So, as mentioned by Notsae in my DMS, he stated that there was no build-up for Izuku's actions in the original story, making what he did seem stupid and out-of-character, which made the story an overall mess of death and stupidity. That's what this story is for. This new rendition of "Return of a King" will be far slower-paced, and overall will be a better product. In these first few arcs (and yes, I do mean plural) we will watch Izuku's descent into a monster. It will be slow, and it will be painful. If you don't like that kind of character development, then don't stick around. But if you do, then I promise you will enjoy this.

But! Before we begin, I have to issue a little warning (you will be seeing this at the beginning of every chapter, so get used to it).

WARNING! THIS STORY CONTAINS SCENES/MENTIONS/IMPLICATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING: CANNIBALISM, EXTREME GORE, BULLYING, ABUSE, BRUTAL DEATH, HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION, AND HEAVY BLOODSHED.

IF ANY OF THESE THINGS BOTHER YOU, TURN BACK NOW!

IF THE WARNING DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU…

THIS STORY IS A FAN-BASED FICTION

I OWN NEITHER MY HERO ACADEMIA NOR DEMON SLAYER/KIMETSU NO YAIBA

ALL I OWN ARE MY OC'S.

Now, let us get into…

[Vol 1 – 1: A humble beginning – Pt 1]

"Out of my way, cat-eyes!" the rough-sounding voice of Bakugou Katsuki snarled, shoving a green-haired, red-eyed boy aside and a wall of lockers in a crowded school hallway. Whispers echoed throughout the hallway as the boy grunted. This had become somewhat of a habit every day for the boy in question, one that was starting to get annoying.

The boy in question wore a grey shirt with a red tie, black pants, and black shoes. His black and green hair sat combed back on his head. Bakugo, much like the boy, was wearing the same outfit seeing as it was the school uniform. Though unlike the boy's combed back, restrained hair, Bakugou's was more sporadic and outward, almost mimicking that of an explosion, much like his Quirk. The boy stared down at the floor, dejected after getting slammed into the locker for the umpteenth time this week.

This habit of Bakugo's started at the beginning of the year, and already, two months into the school year, it had become a pattern. Whenever the two were near each other in the hallway, Bakugo would go out of his way to slam him into a locker. He didn't care if people were around to see it, because in the mind of Bakugo he had to put the weakling in his place.

The boy pulled himself out of the dent he had made in the locker and shook himself off, fixing the bag on his back as he narrowed his cat-like eyes at the back of Bakugo Katsuki, who was beginning to slip into a crowd of students. If he wanted to, he could make Bakugo look like a laughing stock any time of the day, but he chose not to.

Over the years of Bakugo "putting him in his place," he had let his anger fester, but never once did he let it boil over. Over the years, he allowed Bakugo to get away with all of the harassment. Over the years, Izuku Midoriya slowly began to get sick of the treatment he was given at the hands of the blond bomber.

He looked over to the other students in the hallway, and they simply turned away, getting back into the previous conversations that they were having before their attention had been drawn to what had happened just a few moments ago.

In response, Izuku simply huffed, shrugging off what had just happened, as did everyone else, and continued on with his day, walking to his next class as if nothing even happened. The bruise on his arm healed almost instantly, and the pain was no longer there, so it didn't matter, right?

Well, that was what he wanted to believe. But deep down, underneath the annoyance and discontent, laced with a lackadaisical demeanour, Izuku's soul snarled. He hated the fact that everyone simply ignored what was going on. To them, it looked like a simple rivalry, but in truth, it was everything but that.

Since the age of four, Izuku had been tormented by Bakugo. Why? Because of his eyes. That was the only reason. Despite having red eyes of his own, Bakugo hated the green-haired boy for his. Aunt Mitsuki would also reprimand him for his behaviour, but one voice was nothing but a drop in the ocean of the voices that had been cheering the boy on.

From the day his Quirk developed, Katsuki Bakugo was groomed into thinking he was the strongest person alive. His Explosion Quirk was supposedly unrivalled, and because of that, he was given the mentality that anyone and everyone was weaker than him. Over the years of watching him, Izuku observed as Bakugo's behaviour took a slow dip into villainy as he actively harassed people with his Quirk, blasting random students in the halls for even so much as looking at him the wrong way.

What made matters worse was that the teachers actively praised him for it, either out of fear of what he might do to them, or out of the idea that he would mention them in his backstory in his journey to become the number one hero.

Despite the fact that they were only in the fifth grade, people were drilling these toxic thoughts into his head. Making him seem like the biggest, badest hero-to-be. It was a slippery slope that, if he were to continue down it, Bakugo might end up becoming one of the heroes in the world that only cared about fighting villains than actually saving people, much like Endeavour.

