Chapter Text
Prologue
Finally. After years things were finally playing out for Izuku, finally setting into his direction. But were they?
Well, his mother was good, he got All Might’s quirk and he was in his dream school. So he should be happy, right…..?
Well.
He was supposed to be happy. But he wasn’t. He didn't feel like he actually was able to save anyone at this rate, he didn't think he was doing a lot of stuff, or well anything right in favour to save everyone.
He was slacking.
He hated that he was. But he couldn't pull himself together. It was absolutely weird to him how he was treated differently from when he didn't have a quirk. Or maybe he was just around the wrong people? Perhaps. Damn he was unsure.
He really liked his class, he really did, and Kacchan was as awesome as always. But was that enough? Was that enough to keep the doubts away that always crept into his head?
No. It wasn't.
It really wasn't.
As much as he hoped to.
And then there was Shigaraki.
Shigaraki, someone he could relate to. Both of them have been failed by society, but one chose villainy and one chose heroism. And they were enemies. Their sensei's were, so they had to be.
Even though Izuku set himself the goal to save Shigaraki. To save the little boy that had been wronged all that time ago.
The League of Villains, a bunch of villains. Izuku saw them all as people who've been wronged. And as much wrong as they were spreading, Izuku was never able to bring himself to hate them. He knew there was more behind it than just ‘hey let's be a villain because fun!’
And Izuku wanted to help so much.
So it broke Izuku even more when he had to fight against them in a war. A war that cost a ton of pro heroes.
A ton of people who got hurt. Damn this world, Izuku thought.
He wasn't able to help as a hero anymore.
So..
He just ran. Class 1-A couldn't miss someone like him that much anyway. Not really now.
At least not that he could imagine.
His first few weeks as a vigilante had been hard. He saw some much pain and violence. He was sorry for being so blind to just ignore it. He'd been a victim to the all so perfect hero society. Whatever they pretended to be.
Class 1-A came searching for him. Despite his expectations. Week 5 is about to start and he is so fed up with everything….
Prologue end
The story of how I became the world greatest hero? A fucking pathetic thought Izuku had. The way he saw the world took a whole turn. He wasn't the little foolish kid anymore. Because. What the actual fuck had he been thinking back then? Has he really been that foolish to believe someone like him, an outcast like him could be a hero? What a damn loser he’d been. Katsuki was right. Someone pathetic just like himself could never be a hero. Not a hero everyone would want to look up to.
And that's exactly why he left UA, class 1-A. He didn't see a reason to stay anymore. One because he was who he was and two because what a fool he'd been to actually believe those people were the greatest friends he ever had
So from now on, he was a vigilante, someone lurking around the shadows to fight crimes in secret. Well, as good as that would work.
But the greatest thing was:
No one would ever know about any of his doings.
He might have wanted to be a famous hero, just like All Might his well ‘idol’, but now? No. He definitely preferred this.
It was just..
His class. They had the audacity to go out there and search for him. As if he was someone special. And not just a burden.
He saw them a few times while he was patrolling around some areas.
He watched them for short amount of times, not wanting to be caught obviously. But he never was spotted once that entire time by a single one of them. Funny.
Looking around Japan was, depending on what kind of person you were either beautiful, or just depressing. Everything was in shards and abandoned. Whatever.
What a cruel place Japan has become ever since the greatest hero of all time, All Might or whatever, had his retirement. Stupid. There was so much unnecessary violence happening. And the once so colorful Japan everyone liked so much, will never be the same. Not in a ton of years.
Never again.
Not the way they used to know it.
His thoughts drifted back to Class 1-A. He couldn't help but wonder why they havent given up yet. He didn't give them a single chance or shit like that, so why were they still searching for him? It's been around 5 weeks since he made a run for it and they still dragged their asses out here for some reason Izuku couldn't understand.
Izuku tried assuming they weren't out for him, which was difficult when they basically weren't doing anything else but walk walk walk and look out for someone. They were obvious. And they talked a lot about him on their search, journey or their patrol or what the fuck they were calling this. And Izuku couldn't help but wonder why they were so persistent.
