Tsuyu and Katsuki were walking back home as the rain continued pouring down onto the street. The latter didn't have an umbrella, so he was wearing a grey sleeveless hoodie while the former casually enjoyed the weather.
"You sure you don't want an umbrella amphibian?"
"I'm fine *ribbit*. Its natural for a frog to be in a wet and sticky environment. It's where males and females meet—"
"Oh my god shut up, I don't care. I just asked if you were fine, not give a lecture on damn frogs."
"I was only trying to talk." Tsuyu said, frowning at his words and found the pavement more interesting.
Katsuki immediately sighed in frustration, he wasn't sure how to cheer up his companion without throwing in some type of insult or yelling. He wasn't the best person to come to when it came to comfort.
"Sorry Frog Fa-… Tsuyu, I'm not someone that knows how to help someone with their problems. That's usually Round Face and Deku."
Tsuyu sweat dropped at her friend's apology.
'You really need to stop calling them that Katsuki'
"It's alright, the important part is that you're trying. *ribbit*" she said staring at him with her 1000-mile blank stare.
"You know I can't really tell if your happy or not with that death stare of yours." Katsuki said, squinting his eyebrows.
"Death stare?" Tsuyu repeated as she placed a finger on her chin. "I guess my face does scare people a bit. Is it that bad?"
"Nevermind." He said, getting irritated by the second as the rain continued dropping down. "When will this damn weather let up!?"
Suddenly Tsuyu grabbed his wrist and started running confusing the blonde.
"What the!? Hey Frog Face!" he shouted, irritated that he had no clue of what Tsuyu was doing.
She completely ignored him as they both ran through the rain. They continued like this for minutes until Tsuyu spotted a sign and quickly ran inside along with Katsuki muttering some curses.
"What the hell Frog Face!?"
"You seemed bothered by the rain, *ribbit*, so I thought that if I found a place to hang at until the rain let up then you would be okay." Tsuyu spoke ignoring the scowl on his face. "But thinking about it now, I probably should've said something before running."
"You think!" he shouted in an annoyed tone before the color of the wall caught his eye. Losing his scowl, he turned his head and noticed that they were in an empty shop with ice cream machines along the left side of the room and a toppings bar on the right.
Katsuki's eyebrows twitched furiously as he stared at the colorful themed shop in front of them.
"You brought us to a damn ice cream shop!?"
"Yes, it was this or the library across the street." Tsuyu answered as she tilted her head at the blonde. "Would you say no to an ice cream sundae?"
"Whatever. You're buying." He growled but Tsuyu shook her head.
"Shouldn't the guy be the gentleman and buy ice cream for their lady?"
"We're not even dating!" He exclaimed.
"Says who?" she asks leaving him speechless as he stared at her with his mouth wide open. The frog then let out a small laugh as a fly randomly flew into Katsuki's mouth snapping him out of his state. Choking he coughed it back up eventually by pounding his chest harshly before it left his body. Seeing the fly, he was about to incinerate it until Tsuyu used her tongue to catch it.
"I'm just kidding, ribbit, even if we were on a date I doubt you would actually be gentleman enough to pay for my meal." She said as she headed over to the counter to grab a plastic bowl and started filling it with ice cream.
Katsuki quickly got out of his shock and raised his right hand, his palm dancing with small sparks of his quirk. He was tempted to strangle the female reptile or blow her up but stopped as he went back to twitching at her.
'I swear to god if this storm doesn't let up within the next half hour, I will blow up this entire block and it will all be Frog face's fault.' he thought before thinking back to his bit with the fly and smirked a bit.
"As least she ain't sad anymore." He muttered to himself before thinking about his own family specifically one person, his face morphing into a frown.
'I wonder how my own old hag- mother is doing…'
Ochaco woke up to the sounds of heavy breathing and panting. When she awoke she was met with Izuku's fearful expression, and what seemed to a dark aura was slowly surrounding his body.
Ochaco instantly shot up from her spot and looked over him with a worried gaze wondering what was going on with him.
"Deku." The brunette called out softly before seeing Eri shift in her sleep. As the child woke she let out a cute yawn, rubbing her eyes with her forearm as she looked up at Ochaco.
"Mama."
"Eri!?" Ochaco gazed at her daughter in confusion. She didn't even notice that her daughter was in the room with them but forget that. "When did you get in here?"
"I was sleepy, Uncle Kacchan brought me here." she answered after letting out another yawn.
"Where is your uncle now?" she asked her. Whatever was going with Izuku she didn't want Eri to get caught in the way and get hurt. Since Tsuyu was gone she needed the explosive teenager to take Eri out of the room and distract her, but fate was not on her side as the child shook her head in a unsure manner.