But that didn't matter. Not to Izuku. Izuku didn't care if Bakugo became a good hero or not. As far as Izuku was concerned, Bakugo could never become a hero. He could try, he could fake it till he made it, but in Izuku's eyes, he would never be a pro hero. No hero bullied the weak and actively targeted them.

"Heh, weak… I'm anything but…." Izuku thought, a small toothy smirk spreading across his face as he kept his head down, shadow covering his eyes as he stepped into his next class.

During his time growing up, he learned a few new things about himself. He might have only been 11 years old, but for an 11-year-old, he was seen as a genius. Every single one of his teachers had been stupefied at his intelligence. He had the school's fastest recorded time for a test being written up during what his elementary school called a 'Testathon.'

To explain what it was a Testathon was: a Testathon is a full-day event that has each subject—Math, Science, Social Studies, English, Traditional Japanese, and Language Arts—In the school create a ridiculous long test that would be given out to each student of each grade, varying in difficulty depending on the grade. In the fifth year bracket, Izuku finished all of the tests in 53 minutes and 20 seconds. The previous record in the school was 2 hours, 5 minutes, and 15 seconds. What made it even more impressive was that he got every single question correct, which the teachers at first refused to believe, seeing as his Quirk had nothing to do with intelligence.

So, what was the reason behind his test score? How did a boy with a seemingly useless Quirk not only get everything correct but did so in a time unseen by anyone else within the walls of the school in its long history of doing these "Testathons?" Well, the answer to that was simple, though no one else knew about it. Izuku had 5 brains, and for his body to compensate for that, he also had 7 hearts to power those brains. But how? How did Izuku have that many brains, and when was it that he had found out?

Well, he found out about them when he had a routine doctor's appointment, and when they did an x-ray to check if his Quirk had awakened, the doctor had found 12 growths developing around his body. At first, the doctor was under the belief that they were tumours, but when they went to operate, they were horrified to realize that they were brains and hearts—5 brains and 7 hearts, to be exact.

And it wasn't as if they were just… there, either. They were connected to his main brain as well as his spine through veins that seemed to bend easily, allowing for constant traversal around his body, almost as if they were on tracks, patrolling around his body like security guards at a mall.

He also found out that his hearts increased his regeneration, as before, he could only really heal broken bones, skin tearing, and bruises at a relatively fast pace. However, those injuries healed in an instant, and he also learned that he could heal from his entire body breaking.

Now, how he figured that one out was something he didn't want to think about, all that someone needed to know was that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up getting hit by a speeding truck that should've turned his body into a pile of shattered bones and shredded skin.

Well, it did do that, but he regenerated the damage so fast that he didn't even feel the pain of it happening. The truck driver had checked to see if he was okay, and all Izuku did in response was nod and run back home to write down the miracle that had happened. Of course, this all happened after school, so no one outside of the public saw it. Some videos showed up online, but since the videos were always of bad quality, no one at his school could recognize that it was him, which was a plus. It allowed for him to keep up his façade.

As strange as it might have seemed, Izuku wanted to be seen as weak. But why? Why would he want to be seen as a weakling? If he showed off what it was he could truly do, then he would be spared from the harassment, and perhaps Bakugo would see him as a person worthy of his attention!

And while yes, that was true. Izuku simply didn't want it. He didn't want to be looked at as the next best hero. He didn't want to have the same inflated ego as Bakugo. He didn't want the endless praise. He was happy to be seen as a weakling, and he was happy to be, mostly, off of Bakugo's radar. He didn't need to be told that he was strong to believe it.

As he sat down in his chair at the back of the class, he listened to yet another boring lesson that he could've cared less about, and waited for the day to end. He had things he wanted to do after school, and he had someone waiting for him. Someone who would be rather annoyed if he had been late.

xxXXxxXXxx

A black cat sat patiently outside of an elementary school. It licked its paw and then rubbed behind its ear, pacing around in circles. Its slit irises scooped out the area, and when its eyes saw a small canary land on the ground from a tree, it jumped, pouncing on the bird before clamping its jaws down on its neck, killing it.

The cat meowed, pawing at the now dead bird before prancing off. The cat stretched out its back before transforming into a person, wearing the female version of the school's uniform—the same grey shirt and red tie, though with a black skirt and black stockings instead of pants. The person had a popped collar and red slip-on shoes, their hair was long, covering one of her yellow slit eyes.

She swiped her tongue over her fangs and teeth, cleaning them of the blood that stained her teeth from that bird she had attacked and killed in her cat form. Atop of her head, her cat eyes twitched as she scratched behind them, then proceeded to pat down her skirt from whatever grime she got on it.

"Nya, that was easy. Now, where is he…." The girl said, leaning against the wall just by the school's front entrance.

