Izuku woke up with a start. He sat up in bed the day after the festival and looked around, startled. He'd gotten the distinct impression that something had happened, but looking around his room, nothing was out of the ordinary. Well, that wasn't true. After Izuku had met All Might for the first time, and had fallen out of love with the image of the man that he projected to the world, he'd taken down most of the posters of him that hung on his walls. Over the last few weeks, since the USJ, Izuku had been putting them back up, but he still had most of them locked away in his closet. That was still an oddity to wake up to, but this surprise that had interrupted his sleep was different. After a few moments of sitting up and wondering what had startled him awake, it happened again.

A ringing of the doorbell caught Izuku's attention. He looked at the time and realised how early it was, and figured that his mother probably wasn't even awake yet, since she liked to sleep in on her days off. That left him to answer the door, which he reluctantly got up to do. He did stop to put on some more presentable clothes than his Best Jeanist pyjamas. He hurried to the door and opened it without looking through the peephole to see who it was, and his heart stopped when he saw who was standing on their welcome mat. Katsuki Bakugo met his eyes with the sharp glare Izuku had tried so hard to forget. Izuku instinctually jerked back and stepped away from Bakugo, almost tripping over himself by doing so. He nearly knocked over the shoe rack, but stopped it from toppling over and waking up his mother. He looked back at Bakugo with wide, panicked eyes, and scowled.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Izuku asked, venom in his pointed words.

"So you won, huh?" Bakugo asked in return. His voice was flat, dull and lifeless, just like his hollow eyes. It still had that razor sharp quality to it, but it was dulled significantly. Like all the fight had been taken out of him through a syringe and all that was left was what Izuku was seeing right then. A husk.

"Why's it matter to you? I thought we were done, Bakugo," Izuku said. He hardened his voice and stood at his full height, refusing to be scared of him anymore.

"I bet you loved that. Getting to show all those sheep your winning smile like you earned that," Bakugo said. His eyes, previously steady and dull, regained some of the edge that Izuku remembered. "I bet you revelled in the chance to rub it in my face that you were praised as a winner while I was denied my dream and called unstable!"

"Bakugo," Izuku warned, putting a gloved hand out in front of him. He didn't know that he could dissuade Bakugo from doing anything, but he had to try and calm him down before he woke people up. After all, it was only about seven in the morning.

"What, are you gonna attack me with your scum Quirk?" Bakugo yelled. His eyes had locked onto his hand and widened, something flashing across his face and twisting it into some kind of dark humour. "That'd be just like you, huh? I dare you to do it, killer."

"I'm not gonna entertain this," Izuku said, sighing and stepping back. He tried to shut the door, but Bakugo kept it open with a strong hand. Looks like he hadn't let up on the strength training since getting kicked out of UA.

"Nah, you're gonna shut the fuck up and listen to me, killer. You owe me that much after killing my dream!" Bakugo yelled, making Izuku flinch, though not from fear. He didn't want him to wake anyone up and make a scene.

"You need to be quiet, idiot! Are you even allowed to be here? I thought they would've locked you up after you tried to kill me," Izuku said with a cold evenness to his voice.

Bakugo laughed, deep in his belly, and said, "Turns out they think I have a 'personality disorder' or whatever the fuck, and I need 'help', not prison. They tell me I can only leave the house for exercise, but it was the perfect excuse to come and get what I want!"

He suddenly lurched, and Izuku stepped back. Bakugo erupted with laughter and pushed into the hall leading to Izuku's home, and his mother. Izuku planted his feet and looked Bakugo in the eye with defiant anger, and scowled as the other boy tried to push into his home. Wild red eyes met solid green ones, and there was a moment of silence between the two boys. Izuku begged with his eyes for Bakugo to not do this, trying his hardest to send the message that this was avoidable and didn't need to happen. He got the feeling that Bakugo didn't see it that way, and the next time Izuku blinked, Bakugo moved.