"I don't know. He said something about going to get Aunt Tsu." Eri answered her, a little confused on seeing her mother's expression morph into alarm.
Ochaco was about to ask for more until she felt an ominous chill in the air. Looking over to the boy her eyes widened in alarm, Izuku's face was quickly becoming pale as sweat dripped down his forehead but that wasn't the only problem.
The shadow figure above him was the main problem though. It was his partner Death, and it was smiling creepily at his host.
'Yes child, that's what I need to see. You, helpless in your own mind while I slowly devoured your soul and make you into someone new. Your fear, your sorrow, your guilt, your doubt, everything negative about you is what makes you strong. That positive cheery attitude of yours is nothing but a weakness, a weakness you do not need. Its shadowing your true nature, your true self. It must be cleanse. Cleanse it and all that shall remain is your true self! The Grim Reaper!' The entity howled in anger before cackling with laughter.
Ochaco clicked her teeth in frustration, his tenant was trying to take over his soul again. This only happened twice during their time in captivity, but it was only forcibly triggered. This time Death seemed to be acting out on its own and its behavior towards Izuku was not good.
The brunette was brought out of her thoughts when she felt a tug on her shorts, turning down she saw Eri giving her a scared look as her eyes were glossy.
"Mama, what's wrong with Papa!?" she asked frantically, scared of the entity above Izuku and seeing his looks of pain. Ochaco kneeled to her level, placing her hands on her shoulders firmly.
"Eri, I need you to go to your room okay?" Ochaco said but the white-haired girl shook her head.
"No, Uncle's not here! I want to stay with you and Papa!"
"Eri, please." She said firmly the little girl slightly flinching at her mother's tone. "Stay there until I call for you okay?" Ochaco didn't want her to be here for this, she didn't need Eri to see Izuku in pain.
"Will… will papa be okay?" she asked her. She was afraid… she was afraid that if she leave, then something bad might happen to him. She wanted to stay even though, her mind was telling her to leave but she couldn't.
Ochaco saw the scared look on Eri's face and gave her a soft smile. She knew that she was afraid of leaving them alone but to them Eri's safety mattered more than their own.
"He'll be okay, I'll make sure of it. I'll come get you once I'm done." She cooed as Eri stared into her calm eyes.
Eri looked at her mother with worry then back at her father who was writhing in pain. 'I want to stay but… if mama says papa will be okay then…'
"Okay." She answered reluctantly nodding her head.
"Thank you, sweetie." Ochaco pressed her lips to her cheek before the little girl ran to the door, giving Izuku one last look before leaving. Ochaco followed the child out the door and watched her go to her room before closing the door.
Now that Eri was safe, she could get to work on Izuku and get his demon under control before it consumes him.
"Huh!?" Katsuki paused as he felt an ominous chill go through his body as if something bad had happen to the others.
"You felt that too, right?" Tsuyu asked looking at Katsuki with a worried expression.
"Yeah, its Deku he might be having another one of those episodes." He said already knowing what was happening.
"Then we should get back to them, ribbit." she said ready to leave but Katsuki waved it off.
"Don't worry about it, Deku's fine. He's got Round Face and Eri to watch over him." He said casually.
"And how would you know that?" Tsuyu asked her stare turning into a glare which unfazed him. "We both know that even though Izuku has them for help, he still has the worst case of PTSD. Being forced to kill people daily…" She paused her speech before her glare harden at remembering the thought of the sick experiments. "…even kids, can scar you for rest of your life."
Katsuki scoffed in anger but inwardly he knew that she was right. Even though all of them had been forced to kill others at one point, none of them had to do more than him and Izuku. Just thinking about what his friend had to go through pissed him off more than seeing it.
While they both had to kill certain patients that were deemed unstable and crazy to the point of no return, there were times when they had capture innocent people for them to kill. For some reason, they decided to put all of that on Izuku.
Katsuki could see the light in his eyes slowing die out every time he was forced to kill someone, he could remember the cries he would hear all night after he was done. Hearing his childhood friend cries of pain, and despair at what he had done just made him want to go out there and kill the bastards. But they couldn't.
At the time he had no control over his own Apocalyptic Ghost and his quirk was sealed. He couldn't do anything to help his friend and it sickened him. Round Face… Ochaco was his cellmate back then and she helped him through tough times, he could never really hide anything from her. Which was why he wasn't worried about Izuku's episodes. As long as she was there with him he would be fine, she had the most experience on how to help calm him down.
"True, but Round Face knows how to help him more than I could. I'm not exactly the best person to go to for comfort." he replied.
"That's true." Tsuyu said calmly as she took another scoop of her ice cream and slipped it into her mouth. "You're more of a go to anger guy. If someone has a death wish, we'll just call you for help."