This was Natsumi Nakime, and she was a fifth-year at Tsuguki Private Elementary School. She had snuck out of class a few minutes early to meet a certain someone at the front of the school, just like she did every day, patiently waiting for the boy in question to drag himself out of class.

Her Quirk – Cat Transformation – allowed her to turn into any kind of cat, big or small, so long as she knew about them, what their scientific name was, their common name, and most importantly, what they looked like. It also gave her cat-like tendencies and cat ears that stuck out of her head, though thanks to her long black hair, most people thought that it was a headband of some kind. They were mostly there for decoration, but they had functional uses, such as her being able to hear things from far away, as well as allowing her to tune out of the world when she was listening to music through her normal ears.

She also had an acute sense of smell in both modes. She saw it as both a gift and a curse, depending on where she was. The only drawback was that she coughed up hairballs from time to time, and it was often uncomfortable.

She stood in the same place for a minute, then began to pace. The bell rang, and she was still left waiting, watching as other people and their friends walked away, some of them giving her waves, to which she kindly returned. Another five minutes passed, and it was at this point that she began to get frustrated.

"Hn, what's taking him so long!" Natsumi said, her slightly high-pitched tone of voice being followed with a frown. She crossed her arms as she tapped her foot with an impatient rhythm, staring at the front doors with a look of annoyance. He was always late, no matter what he said. Either he was talking to one of his teachers, or he was just dragging his feet.

The person in question she was talking about was Izuku. Ever since the beginning of third grade, when a bully had cornered her to beat on her, and Izuku stepped in to shoo them away, Natsumi had made it her duty to stay by his side. At first, the boy saw it as strange that she would hang out with him, but he eventually stopped caring and even took it to the point that he considered themselves friends.

However, if there was one thing that Natsumi was constantly annoyed about, it was the fact that he took so damn long to show up at the front of the school. She had a curfew for the time she was supposed to get home, and him staying within the school for so long takes away the time they can hang out together.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting," a voice spoke out from behind her, which caused the girl to spin around. She recognized that sheepish tone of voice of the boy that had protected her, and when she turned around, she was met with a pair of red cat-like irises, the same as hers.

"Took you long enough," the ravenette said, a small smile on her face as Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. He had a goofy smirk on his face, and atop his head was a…. "Is that a Fedora, Midori?"

And it was true, Izuku was wearing a white fedora with a black ribbon wrapped around the bulb of the hat. He was still dressed in the school's uniform, but with the fedora, it really completed the look. "Yeah, my mom got it for me last week. It was pretty cheap, 10,000 yen, seeing as it was made of really expensive material. It took a good chunk out of our monthly budget, leaving mom with only 90,000 yen to work with, but she said it was for my excelling grades," Izuku said, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Natsumi smiled, putting her hands behind her back as the pair started their walk home. "Wow, Midori! Your mom sounds really nice, I kinda want to meet her now," the younger girl said, a small smile on her face as Izuku smirked.

The two lived near each other, so they usually walked home together. Natsumi lived in the villas just a few kilometres away from the apartment building that he lived in. Seeing as Natsumi was his only real friend, he enjoyed the time he got to talk to her. She was cute, too, but in a platonic kind of way. He harboured no romantic feelings for her, but he couldn't lie to himself.

Her Quirk also gave her the same creepy eyes that he had, but weirdly enough, she wouldn't get bullied for it. It only further proved to him that it was because his eyes were red that made him a target. That, and her Quirk allowed her to transform into a cat, so it also had a functional use. It wasn't just a useless add-on.

"So, are you free this weekend?" Natsumi asked as Izuku shrugged, looking at his phone. He flipped through the calendar app on his phone and sighed. Today was Thursday, on Friday he had a doctor's appointment to see if his extra hearts were causing him any issues—he knew they weren't, but his mother wanted to make sure—then he was free on Saturday from 7 AM to 6 PM. At 7 PM, his mother wanted to take him to the movies, seeing as her favourite movie from when she was a kid was getting a re-run in theatres, and she wanted to show him it.

"I'm free from 7 in the morning till 6 at night," Izuku said as Natsumi sighed.

"Darn, I'm busy till then. My mom and her friends are dragging me to the mall all day. My family does this whole competition in malls to buy the most stuff. I've been saving up my money for a year for this, I have about 200,000 yen thanks to my parents giving me money and me doing odd jobs across the town, and my newspaper route. So I'm going to go all out. I was hoping you'd be free after 6 PM, but if you aren't, that's fine," Natsumi said, a small smile on her face as they rounded a corner.

"Eh, we can always try for next week," Izuku said, waving at the hotdog vendor, who waved back to him. He always did that when he came around here, it was a nice gesture, and besides, it wasn't like it did anyone any harm to be nice. Natsumi seemed to giggle at his strange behaviour, which only caused Izuku to scoff. "What, is it wrong to wave to someone?" Izuku asked as Natsumi rolled her eyes.