Even though, Izuku was cautious enough to not be found and besides, he had no struggle to just hide in the shadows that were covering him up perfectly.
No need for a fuss. At least for Izuku
﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊
Katsuki felt like he was going insane. They were walking again. Because of some stupid ass who decided to ran away
“Where in this fucking hell hole is this damned nerd.”
It felt like the only thing they were doing was searching for him. Katsuki hated that. That they had to search in the first place. That this bastard couldn't get the balls to talk. Fucker.
He tried to act as if it didn't affect him that much. It didn't. Okay it might did. Not that he would openly admit it. Obviously.
Katsuki barely got any sleep at the moment. Since Izuku had been missing and it's pissing him off.
Would actually be a miracle to him if any of them got a healthy sleep at this rate.
Except for glasses. He took that shit kinda serious.
Everyone went out for him. All of them were restless..
Not daring to allow them to let down their guard to a high amount.
“I'm worried about Deku” Round cheeks cried out.
“We all are, ribbit”
“It's been 5 weeks, ever since he disappeared. Or well ran. Hope he's doing fine”
Katsuki shot Yaoyorozu a glance. What the fuck was that wanna be yapping about. 5 weeks of isolation. The nerd could not be anywhere near fine, if he even was keeping his sanity.
As the next one started whining, Katsuki didn't even care to listen. It was always the same thing they were on about. How much they can't bear losing him. What so fucking ever.
Always whining on how it took so much out of them (even tho it did, but who wouldn't be, and repeating it made it meaningless, so)
Most of the girls were often down with their mood.
Ashido was trying to up the mood most times though.
As good as she was able to with herself feeling so ‘down’.
“Concentration class. I know you all are worried and I am too, but we can't help him if we slack and don't find him”
Katsuki hated that glasses dude for always acting like he's the best. Or something.
Yet he didn't get a say. Iida was the class rep ‘nd stuff. And one of the calmest on the outside right now as it seemed. Even if his expression was tainted in concern and worry, giving a huge contrast to his words.
But yeah, since Izuku left everything behind has been chaos. Every person, everything.
As much as they hoped he would be physically okay, at least because Katsuki knew Izuku was going mentally insane right now, all of them knew little how bad Izuku could be in his actual state right now.
﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊
Izuku was watching Class 1-A on their search. He didn't have anything better to do right now, the villains being awfully quiet most of the time, so he just did his uh watching instead.
Because the class would certainly not give up, would they?
Which Izuku thought of as utterly stupid. He couldn't understand how they could seem to care that much about a burden like he was. Someone who would just casually go around and end up injured without doing a lot.
Izuku saw them earlier, while he was jumping across the buildings. He liked the parkouring he was able to do.
Back to topic, when he found them he just decided to watch. Life as a vigilante could be boring, don't blame him for that?
So now he was just standing inside of a -broken- building without windows (the glass was lying all around the ground, like a lot of buildings happened to look like), resting in the dark while watching the others search. For him. Kind of endearing if you think about it.
And that just pointed out how deep they actually were into finding him. Desperate bunch, huh. Izuku didn't understand how he could even be worth that much time to all of them. Weird.
‘Why do they care so much. So deeply? And why the hell are they so eager to find me?”
He was just a random boy, and he'd been quirkless most of his life. In addition he had lied to them for months.
So since when did people care enough?
﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊
Katsuki was sick of this walking.
Katsuki was sick of Izuku running away.
And Katsuki was sick of Izuku thinking he would need to handle every single shit by himself. What a stupid nerd.
Every single day, for the last 5 weeks they had been out there searching for a nerd that thought running would be the best thing to ever potentially do. Fucker. And they are out again. In the fucking rain.
It was rainy as hell.
Gosh, how much he hated the rain.
But he so wasn't ready to give up yet. He felt the need to find Izuku. All the years back, he had treated him like absolute dog shit, treated him absolutely horrible. Even if this wasn't an excuse at all, Katsuki simply didn't know how to express himself. Especially at times where he felt like Izuku was trying to compete with him, when looking back he never did really try to compete.