"Very funny. If we're being serious here, you might as well call me Lord Explosion Murder." he said sarcastically before cruelly smirking at the end.
"Don't you think that's a bit too far!?" she asked with a blank stare.
"Not a chance." he said rolling his eyes as Tsuyu sighed at his words.
'What a hothead.' She thought to herself before getting back to the matter at hand. "Still, don't you think that we should at least go check on them now?" she pressed further not wanting to stay in the shop any longer than she wants too.
"Do I look like I want to go in the rain and get sick?" he asked sarcastically as outstretching his arm towards the outside as rain continued pouring down roughly.
"Doesn't seem like a problem to me." she said tilting her head a bit.
'Of course it's not a problem to you, you're a frog!' he shouted mentally as tick marks appeared on his forehead.
"*sigh* Fine. How about this, since your so worried about them, just go and head back to the house!?" he sighed in exasperation. "Let's just finish our ice cream and then we can-"
"Actually, I'm quite finished." The frog girl replied as she showed her bowl, completely empty of any ice cream.
"How the hell did you do you even eat that fast!?" Katsuki growled comically. Tsuyu just shrugged her shoulders before walking out of the shop and into an alleyway. Making sure no one was around she did a froggy jump sticking to the wall before repeating the process until she was on the roof tops and made her way back home.
Katsuki grumbled to himself about damn frogs and their ability to adapt to cold weather, and all types of other stuff. He picked up his and Tsuyu's empty cups and tossed them in the trash. He then put on his hoodie again and started going off in the opposite direction of home.
'I need to make sure they don't follow me home. Once I'm far enough, I can deal with them.' He thought as he walked into an alley with another exit down the block. As he continued walking he suddenly heard laughter, poor maniacal laughter in his opinion.
"Hello there." Looking behind himself, Katsuki saw a man in the form of sewage sludge with evil eyes. "Looks like today's my lucky day. An appetite walking all alone for me to eat. Don't worry kid, this will only take three fourths of a minute… then well your dead."
The Sludge Villain then stretched over to Katsuki and wrapped his body onto his own. He didn't notice the bored look Katsuki had on his face when he took over. As soon as Katsuki was completely covered, the sludge villain laughed maniacally.
"Now that's an appetite. Now let's see what kind of quirk you have before I dispose of you-!" The sludge villain was interrupted when he heard something that sounded like a crack in his body. Looking down his eyes widened in horror as he saw his feet turn solid. Soon it traveled all the way up to his body and before he could scream his mouth was closed he was now completely solid…
Suddenly multiple rays came off his body and next thing that happened, the stone figure blew up into pieces scattering across the alleyway and the walls. As well as blood.
"Pathetic." Katsuki said as he dusted off any remaining stones that had slime on it. "Here's a hint, next time you wanna take over someone, do a little research on them you might learn something."
"Oh wait, I forgot…" he turned back to the blood on the wall and let out a cruel smile. "You're dead." He said as his right eye glowed red and an entity hovered over his form.
As the ghost disappeared, Katsuki sneered at the remains before walking away and out of the alley onto a different street.
Behind him up on a rooftop watching, the person following him was a pro hero named Stealth. A pro hero who like to remain hidden from society like the underground hero Eraserhead. He was a tall man wearing a mask covering up to his nose, he had red eyes and black hair, a black vest with a shirt underneath and military cargo pants and boots.
His quirk was Camouflage which allowed his entire body and clothing to blend in with the environment and cloak his presence.
Stealth was watching the blonde with a stern expression. After following him and Tsuyu from the cemetery and seeing the familiar faces he was sure that it was who he was searching for. The missing four.
Those were the children he was assigned to search for. He's been to every secret facility that was related to the Project Apocalypse. He found the notes on other patients, and the tests they would do but he could never find anything related to them… until a month ago when they broke free.
He was the one that found the bodies of the other patients or scientists that were either burnt, mutilated, decapitated or eyeless. It was a pretty messy scene, like the job was done by villains but it wasn't, it was by them for all their time in captivity and they wanted revenge.
Well they got it.
He wasn't sure if they would get labeled as villains. If you killed someone your basically labeled as a villain, but to Stealth it didn't matter if they had killed them. They were kids, and they still are. After reading what he found on them and how they were all experimented through everything, he would've killed them himself if they hadn't. Still…
Given what they had went through, there's no telling what to expect from them. Were they now teenagers lost in the world of quirks looking for a way home or are they teenagers out to make the world suffer for their pain?
He doesn't know the answer.
Seeing Katsuki basically kill a villain with no remorse set alarms in his head. If he was like this, then were the other three the same or is it just him. At this point there were too many questions that needed answering for right now he needed to keep track and confront the blonde.
With extreme caution.