Bakugo tried to throw a punch at Izuku, but he dodged. Izuku's retaliation was less of a kick and more just a push with his foot, softened somewhat by his branded Mirko bunny rabbit slippers. Bakugo was pushed out onto the balcony where he collided with the railing that kept him from tipping over the side and falling two floors and getting seriously hurt. Izuku remembered at that moment that Bakugo had been learning to fly with his Quirk the last they saw each other, and disregarded that thought. The two of them froze, with Izuku wondering whether he should go out there and attempt to calm him down or if he should try to shut and lock the door that Bakugo would inevitably blow right through. If he tried to shut Bakugo out for as long as he could, it'd buy him time to call the cops, and the explosion needed to break down the door would draw attention from others who could do the same. On the other hand, that would draw him closer to Izuku's mother, and that was not happening. Ironically, he now hoped the yelling had woken her up.

Izuku swung the door shut behind him as he approached Bakugo. Now that they were both outside, there was no risk to his mother, and they were in clear view of basically all their neighbours so they could call the police if they noticed. Izuku clenched his fists and breathed deeply, bringing down his raging heartbeat and calming himself down as best as he could in the little time he had. He unfurled his fists and held his open palms out in a peace offering to Bakugo, knowing it probably wouldn't work.

"You need to stop. If you do this, you probably will get locked up this time," Izuku said, his voice low and sharp.

"I don't care! You're too far gone, killer. I need to show you your place, scum!" Bakugo yelled, and thrust his hand out.

The sparks started before the blast came. Izuku had enough time to throw his arms up around his face before the explosion triggered, throwing him across the balcony and slamming him right back into the closed door, which splintered the wood at the hinges but didn't cause it to completely give out just yet. Izuku managed to stay on his feet, but coughed harshly as he arched his back away from the door in pain. The skin on his arms burned from taking the blast, but he could deal with that. He really had no choice, did he? Izuku brought his fists up to fight, standing firmly in front of Bakugo, who'd pushed himself off the railing and started looking at him with a feral grin and wild, animal eyes. He looked like a lion finally let out of the cage.

"Do you have any idea how I've suffered because of you? Being locked inside all day, kept from using my Quirk by those damn cameras and having to talk to some nobodies about my feelings? It's torture, killer, and it's your fault!" Bakugo yelled, sparks crackling in his palms.

"You did it to yourself, asshole! I'm not the one that made you fire that gauntlet, that was you. You chose this!" Izuku said, bouncing on his feet. He wanted to dodge as much as he could, and eventually lead him away from his apartment, and to do that he'd have to be limber.

"Liar!" Bakugo screamed, thrusting a hand out once again.

Before the sparks even started, Izuku leapt forward and wrestled his hand away from himself and pointed it down at the balcony. The blast went off and scorched the concrete they were standing on, causing a crack to chip away at the balcony. Izuku grimaced, and looked up just in time to get punched in the face by Bakugo's free hand. He stumbled away from Bakugo, wanting to get distance between them. His blasts could only reach so far, so he had to get away from him. As he stepped away from Bakugo, facing him all the while to prevent a sneak attack, Izuku sighed heavily.

"I'm not a liar, you're just mad. I get that, I was mad at you, too, but this is too far!" Izuku yelled back, leaning into the anger by reflex alone.

"Oh?" Bakugo asked, his face twitching. "You were mad at me, were you? What did you have to be mad about? You had a strong Quirk and you were so determined and you were immediately that hobo bastard's favourite. You didn't have anything to be mad about!"

Bakugo lunged, and threw a sparking fist at Izuku. He dodged under it and muscle memory immediately kicked in as he used that to hit Bakugo with an uppercut that sent him stumbling away, leaning on the railing for balance. Izuku's hand twitched, as he'd accidentally used his mangled hand that he still hadn't gotten a replacement prosthetic for, and he clutched it with his good hand in the time he was given by Bakugo's recovery. That seemingly drew Bakugo's attention to the missing finger for the first time, the glove's finger simply hanging and flapping where flesh would normally be. He had to start leaving that layer of the fabric out of the glove when he wasn't wearing the prosthetic, but he hadn't been able to commit it to memory so far. Nonetheless, it had brought Bakugo's attention to his injury, and he gave a savage grin.

"How'd that happen, Deku?" Bakugo asked, causing Izuku to flinch at the old nickname. "You couldn't hack it? I'm shocked!"