And now, Izuku was screwed up so badly, but the spark in his eyes had never left him.
So Katsuki was wondering…
Was the spark, the so ordinary spark in Izuku that showed he was full on ready to sacrifice himself to save anyone coming into his way, still there? Was it still the same?
Had it…. Had it faded?
As much as Katsuki wanted to know, he also didn't want to know at all.
He could only hope so, because he wasn't sure at all.
Time was passing so slowly, as Katsuki's thoughts swirled back to the real world.
They still were walking through the empty and grey streets. The buildings looked so freaking messed up, abandoned. All the glass was shattered. Who knew what chaos must have run around the city.
He redirected his focus onto the streets.
“Why'd he need to run away” Ashido groaned.
And here we go again with the endless rants. Katsuki was annoyed by them.
“Because he never thinks about himself. He rather sacrifices himself instead of relying on others and crossing the possibility of endangering them. Fucking nerd.”
“I wouldn't see Midoriya as the type to really open up. He's not full of himself which is good but he also has too little self care”, Asui stated.
She was right, pretty much.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever”
“Bakubro, we know you're concerned. Don't eat it all up like that.”
Whelp. And just like that Katsuki was feeling like he was about to get cornered by Kirishima.
“Yes, Kirishima is right. We're buddies after all!”.
Fucking dunce face. Annoying shit as ever.
“Shut up idiots, we have other and more important stuff to focus on right now”.
“Sure we do” Kirishima muttered.
“If you have to say something speak the fuck up”
Before it could escalate any further, Uraraka chimed in.
“Uh guys, I don't know about you, but am I the only one to feel kinda watched?”
“Now that you point it out… yeah definitely feeling watched”, Yaoyorozu added in.
Both girls started to look around, and they definitely weren't wrong. Someone was watching. Katsuki felt the eyes on him too. Oddly enough. What fucker would just watch without showing themselves.
So someone was watching. That's what it at least felt like.
Katsuki looked up at a building. The insides were all dark. Nothing else could be seen, as it was eaten by the shadows. But wait..
Katsuki concentrated and looked closer, as far as it was possible.
And there.
Was there something lurking in the shadows? Or…. someone?
At this point Katsuki was poking holes into the air with the intensity he was staring.
Whatever helped to confirm his suspicion, he supposed. And it did.
There was most definitely someone standing. It was hard to make them out, cause hell they were hidden well in the shadows, as if they were one with the shadows, not even wanting to be spotted. Weirdo.
“Bakugou why are you staring, what are you staring at? Set your focus on our goal.”
“There's some rando up the fucking building smart ass”
“What now?”
“What would anyone be doing up there?”
“Maybe it is someone that needs help, maybe they're injured. We should most definitely check on that someone!”
“I don't think that extra needs help”
“What are you s…”
“Look at the way the bastard is hiding in the shadows. Does that seem like anyone who would want help?”
“What are you implying Bakugou? Are you saying that….” Uraraka didn't even finish the sentence.
Katsuki nodded. He was pretty sure about it.
“Wait, wait what are you two saying, I am lost here”
“The person in the shadows might be Midoriya”
“Might be, that fucker is Izuku. Why else would someone be watching in the distance.”
The others gasp in shock.
Idiots. Literally.
“Well then we should definitely get up there … somehow”
"Obviously."
They make their way up. Don't even ask how to Katsuki didn't even know himself how they did manage to do that. But as soon as they arrived, they stumbled upon an empty space.
“What the…”
“Fuck we were so freaking close”
Katsuki was furious. If that was even the right word to use.
“Bakugo, calm down and take a breath. He can't be that far yet.”
Iida and everyone else started to look around, while Katsuki took a moment to take care of his frustration.
But one thing, Katsuki knew for sure.
Deku, no matter how long it takes or where you are, class 1-A will find you. And will take you back.
﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊
Izuku was still in the shadows watching them. And then he heard them talk. Feeling watched or some bullshit. He couldn't imagine how that would ever occur. Hmm very very odd.
