Decided to try a one-shot, for once. Instead of, you know, starting a multi-chapter epic. Just a plot bunny I decided to follow and put to paper.

Who knows? Maybe one day I'll continue this, but for the time being, enjoy the frantic musings of a man who just wants to see Izuku Midoriya with a villainous quirk.

Izuku Midoriya was of the controversial opinion that villainous quirks existed.

That was not to say that there were clearly heroic quirks and blatantly villainous quirks, that the nature of one's quirk somehow predestined their role in society. A quirk like All Might's or Endeavor's would be just as capable of wreaking havoc as could a quirk like that sludge villain's. Yet, the former two used their quirks for good while the latter seemed content to cause harm and trouble when such a versatile quirk would be fantastic for heroics.

No, there was a singular reason why Izuku knew that villainous quirks existed.

After all, his was one.

'We're here, whelp.'

His quirk was one of the very few sentient quirks that existed. While it didn't manifest itself like some quirks out there did, he could not deny that his quirk didn't have a mind of its own.

'This 'school' nonsense is beneath you, but if you are going to partake in this ridiculousness, at least do it right. Hurry up and get off the bus before you make a fool of yourself.'

His quirk was an interesting one. He (his quirk was male, apparently) claimed to have come from another world, a world of swords and magic, like something out of a fantasy novel. There, according to his quirk, he was one of the most powerful beings in existence – though Izuku wondered how much of that was inflated ego – whose might was capable of reshaping the earth itself to his whim. Much to his quirk's chagrin, he was on the verge of claiming dominion over the world and eradicating the mortal races when a band of upstart heroes, assisted by his own brothers and sisters, rebelled and killed him.

Even if only part of that was true, it was cause for concern.

Unfortunately for Izuku, death had not quelled his quirk's thirst for destruction and domination. Ever since his quirk came in at the tender age of four, he had to appease his homicidal quirk or find ways to appease it without compromising his own morals. Hell, every time Kacchan was anywhere nearby, he had to restrain himself for fear that his quirk would brutalize his former childhood friend-turned-bully. It was a constant struggle, especially given how crazed his quirk was in his pursuit for absolute control and domination of the world.

Hence, "villainous quirk."

His quirk gave him the ability to shapeshift into a dragon. A terrifying dragon, if he was completely honest. He had no doubt that his quirk was far stronger and more versatile than Ryukyu's, given that he could partially transform and voluntarily take on various draconic features and abilities. Additionally, unlike the Dragoon Hero, he also had the ability to breathe fire and spew magma. Officially, his quirk was called Volcanic Drake.

Unofficially, he was the next incarnation of a truly terrifying villain, one that went by many names.

The Destroyer. Death Incarnate. The Aspect of Death. Worldbreaker. The Cataclysm. The Black Scourge. Black Dragonlord. The Unmaker of Worlds.

Deathwing.

'NOW, WHELP!'

Izuku scrambled off the bus, much to the amusement of those who'd already disembarked. Already he could hear the snickering of the other applicants as they wrote off his meek and assuming behavior. Truthfully, he would take this over the constant jeers and ridicule he received at Aldera Junior High for having a 'villainous quirk'. It would have been easier to hide, had his appearance not changed as he got older.

His formerly green hair had, over the years, started to grow orange streaks as his green hair turned pitch black. His complexion was slightly paler nowadays, as if his skin was lightly dusted with fallen ash. His once deep emerald eyes were now orange-red and looked decidedly reptilian in appearance. Other than that, he looked fairly ordinary and plain, save for the set of four freckles set on each cheek in the shape of a diamond.

A firm hand on his shoulder brought him to an immediate halt.

"If you cannot take this exam seriously, you should leave."

Izuku turned and glared at the blue-haired boy that had been so vocal during Present Mic's orientation. His draconic nature flared up at the boy's hostility, and it took everything he had to hold Deathwing back. "Excuse me?"

"You were lazing about on the bus and were the last one to get off. Such blasé behavior during this prestigious entrance exam is shameful! Either take this seriously or leave!" The bespectacled boy commanded.

Izuku could feel Deathwing rumbling with fury from within.

'It would be so easy to reduce him to ash, Izuku.'

'No.' Izuku answered mentally.

'You show weakness by letting him disrespect you, whelp.'

'I show strength by exercising restraint.' He countered. 'If I acted on every impulse I had, I wouldn't be any better than Kacchan.'