While Izuku was startled by the revival of his old nickname, Bakugo attacked again. Izuku wondered what the goal even was for him. Had he finally snapped and come to kill Izuku? Did he just want to vent his frustration at being kicked out of UA? Was he even lucid? There were too many unknowns about just how far Bakugo was willing to go with this, so Izuku had to end this quickly. He tried to dodge out of the way, but he was caught in the blast that Bakugo sent his way, and was pushed so far down the balcony that he had to roll so he wouldn't just completely ragdoll on the concrete. He pushed himself back up to his feet in one fluid motion, and looked back at Bakugo to gauge what he was thinking.

There was nothing behind those eyes, just an animal stalking its dinner. Izuku took a deep breath in, and steadied himself. He felt the drum in his heart beating like crazy, but he knew he couldn't give in to the anger he felt, the rage he knew he had kept contained for too long. He wanted so badly to scream and yell and tell Bakugo all the things he hated about him. All the things that he'd made Izuku hate about himself. But he couldn't. It wasn't healthy, this wasn't healthy—for either of them.

"Bakugo, stop this! You don't really want this, do you? I mean, tell me why you're so angry! Maybe we can figure something out!" Izuku said, preparing for the inevitable attack in reply. Strangely, Bakugo stood there, seemingly frozen.

"Why?" he said, his voice low and scratchy. "You want me to tell you why?" He laughed, the same cackle from deep inside that he'd done before, except this time it was high, and his voice was breaking. "You know why, Deku! I was supposed to be the next number one hero! I was on track! And then you fucked it all up! You and your villain Quirk, and then you had the nerve to act all shy and nervous when I've seen what you really are. Scum, evil, a villain through and through. Don't forget, Deku, I was there. I saw what you did."

"And what have you done? Burned and bruised me, for years! Sure, what happened—" Izuku tried to say.

"There it is again!" Bakugo screeched with a laugh like a hyena. "You're such a fucking liar, Deku! 'What happened,' 'the circumstances,' 'random chance!' You talk like it was an accident, when I saw your fucking face, you killer! You liked it! You savoured it! You're evil, unhinged."

"Do you even hear yourself right now?" Izuku screamed back. "You're talking as if you didn't take something that could've happened at any time to any kid and turn it into an excuse to break me, over and over for ten years! That's evil! You're unhinged! If you could see yourself right now, you'd know what I'm talking about. You're practically salivating thinking of hurting me, aren't you? Do you think that's what a hero does?"

"What, stopping villains? Yeah, I think it is what a hero does. You can try to fool everyone else, Deku, but you can't fool me. I have no clue how you did it, but you even fooled those losers at UA. That hobo, that fat bitch clinging to your arm like a dog in heat—"

"Don't call her that!" Izuku said, stepping forward as the glove on his right hand somehow evaporated without him needing to fulfil the activation requirements of his Quirk. "I'm telling you to shut up and go home, Bakugo. You don't want this!"

"Oh, did that make you angry? Enough to kill me over it?" Bakugo asked, mocking Izuku's twisted scowl with a pout of his own. He looked down at Izuku's now uncovered hand and sneered. "Jeez, that's pretty fucked up. Did you do that to yourself to gain more pity points with that bitch, or—?"

"I said shut up!" Izuku said, his right hand twitching again. "If you're gonna fight me, do it, but if you just wanna sit around and talk, then I have better things to be doing."

Bakugo grinned at that, and leapt at Izuku, who dodged under another attempted hit. He attempted to repeat his uppercut move from before, but was caught in the head by one of Bakugo's elbows, which had him falling to the ground and yelping in pain. Bakugo threw both his hands out and aimed them right at Izuku's face, and he looked up to find them already sparking. Dodging with a roll to the side may have saved him from outright dying, but the blast was still huge, bigger than any he'd attempted that morning. The explosion ripped through the air, launching Izuku even further to the side than he'd already rolled and forced him through the railing, which made something in Izuku's back twinge in pain at barreling through the metallic bars. He managed to hold onto the ledge with his left hand, and ended up losing control of his body's momentum and swinging down to the balcony on the floor below the one he'd started on. He couldn't stick the landing, as a stray piece of concrete debris got under his foot and he slipped to the ground, banging his shoulder against the hard, cold floor.

