Izuku stepped off the bus, letting the fresh air wash over him as he made contact with the street below. He was standing outside the front gates of his school, Aldera Middle, and staring at the metal bars that lined them. He was fifteen now; in his last year in middle school. He tightened his gloves, missing the middle finger on both hands, and made his way toward the gate. He had developed a habit of fidgeting with the gloves when he was nervous; it claimed him to know that others were safe from his Quirk. It sucked not having a way to turn it off, but the gloves were a good enough solution for now. The five-point activation requirement was a curse and a blessing; good for when he wanted to not Decimate something, but troublesome when he did want to train his power.

He walked throughout the school, making his way to his locker. It was the last day before the various students would go off to take their entrance exams for high school. Izuku was excited, not only because it was the next step in his life, but also because that meant that he was done with Aldera specifically. The school was a nightmare, and not only because of the dreadful incompetence of the teachers. The students were a collection of some of the most prejudiced, spiteful children he'd ever had the displeasure of meeting. One word from Bakugou, and they all hated him. He supposed it was at least kind of warranted, since his Quirk could cause a lot of damage if he wasn't careful. The thing was, he was careful, and hadn't given them any reason to suspect that he might be willing to use it on them.

He had come to accept his Quirk, over the years. At first he hadn't liked it, due to its ability to cause mass amounts of damage with ease. Then, as he began to train his power for the entrance exams to his chosen high school's Hero track, he began to see the heroic applications of such a power. Izuku's power let him disintegrate anything he touches with all five fingers, including … biological matter. He fought a flash of the memory of the Quirk's awakening, and kept walking. All in all, it was a fairly powerful Quirk, but the first time he had used it, he had accidentally killed twelve people, as well as levelled his classroom. The second time he had used it, he murdered his father. He had come to terms with that reality, but it still hurt to think that he had ended innocent lives, even if it was an accident. Izuku carried that with him, vowing that nothing like that would ever happen again. That was why he was aiming for UA, the best school for Heroics in the country. He'd show people that he could be a Hero, even with a Villain's Quirk.

As Izuku arrived at his locker, he swung his backpack around to put it in, but saw that there was … red paint, splattered all over the inside. It … Izuku took deep breaths, but couldn't help remembering the way his kindergarten teacher's blood had fallen onto him, sticking in his hair and staining his fingers. He took a step back, needing to take his eyes off the blood.

'No, not blood,' Izuku assured himself.

'Paint. It's red paint. You're okay. Just remember to breathe,' he thought, beginning to make his way outside.

He needed to breathe, but the air in there just smelled like iron and death. He all but ran outside, clutching at the straps of his bright yellow backpack, contrasting against the black of his blazer. His therapist, Dr Kyokan, had told him that focusing on the things around him, especially color, was a good way to calm down from any panic or fear he might feel. So far, it'd worked for him, but there had been a few times when his concentration had slipped and he had spiralled into a full blown panic attack. It felt eerily similar to this creeping sensation that something was wrong that was spreading through him like poison.

When he got outside, Izuku took a deep breath and sat down on a bench, making sure to keep his posture right for the breathing exercise to work. He had been taught a variety of coping mechanisms during his stay in therapy, and they had all been more than effective. He had been put into therapy after the first two uses of his Quirk, and had gone willingly, but he hadn't been expecting it to help him as much as it had. Dr Kyokan was a miracle worker in his eyes, and the two had become good friends, despite protocol saying that you probably shouldn't form emotional connections with your client as a therapist. Being invested in progress was one thing, but it probably wasn't very good to have a legitimate friendship with a client. Something to do with a conflict of interest. Izuku didn't care, though, Kyokan was amazing, and they always had a good time talking with one another.

Izuku felt like he was calm now. He took a moment to check his breathing and his heart, they were both okay, well within normal limits. Looking around let him see that other people had started to arrive, and he didn't know how to feel about it. It meant that the day was that much closer to being over, but it also meant that he was that much closer to being harassed for the day.

'It's only a half day, Izuku,' he told himself.

'This is kind of just a formality at this point,' he thought, happy that the entrance exams for UA had finally come. It had felt like he had been training for this exam his whole life, when it had only really been about two years. UA held its entrance exams earlier than almost all other schools, just because of the sheer amount of applicants they have every year, needing the extra time to parse through the applicants and make the best decision they can. Izuku would think it was funny if he didn't know that the late nights and intense workload were probably hell on every staff member this time of year. He felt bad for them, but it also filled him with determination; he just had to make a big splash so that his admittance to the Hero course was a no-brainer, and it didn't take them until a week before school started to get back to him.

