half smile that makes me feel sick to my fucking stomach. Then, he does the unthinkable. He takes a few steps toward her shaking form and drops to his knees just in front of her. She lifts her head, looking up to him with tear stained cheeks, pale skin an ugly red from all the waterworks. He leans into her, wrapping his arms around the undeserving shrew, while whispering something so low, I barely caught it.

The words, "I forgive you" ghost from his lips, the resulting shock stunting the spiraling chaos that's ravaging the room.