The class was looking around, trying to spot whatever or well whoever could be watching them. Well Izuku knew who it was!
And then Katsuki looked up to the building. Much to Izuku's disliking.
At first Katsuki didn't seem to notice a lot up there, he simply couldn't because of the darkness Izuku was surrounded by. But the longer, and the more intense Katsuki seemed to stare, the clearer it was. Izuku definitely had been spotted.
Well, took them long enough. 5 weeks. Ts ts ts.
And then the rest started looking up here. One wrong move and they would know Izuku was already planning his escape. Which they wouldn't like (they would sprint even faster) and Izuku would hate that even more.
So he just stood still until they were out of sight and made a run for it. He ran across the room to the other side of the building and climbed out of the window to jump across to the next building. His fingers gripped to the window as he dragged himself in, careful not to be cut by the shards.
He was just in time to see, that they arrived at the spot where he was just seconds before. Well luck for him. Seems to be on his side then.
Katsuki was very visibly mad that Izuku had escaped. Izuku liked that honestly, not that he would admit it though.
Escape.
‘Yeah, Izuku, might be what your ass should be focused on right now, don't ya think?’
And so he did. Far away from everyone.
﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊﹊
“For fucks sake I am so gonna kill that damn nerd. Who does he actually think he is”
Katsuki was mad. Has been mentioned before, hasn't it.
“Where did he run off to that quickly?”
“Are you sure he really was here and you weren't just imagining things?”
“Yes I saw him with my own stupid eyes, smartass. Don't think I got hallucinations.”
Yaoyorozu sighed.
Katsuki's anger faded a little. He didn't get a reason to hold a grudge against them. Obviously, it wasn't their fault that Izuku was gone. He guessed.
It was exhausting. Draining. The constant search, the constant not knowing what the fuck is actually up. And this little spark of hope, to finally see Izuku again…
And then he ended up disappearing into the unknown.
“C'mon extras, the nerd can't be far and he can't just disappear on us like that”
“We should head back to the dormitory, we did everything we could for now, so don't stress”
“I ain't heading back now asshat. I'm not ready to head back yet damn four eyes”
“Bakugou, as the class representative I am saying we did enough today. We all could use a break, especially you. It is essential to take breaks in between.”
“No he's still close by, you idiot”
“Dude, really, we gave it all a shot, rest up” fucking dunce face jumped in. Betrayal.
“Yeah, I agree with Kaminari and Iida. This is not manly at all, Bakubro”
Katsuki made a little growl sound but gave in. No need to stand against half the class.
Class 1-A started to head back. Katsuki wore an angry expression now. If Izuku would get hurt now, he is so gonna be blaming them. No escape. He tried. Really did. Fuckers.
Yet, he also had a realization. It surely might be the best to rest up a little.
It also has been a wonder that he didn't pass out at any given point yet.
The class was aware of his messed up state, but well, he was Katsuki, and he could be a little stoic.
So it was rather hard to get to him.
Kirishima and Kaminari were rather worried about their friend. They probably knew better than anyone that Katsuki would need the rest. Would need to eat and sleep properly.
“Bakugou, you gotta give your body some food and some rest. This won't help ya get all manly, you know. Food’s essential”
“Not before we got fucking Izuku back.”
“Welp you're not gonna be the biggest help to get your Izuku back when you're all passed out in Recovery Girls office y’know. Exhaustion isn't fun at all” Kaminari added, trying to help Kirishima out.
And it was definitely hearable, that they were genuinely worried about Katsuki.
Still, Katsuki wasn't ready to give in. Not under these circumstances. Never.
Deep down he knew, he was so much in the wrong right here, right now. But he was way too stubborn to actually care or give in or anything like that.
“The boys are right, Bakugou. Give your body some rest for once” Ashido chimed in as well.
Great.
“Just shut up already. And the fuck you mean ‘my Izuku’”
Kaminari made a face, ready to make a run for it. Well if he wasn't the screwed one now.
But else their way back to the dorms was relatively chill.
With the little knowledge how close they could have been with catching Izuku.