Izuku heard snickering around him, and looked around. He spotted a few of his regular harassers, and sighed. It was only a half day, but it would be a long one either way. Izuku stood up, gripping his backpack tight, and turned around to go back inside. He was okay now; he didn't need those assholes ruining today for him. If they did something big enough, it'd mess up his mindset going into the exam tomorrow, and he might fail. He needed to get somewhere they couldn't get him, and that meant that he had to get to the classroom before them; if he didn't, they'd have the advantage of being unsupervised. They could do anything they wanted to him. That was another thing that Izuku hated about this school; the bias. Izuku's Quirk was strong, so he wasn't allowed to fight back, even without it, the school citing it as a 'risk to students' wellbeing'. If anything was a risk to students' wellbeing, it was the mindset that just because he could kill, that meant he would. He was aiming to become a Hero, for God's sake! It was that type of ignorance that had helped along the stigma around Quirks being 'Villainous' and 'Heroic'.

The prime example of this mindset was Katsuki Bakugou. He had a powerful Quirk as well, but he was nothing like Izuku. The two were polar opposite, as far as Izuku was concerned. He'd say that the blond had a short fuse, but he didn't really have one. Every single little thing about Izuku seemed to set him off for some reason, and he'd use his Quirk to intimidate people any chance he got. The boy had an ego the size of Might Tower, and Izuku wondered how he didn't get a migraine from screaming as much as he did. Maybe it was just a part of the natural mutations Quirks instill in their users that give them some protection against their Quirks' affects. Izuku knew that Bakugou's arms were built to withstand the force of his Explosions, but that was about it, as far as Izuku knew. He really should quiet down, for the sake of everyone around him as well as himself. To the school, Bakugou was a shoo-in for UA, so they treated him like he could do no wrong, even though he'd done his fair share of harassment and bullying, all focused on Izuku.

Bakugou took every chance he could to antagonise Izuku. He had lost count of the burns scars that littered his body from Bakugou 'practising his Quirk' on him. Him and Mom had tried to tell the school about the things Bakugou had been doing to him, but they had refused to listen to their explanation. They had simply said that Izuku was 'getting rid of the competition for UA'. The principal had it in his head that Izuku wasn't sure about his chances at UA, and sought to disqualify Bakugou from admittance. They all knew that was a blatant lie, but they went home, disgruntled and put down. They had been trying to go against the Bakugous in court, but that was a slow process. It didn't help that the Bakugous were fairly well off, so they'd be able to buy the best lawyers in town. Unlike the Midoriyas, who had always been squarely in the lower middle class. Izuku understood that they couldn't use any of the money his father had stolen over his career as Dragon, but it still bummed Izuku out to see his mother work a job she hated to have enough money for them to live a well rounded life.

Izuku just had to get through this one last day before the entrance exams, and he'd be set. He could just tune out the rest of the unnecessary information until he got his letter from UA saying that he got in or failed. He knew that failing was a possibility, though probably not a likely thing. He had been training his body, mind and Quirk for two years at this point, so he was fairly sure he'd get in. He had been so laser focused on the exam that he had kind of disregarded how much he'd improved his Quirk. When it manifested, Decimation wasn't overly powerful. It was okay, at best, but he had improved it to the point where he was sure it was UA worthy. Back when he was younger, the rate at which he could destroy things was much slower, taking a few moments to completely dust something. He had invented an exercise to gauge how far he'd progressed; using his Quirk on a baseball. At first, he'd only been able to do it after a few moments, but now, he could do it in an instant, so he really had shown that he could improve. That had been an important one, not just to himself, but to his mother, too, who Izuku suspected had lost a bit of faith in him over the years. If he had been right, that had restored her faith in him, and they had moved onto preparing him intellectually for the written portion of the exam.


When Izuku got to the classroom, he saw that the bullies he had been trying to avoid had made it there already. They were waiting for him outside the door, and Izuku groaned as he came to a stop a few meters away from them. They locked onto him, and smiled maliciously, pushing themselves off the wall they had been leaning on and standing up straight. They were both taller than him, not many weren't, and they were almost staggering toward him as they giggled to themselves about what they were going to do to him. Izuku thought it was a bit much, considering that they were openly enjoying thinking about hurting a fellow student in a public place, but that wasn't really his place, was it? At least not to these guys.

"Hey, Deku!" the shorter of the two, Nagai Yubi said.

"What's up, Villain?" the other, Sekiei Ken asked.