'You would compare me to that irritable meatbag?'

'That's a little rude, but yes.'

'...You are fortunate we are bound, whelp. I would throw your smoldering remains into the sea otherwise.'

'Stop being melodramatic.' Izuku snarked as he turned his attention back to the rude boy from earlier.

Before Izuku could give any sort of retort, Present Mic's voice thundered over the area.

"OKAY, START!"

Izuku decided to use Present Mic's interruption and get away from the rude bluenette and immediately ran into the mock city. Once he cleared away from the main group, he took flight, his tattered black wings unfolding through the slits in the back of his tracksuit.

"Well, what are you waiting for?!" Present Mic asked. "That little listener has the right idea! There are no countdowns in real life! GO!"

Izuku heard the stampede of feet as his competitors flooded into the test site. He flapped his wings harder, intent on getting to the robots first. He focused his quirk into his hands, morphing them into blackened, dragon claws that glowed red with overwhelming heat. His lower jaw hardened and morphed into what looked like a dragon's jawbone forged from hardened metal. Now fully prepared for a fight, he swooped down and thrust his molten claws into the torso of a two-pointer before savagely ripping the bot into two.

He spun, and a long black tail emerged from a flap tailored into his pants, slamming into a three-pointer and caving its chest in.

'I have missed this, the thrill of combat. I would have preferred live targets, but I suppose these will suffice.'

Izuku grinned as he dove into another pack of robots, tearing them apart with practiced ease. For once, he agreed with the murderous dragon residing deep in his soul. Well, he agreed with the chance to stretch his wings and let loose… not so much the part about live targets. He was not keen on attacking people if he could help it. A hero should focus on saving people, not hurting them.

And he was here to become a hero!

"We certainly have an interesting batch this year, don't we?"

"Vlad, stay unbiased." A scraggly-looking man mumbled from his place in the corner of the viewing room. "You can get excited later, after the scores are finished."

"Oh let him nerd out a little, Shota." A sultry voice sounded out in the dark room. "He's not wrong. The energy in these little ones gets my blood pumping!"

"Everything breathing with a pulse gets your blood pumping." Shota Aizawa, hero alias Eraserhead, shot back. "Down, girl."

"Look at that boy in Site B." Kan Sekijirou, hero alias Vlad King, smirked. "He's tearing through the bots like butter."

""That boy in Site B."" Shota repeated sarcastically. "There's a lot of those in that site; you're going to have to be more specific."

"You know exactly who I'm talking about, Aizawa." Kan huffed. "I'm talking about the boy with the dragon quirk."

"Ah, young Midoriya." A gaunt, blond skeleton cut in. "He is quite impressive, isn't he?"

"You know him, Yagi?" Aizawa asked.

Toshinori Yagi nodded, and a smirk crossed his face. "Yes, I had the unique privilege of meeting young Midoriya earlier this year. He's quite driven."

In truth, Izuku Midoriya was someone Toshinori had a keen interest in. After a chance encounter with the boy while in his All Might form, Toshinori learned a little about the boy currently making waves in Ground Beta. It started when the boy asked a seemingly harmless question:

"Can I be a hero, even with a villainous quirk?"

Naturally, Toshinori's first response was yes. There was no such thing as a villainous quirk. The notion was ridiculous; any quirk could be used for heroism or villainy. Why in the world had the boy thought otherwise? Later, after the boy stepped in to save a rather rambunctious and hot-headed blond from the sludge villain, Toshinori had come to learn exactly where young Midoriya was coming from.

His quirk was villainous, literally. It insisted that young Midoriya conquer or destroy the world, not save it. The boy was fighting his very nature to become a hero.

Toshinori, seeing such a heroic spirit striving forward in spite of his own nature, offered the boy One for All immediately.

Young Midoriya turned it down.

The profanity that followed was a tad excessive, though.

It only made sense once the young man explained his reasoning, and Toshinori couldn't find it in himself to really disagree. Young Midoriya pointed out that giving an already powerful evil quirk more power was probably a bad idea. He was concerned that, due to his quirk's sentience, one day he might go mad and succumb to his quirk's urges and become a villain. Young Midoriya, ever the wizened young man, said that someone else should inherit One for All. If young Midoriya were to ever go rogue, there needed to be someone who could stop him.

And thus, Toshinori's search for a successor continued.