"Nya, I'm just teasing you, Midori," the girl said, elbowing him lightly on the shoulder. Izuku simply smiled in response, wrapping an arm around her shoulder before giving her a nuggie, which made her laugh. "Ah! Hahaha! Midori, stop!" The ravenette said, pushing against him as the boy let go. "You jerk, that hurt you know?" The girl said, pouting as Izuku huffed.

"Then don't tease me, Nakime-san," the green and black-haired boy said, earning a stuck-out tongue from the girl, who then looked away with her nose stuck up in the air. After a few moments of silence, the two laughed at each other's stupidity and they continued their walk home. As they walked, they passed by more street vendors, and even some performers, to which Izuku would put a few 1,000 yen bills into their hats, which earned him some smiles.

He cared about his city, and his community. he made it a point to be nice to those around him, after all, he had been interested in being a politician when he grew older. If he built up the idea that he was a nice person, even as a child, then by the time he would be old enough to run for office when he was 30 years old and became the leader of his own party he planned to start up, he would have at least his community to back him up, as well as maybe a few other people that he met along the way.

After all, they all say that the road to success started young, so why not start it now?

Eventually, the two had to go their separate ways. He watched as Natsumi transformed into a cat and ran away, using the alleyways as a way to get to her house the fastest. Izuku stepped inside the building he called home and made his way to the top floor. When he entered his apartment, he was met with his mother watching T.V., still wearing the business suit that she always wore to her 9 to 5 job, that being a black tuxedo-top and a black office skirt with black leggings and black high-heels. In Izuku's opinion, he believed that his mother rocked the outfit.

Izuku had suggested for her to get a job, as the money that his father sent them wasn't enough to live a proper life. So, she took up a job at a call center. She made 25,000 yen bi-weekly, and 50,000 yen a month. It helped towards their overall income, which gave them enough wiggle room to live. Their father sent them 200,000 yen on the first of every month, which at first made it seem like they had a lot of money to use until you realize that the apartment that they lived in cost 150,000 yen a month, which the rent had been due on the second of each month.

She had been working there for over a month, and she had made some new friends, friends that she planned to see on Friday. It gave him the house to himself until 8 PM tomorrow, which meant he had some time to do some extra studying for that English quiz he had on Monday.

"Good evening, mother," Izuku said, sitting beside her. Inko turned to look at him, then smiled. She had gained some weight over the years, though nothing debilitating. It was about 5:15 PM since the walk to and from school was an hour-long, and school ended at 4:00 PM, and he had stayed at the school to speak to the teacher about Monday's test.

Seeing that his mother had yet to actually get changed, he had assumed that she had only gotten home a few moments ago. "Hello, Izuku. How are you doing?" Inko asked, a tired look in her eyes.

"I'm doing just fine, mom. You don't seem to be though," Izuku said, looking at her with a quizzical stare. Inko only shook her head, yawning. The woman stood up, stretching out her back, turning to look at Izuku.

"I'm just tired, dear. I'm going to go get changed then crawl into bed. I have to get up bright and early tomorrow morning, I'm taking Saturday off to go to that movie with you, so the office is making me come in earlier than usual. We have the ingredients for Udon tonight, so if you could make that it would mean the world to me."

As Inko said that, she wandered to her room. Izuku simply looked at her with a slight frown. He didn't mind making dinner, but for her to go to bed so early, it just didn't feel right. Whatever, it was her choice. Izuku stood up from the couch, going over by the door to take his backpack off. He rummaged around it and brought out the material he wanted to study for the test, sat back down on his couch, placed all the papers and notes down on the coffee table, then got to work.

He didn't need to, obviously, but he still did anyway. English wasn't his best subject, and even if he could get the questions right, he was interested in the language and was intrigued by the challenge. That, and if he wanted to be a politician, he would need to learn as many languages as possible.

On top of that, while he was studying, he had his bone whips do all the cooking in the kitchen. The bone whips sent him signals, telling him what it was they were doing, so he could multi-task without having to keep his eyes off of his studying—after all, education was the most important thing in the world for a growing boy such as himself. His Quirk had been extremely useful, and so long as he kept using it at home and only at home, no one would have to know just how powerful he really was.

But little did he know that watching from one of the windows of his house, a black cat with yellow eyes stared with rapt attention as he used his true power. The cat dared not move until it had been satisfied with what it saw. When it made its way back down from the top floor of the apartment, the cat sprinted to its home, with only one thought in its head.

"Midori… why have you been lying to me all this time? Your Quirk is more than just your eyes!"

-To Be Continued-