Izuku really didn't know why these two bothered him. Yubi had been his friend at one point, but had moved away to a different elementary school, so he hadn't been there for the incident with his Quirk. He had been told by Bakugou what had happened once they met back up for middle school, though, and he had stayed away from Izuku, eventually beginning to antagonise him just like the others. Ken was a mystery, though. He hadn't known Izuku before middle school, but had fallen in with Bakugou early on, leaving him as one of the main aggressors when it came to the bullying situation. It was a shame that Ken resorted to bullying, because his Quirk could have genuinely been good for Heroics; he could make his fist into a rock like material. He would've been a pretty good Hero, if it weren't for the fact that he had succumbed to peer pressure so easily.

"Oh, nothing much. Just resting up for the UA entrance exam tomorrow," Izuku said, closing his fist.

He had specifically designed the gloves he was wearing so that his Quirk couldn't destroy them. The middle finger on both hands was missing, and so were the palms. That meant that if he closed his fist, he wouldn't fulfill the five-point contact requirement for Decimation to activate. He literally couldn't hurt anybody unless he wanted to, which he would never want, so why did he have to put up with this crap every single day?

"You're still doing that? Give it up, Deku. Nobody's gonna take you when you've got that Villain's Quirk," Yubi said, saying the name 'Deku' as if it were a curse.

The name 'Deku' had been the brainchild of one Katsuki Bakugou, of course, and it meant 'useless'. Bakugou had come up with it a few weeks after Izuku had failed to manifest his Quirk when he was four. They hadn't heard of Quirks that hid until activated, so their friend group had assumed that Izuku was lying and that he was really Quirkless. The name 'Deku' reflected that, and even though he did have a Quirk, the name stuck. It was a silly thing, but it had hung over Izuku's head for the last ten years, and he doubted if both he and Bakugou got into UA that it would go away any time soon.

"Who will they take instead? A kid who can stretch his fingers and a kid who can barely pass gym?" Izuku asked, looking between the boys in front of him.

'Okay, wrong thing to say,' Izuku thought, seeing how Yubi started to elongate his fingers, and how Ken's hands shifted into their rock form. He stepped back, but felt something behind him stopping his movement. He looked back and saw Bakugou, staring at him with that same angry stare he had used that day when his Quirk awakened.

Izuku watched as cracks started to spread over Nikko's body, spreading from where he was holding onto her.

'No,' Izuku told himself. 'This isn't happening.'

He felt his feet hit the floor as he fell through what remained of Nikko.

'You're okay. That's already happened. It's done,' he thought, taking a step back from Bakugou's fiery red eyes.

"What the fuck did you do, Izuku?" Kacchan asked.

"Whoa, Deku's freaking out!" Ken laughed.

"Kacchan!"

Izuku closed his eyes, trying to will the bad thoughts away. It didn't work, and he stepped back only to collide with Yubi, who pushed him forward. He opened his eyes as he tripped over his own feet, plummeting to the floor the same way the shunks of Nikko's remains had. He hit the ground without even trying to save himself, and opened his eyes to see Bakugou's vaguely disappointed eyes landing on him with the same expression he had held while looking at Izuku for the past eight years. Izuku tried to get up, but Ken knocked him back down again.

"What's this I hear about you applying to UA, Deku?" Bakugou asked, crouching down so that the two were closer together.

Trying to lift himself up made Izuku realize that his arms had turned to jelly. This couldn't be happening. Not on the day before the exam. He tried to open his eyes, but found that everything was far too bright when he did, so left them closed. He shifted his body around so that he was sitting, but still under Bakugou, so he didn't have a reason to lash out. He'd probably still do it, since he didn't have a reason half the time anyway, but it was for his own safety.

"I want to be a Hero, Bakugou," Izuku said, trying to get the smell of iron and meat out of his nose with long, deep breaths.

A strong smack to his face forced Izuku's eyes open. Bakugou had hit him across the cheek, snapping him out of his panic attack. Had he known that it would help? Or was it just luck? Izuku thought it was best not to question it.

"What makes you think that a killer like you can do anything good?" Bakugou asked, his eyes boring into Izuku's soul.

Izuku flinched at the word 'killer'. It was a sore spot for him, for sure, but Bakugou was talking about the accidental deaths. Nobody knew what had happened to Izuku's father, the mother and son telling people that he was away for work. They had to lie, otherwise people would look at them, at him, differently. They would do what Bakugou had been doing for eight years.

"I'm not a killer! It was an accident! You know that better than anyone!" Izuku yelled, hating how his voice broke.

"I know that you slaughtered half of our classmates. I know that you dusted a woman who did nothing but care for you. I know that you were the only one left in that fucking crater after you blew up our kindergarten class!" Bakugou ranted.