"Well, in any case, I do believe it's time for the final test, yes?" Principal Nezu asked with cheerful malice. A collective shiver spread through the room, and Power Loader slowly pressed the big red button on the panel in front.

"Time for the grand finale." Toshinori muttered, knowing that something spectacular was about to unfold.

The ground rumbled and a small swarm of teenagers ran past, all clearly panicked and wanting to be anywhere other than here.

Izuku whipped around and saw a massive robot peering down onto the street, one of its massive hands gripping the top of a building for support. Its grip was so intense, however, that chunks of the wall fell down, threatening to crush any test takers below. It reared back with its other arm and slammed down, kicking up more dust and debris. Izuku shielded his eyes reflexively.

'That's… a little extreme.'

'FINALLY! Hardly a challenge, but a much more worthy opponent compared to those insects.'

'There's no reason to fight that thing, Deathwing.' Izuku reminded his quirk. 'There are no points involved, and – '

'Tell that to the girl trapped over there.'

Izuku's gaze whipped over to a large piece of rubble pinning a familiar brunette. It was the nice girl, the girl that used her gravity quirk to stop Izuku from falling when he tripped on a loose stone.

Deathwing was simultaneously amused and furious at Izuku's blunder, at the time. Now he was just smug; he knew pushing Izuku's "heroic" buttons would get him what he wanted.

Part of him wondered why she wasn't using her quirk to extricate herself, but then he realized that she was pinned on her stomach. Unless she had the ability to twist and contort her body in ways not usual for an average human, she was not going to be able to use her quirk on that rubble. She was trapped, and that zero-pointer was about to run her over.

'If we're doing this, we're doing this my way, got it? You will NOT go on a rampage. Understand?' Izuku insisted. 'I will fight you every step of the way if you decide to go berserk and murder everyone.'

'...Fine. You will see things my way in time, whelp. Go save your precious little mortal already. I will simply take my frustrations out on this tin can instead.'

Izuku moved, and the dragon emerged.

Ochako Uraraka was not having a good day.

It started out well enough, she supposed. She saved a nervous (or mute, she couldn't tell) boy from eating pavement that morning. She struggled with, but ultimately finished, the written portion of the exam and felt fairly confident in her score. Even her experience here in site B, nauseating as it was, was going fairly well. She had at least 40 points! Those downed bots at the beginning were super useful to use as weightless improvised weaponry. She'd probably have scored lower trying to tackle the bots on her own.

But then she had to go and get trapped under some stupid rubble when that stupid zero-pointer came and wrecked that stupid street. Her heart sank when she heard the massive treads approaching from behind. She was going to be crushed! She was going to die!

Then he appeared in a plume of smoke and dust.

One moment she saw dozens of applicants fleeing for their lives – with a sole boy running towards her – and the next she saw a massive shadow drape over the street. She looked up and, for the first time in her fifteen years of life, felt dread.

Not fear. Fear is a biological response to danger, and compels one to retreat from the danger and seek refuge.

Dread is knowing that absolutely nothing can stop the dragon towering over her from killing her.

He was massive, easily eclipsing the zero-pointer in size and weight. Honestly, it was a wonder he fit on the street in the first place. He stepped forward with a massive claw, and the asphalt below began to sizzle and melt under his grip. His titanic wings unfurled, sending a blast of heat outward that made the street feel like an oven. His skin reminded her of cooled lava, its crackled obsidian appearance outlined by glowing orange in each exposed gap between his scales. Metal plates were stapled and riveted into his hide; whether they were armor or meant to hold his gargantuan form together, she did not know. His chest seemed to glow the brightest behind its armor, as if a pool of white-hot magma bubbled deep within.

Naturally, he had the head and face of a dragon. Unnaturally, it looked absolutely molten; even with its sharp, blocky lower jaw closed, she could see the bright glow of what was either lava or fire smoldering within his mouth. A set of massive curved horns extended backward past his crown; she felt small and insignificant just gazing upon his head, let alone the rest of him. Then she did something she probably shouldn't have done.

She met the dragon's glowing red eye.

Hatred. Pure, unbridled hatred and rage wafted off his form in waves, and she had to refrain from soiling herself right then and there. Yet, it was not aimed at her; she knew this on an instinctual level. No, it seemed to have no particular target. Hatred and anger was its natural state, and woe be upon the poor soul who found itself the focus of its ire.