Izuku looked up and saw that Bakugo's attack had blasted a hole in the balcony above, which he was looking down through to make eye contact with Izuku. Bakugo suddenly looked up, though, and stared at something Izuku couldn't see with a feral grin and glee in his eyes. Izuku heard a voice through the ringing in his ears, and recognised it distinctly as his mother's. She screamed, and Izuku's body kicked back into action. He scrambled to his feet and looked up at Bakugo through the result of his fury, and screamed.

"Don't touch her!" Izuku yelled, but it was too late.

Bakugo ran out of sight, toward Izuku's apartment. He didn't think it would be faster to try climbing up through the hole, so he turned and bolted up the stairs. A shrill scream made his heart pound in his chest painfully, and he hurled himself up the stairs three or four at a time. The screaming stopped just as he reached the floor they were on, and he emerged from the stairwell to find that his mother was there, still in her sleepwear, crying as she sat on the floor, likely having tripped while trying to get away from Bakugo, who had vanished into thin air. Izuku looked around, his head snapping to all different directions so fast it would normally be painful, but he didn't feel a thing at that moment, just anger. He then sprinted toward his mother, kneeling next to her and getting her to look up at him.

"Mom, are you okay? Did he hurt you?" Izuku asked over her unintelligible sobbing.

"No! But he … Izuku, what did he do to you?" Inko asked, looking down at his forearms.

"I'm fine. Did you see where he went?" Izuku asked, standing back up to look around for Bakugo.

"No, he just disappeared!" Inko said, and hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad you're safe, Izuku!"

"You, too," Izuku said, hugging his mother back but still looking around with dread heavy in his heart.

One of their neighbours came out and called the cops shortly afterwards, along with an ambulance. They arrived within minutes, pushing through the residents of the apartment complex who'd emerged from their homes to see what the fuss was all about and take pictures of the destruction caused during the confrontation. The officers met Izuku and his mother up on the balcony and escorted them down to the ground level, where they took their statements while paramedics patched up Izuku's arms. Izuku's mind was working overtime to figure out what exactly had happened, but he absently told the officers what had happened while he tried to explain to himself how Bakugo had just disappeared like that. Izuku hadn't heard any explosions, so he couldn't have flown away, and he wasn't fast enough to run and vanish like he had, so what was up with that?

Eventually, the cops were certain that Bakugo was truly nowhere around there. They told the Midoriyas that it was safe to go back to their day, but that they would stick around to make sure he didn't come back. They'd also increase hero patrols around the area for if Bakugo tried anything more after the officers had to leave to perform their other duties. Izuku didn't know how he could go back to his day to day routine knowing that Bakugo was now ready to come for him at any time and willing to risk being a legit villain to get back at him. That was the thing that shook Izuku the most, how Bakugo had just completely abandoned any pretence of heroism in favour of hurting Izuku the way he thought he'd been hurt. Something had broken in Katsuki Bakugo, and that was trouble for Izuku. Were they really safe?

Izuku looked up at that damaged balcony and had a bad feeling in his stomach. Bakugo wouldn't disappear forever. He'd be back, and he'd be back for blood. He wasn't going to let the excuses he'd made for himself stop him now, and had fallen head first into bloodlust. Bakugo wasn't burdened by the lies he'd made himself believe anymore. He was, in a word, freed from all pretence of justice. He was completely able to hone in on getting back at Izuku's perceived crimes. But there was a little glimmer of something positive in this that Izuku could focus on. He wasn't ready for Bakugo this time, but he'd prepare for their next clash. He could train, and develop the skills needed to be on par with Bakugo's natural athleticism and his Quirk, and Izuku could beat him. He vowed to himself at that moment, looking up at the hole in their balcony, that he would beat Katsuki Bakugo the next time they met.

A laugh slipped through his lips at the thought, startling his mother out of her dread. They'd finally taken those roles that Bakugo had assigned them so long ago based on the fear of a child, but they'd ended up on sides that neither of them could have predicted back then. Somehow, Bakugo was the villain out for blood and Izuku was the hero tasked to stop him. That didn't feel right, but he supposed he'd deal with that. Izuku didn't believe in destiny, but he did believe that this was the universe's way of screwing him over one last time after he'd given it the middle finger by winning the sports festival. It was less that it was fate, and more that it was ironic, if that was the right word. Izuku sighed and held his head in his hands.

He'd deal with it, just like he'd dealt with everything else that had been thrown his way.