"I wasn't in control of myself!" Izuku cried.

"And you are now?" Bakugou asked, a strange tone to his voice that Izuku couldn't quite place.

"Y-Yes!" Izuku answered, confident in his answer as the truth.

"Prove it, then," Bakugou replied.

"W-What?" Izuku asked, but got no reply.

Bakugou stood, looking at his buddies knowingly. Yubi and Ken stood on either side of him, and each got an arm under him. They hoisted him up violently, shaking him about as they lifted him up to his feet. The two kept him in place, holding him by his shoulders, as Bakugou grabbed one of his hands and yanked it toward him, placing his open hand on his chest. Izuku closed his eyes, thankful that he hadn't realized the gloves' purpose.

"Oh, right. These," Bakugou said.

Izuku's eyes shot open as he felt Bakugou's strong fingers tugging at his gloves. He closed his fist, hoping to keep them on, and a battle between the two broke out entirely with one of their hands each. Bakugou pulled on the glove, trying to get it off, but Izuku kept his fist closed, hoping against hope that they stayed on long enough for someone to intervene. It was a stupid thought, that someone would even try to stop what was happening here, but he could at least hope for a little bit of human decency to survive Aldera Middle School unharmed.

Actually, no he couldn't, because no one came.

Bakugou finally got the glove off, tossing it on the ground as he gripped Izuku's wrist hard enough for it to bruise. For some reason, Bakugou then spun Izuku around, roughly breaking the hold his friends had on his shoulders. He was still holding onto Izuku's wrist, but he was … aiming it toward Yubi. Bakugo began to drag Izuku closer to Yubi, who turned to run away, only to run into Ken's rock fist, knocking him out. Ken held Yubi up, perfectly vulnerable to Izuku's Quirk. He tried to rip his hand free of Bakugou's grasp, but it was impossible. The blond's arms were naturally far more powerful than his, on account of withstanding his own Quirk for ten years.

"So, let's find out if you're more than a dirty Villain. If you can control your Quirk, you live. If you don't, you'll have one more body on your hands, and I'll kill you for that," Bakugou hissed in his ear as he brought his hand closer to Yubi's face.

It was agonizing, the few moments between Bakugou's threat and the feeling of his fingers landing on Yubi's face. Only two of his fingers had touched, so Bakugou kept pushing. As he got closer and closer, Izuku wished for someone to come and save him, but remembered his father's words. They had been burned into his memory, much like the patch of skin on his arm had been burned by his father's hate and rage.

"He'll never be a Hero."

Izuku bared his teeth. He summoned all the strength he could and closed his fist, pushing his fist forward instead of back. The sudden movement jostled Bakugou, and he let go. Izuku's fist connected with Yubi's face, something he felt the boy deserved, though not while unconscious. Izuku stepped back from the two conscious bullies, staring at them with his face set in an angrily determined expression.

"I'll never kill again! I'll show you that I can be a Hero even better than you!" Izuku said, pointing a finger at Bakugou.

"Like fucking hell you will!" Bakugou roared.

Bakugou leapt forward, his right hand cocked back for his famous right hook opener. Izuku didn't like it, but he'd have to resort to intimidation to get through this one. He stepped into the attack, holding his exposed hand out, his fingers splayed out as wide as he could get them. Izuku's hand was close enough to close around his face, but it was a feint. His other hand was behind his back, thrown back for a punch if Bakugou still wanted to fight after this.

Seeing the fear flash across Bakugou's face shouldn't have been as satisfying as it was. Bakugou dodged out of the way, stumbling back and out of range of his hand. Izuku dropped his arm to his side, and uncurled his fist. He looked at Ken, making sure he knew that his hand was closest to him before the boy did anything stupid. The three looked at each other, before Ken and Bakugou huffed and began to leave. Izuku sighed, reached for his glove on the ground with his covered hand, and remembered how Bakugou had first reacted to his hands when his Quirk had manifested.

Izuku stepped toward Kacchan, only to have the boy step away, steering clear of him.

He had seen it back then; the fear. It was a primal one, he knew, and rational. A child's fear was always born of misunderstanding, Izuku had found. They didn't know what they were looking at, so they feared it. It was the classic human fear of the unknown, except in the eyes of a child, most, if not all, things are unknown. Izuku knew that he was just a kid, and that he couldn't have been expected to react any other way, but when Bakugou had dodged out of the way of his hand way back then, a part of Izuku had died, and with it, their friendship.

With both of his hands under wraps, Izuku continued into his classroom, hoping that his morning didn't speak for how the rest of the day was going to go.