She cowed in his presence, and a humbling realization dawned on her in that moment. She was in the presence of a force of nature. This was volcanic vengeance. An earthquake made flesh. Winged death. The apocalypse given agency.

And when he spoke, the world shuddered.

"I. AM. DEATHWING." The titan rumbled as it opened its iron jaw and lumbered forward. "The Destroyer. The end of all things. Inevitable, indomitable. I. AM. THE CATACLYSM!"

A moment later, she felt the piece of rubble pinning her lift off her. Ochako looked up at the behemoth who decided to spare her.

"Flee, little whelpling. You are not my prey today." Deathwing rumbled as he flicked the rubble away.

Ochako obeyed, running off to a (presumably) safe distance. She felt a hand yank her into one of the artificial storefronts. A moment later, she was face to face with a tall boy with glasses, who looked scared out of his mind.

"What in the world is THAT?!" The bluenette hissed, as if raising his voice any higher would draw the dragon's attention.

"I… I think that's one of the test takers." Ochako answered, crawling over to a nearby window. The glass was broken and she could see what glass remained on the street melting from the intense heat. "He saved me."

She ignored the sputtering protests of the boy behind her and watched, intent on carving this event deep in her memory. She feared she would never witness something like this again.

Deathwing leered at the oblivious zero-pointer with amusement as it attempted to slam its massive fist into the dragon. He lifted his left claw and pushed the robot down, pinning it to the ground by its torso. She could hear the sound of its metal carapace turning into slag from here.

"Pathetic." Deathwing spat.

He opened his great maw and bathed the zero-pointer in flames. A torrent of fire billowed out, and Ochako instinctively raised her arm to shield her face from the heat. If standing in his presence was like opening an oven door, this was walking into a furnace. It was oppressive and sapped her energy just by sheer proximity. She peered through squinted eyes as the zero-pointer melted – no, vaporized – under Deathwing's onslaught. After a moment, he stopped, his metallic jaw slamming shut with a sharp thud.

Deathwing seemed to survey the city with a scrutinizing eye. "Consider yourselves fortunate; my host wishes to save your sorry hides and become a "hero". Were it up to me, I would wipe you all off the face of this sorry planet."

She believed him.

Deathwing craned his neck upward and roared. She'd never heard a dragon roar before – even Ryukyu was markedly more civilized in her dragon form – but this was more primal than she imagined. It was a terrible sound, like an angry volcano raging to the heavens. It sang of pain and rage and madness, and Ochako's heart panged with pity. This was a creature that hated the world for some wrong committed upon it, and wanted nothing more than to see the world reduced to ash.

Yet, if his words were to be believed, he was beholden to his host's wishes. His host was the reason why UA (perhaps Japan as a whole) was not a molten heap of melted buildings and broken dreams right now.

Another blast of heat billowed forth, and once it finally dissipated, a lone figure emerged from the dust cloud. A shy, timid voice spoke up in the silence of Deathwing's aftermath.

"Is everyone alright?"

Wait. That was the boy from the entrance, the one that almost tripped. She tuned out the sound of Present Mic stuttering out the conclusion of the exam; none of that mattered right now. Ochako smiled and ran forward, eager to meet and befriend her monstrous savior, officially this time.

"Hi! That was so awesome! I'm Ochako Uraraka!"

"I-Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you…"

If this was what UA was going to be like, she was very much looking forward to the next three years.

"Dibs."

"Vlad, you can't call dibs."

"No fair, I already called dibs!"

"Nem, you're not even a homeroom teacher for the first years."

"I don't care, Shouta! I want him!"

"Look at what he did to my zero-pointer! How am I supposed to salvage that?! It's a puddle. A puddle, Ishiyama!"

"Maijima, you're preaching to the choir. Do you even realize how hot it needs to be to melt cement? That's over 1500 Celsius! And that was just him touching the ground. I don't even want to know how hot his fire breath is."

As the staff viewing room erupted into chaos, Principal Nezu grinned maniacally and was practically vibrating in his seat. He looked up at Toshinori, who looked simultaneously fearful and proud.

"This year should be very interesting, wouldn't you say Yagi?"

All Might – because he'd reflexively buffed up when Deathwing entered the fray – gulped. Young Midoriya was right. Juicing up Deathwing with the power of One for All would have spelled doom for their world.

He needed to find a successor fast.