apathy

a stain on society

Stain doesn't waste even a second before he's charging at Devil. He moves swiftly, his scarves streaming behind him as he raises his katana high to strike.

The "Green Devil," as the kid vigilante is called by their mutual shopkeep friend, stands his ground. Back when Stain was Stendhal, he would have stopped. Jotun has helped him many times, so he really shouldn't hurt the boy that he was very fond of. But he isn't Stendhal. He's Stain. Nothing will keep him from his goal of cleaning up this system of corrupted heroes. Child vigilante or adult hero, they will all be mowed down if they try to stand in his way.

Stain brings his katana down in a devastating arc. Devil's eyes glint and he throws up his arms in an X at the last moment, a motion that makes Stain think of someone bracing for the inevitable end. It's fitting, he decides.

His katana clashes with Devil's arms and does not cleave right through the fabric of his hoodie as Stain expects. A shower of sparks jump from where the two objects meet, accompanied by the screeching sound of metal against metal. Devil pushes forward the moment after the attack, intending to knock him off his balance most likely, so Stain moves with it. He jumps back and lands in a defensive stance, watching Devil with a calculating gaze.

The Devil, for his part, merely straightens up to shake out his arms. He raises one arm to inspect the untouched fabric of his sleeve and then looks beyond it to meet Stain's eyes.

"I might as well get some data on my hero outfit from this fight." He muses aloud, putting his hands into the front pocket of his armored hoodie. "Don't be afraid to try harder to get my blood, old man."

"Haa... So you're trying to become a hero..." Stain sneers. He subtly retrieves a few knives under the pretense of adjusting a scarf. "How... Disappointing."

"Hey, it's not my first choice." Devil shrugs. "You're right. Hero society is fucked."

Stain pauses, and the heroling behind Devil curses, staring at the young vigilante's back in furious disbelief. Devil keeps his eye contact with Stain.

"A lot of heroes are in it for the money, or the fame. A lot of poorer areas go ignored because there are no news stations to cover the stories. The hero system creates most of its villains." Devil has a bitter look in his eyes, and Stain finds himself grinning. What a delightful surprise. A soon to be hero who agrees with him.

"Well, I have to say I'm pleasantly shocked to hear that, Devil." Stain starts, only to have the Devil raise his hand in a universal sign of 'I wasn't done talking.'

"But," He says with a new venom in his eyes, though his voice doesn't change from monotone, "That doesn't mean you get to choose to be god. You don't even have a consistent criteria for what makes a good hero! You base everything on All Might when he is just as flawed as the rest of them."

Stain stares him down, once again properly enraged. Bloodlust pulses off of him in waves, poisoning the air. This child thinks he knows best, then? Thinks that he is in any position to critique Stain's ideology?

Stain throws the knives in his hand at the Devil, quickly, and the Devil raises his arms to guard as expected. Stain takes advantage of the momentary blindspot to rush forward again and strike at the Devil—this time targeting his unarmored, vulnerable face.

He sees another glint of green eyes and then the Devil ducks under his attack. He surges upwards and presses something firmly into Stain's arm. Two metal prongs poke painfully, and then Stain seizes up with the subsequent charge of electricity that races through him.

Usually Stain can shake off a tasering—the default voltage is low enough that it doesn't hurt as much after the ninth time—but someone has obviously juiced this one up. Where he would find his legs strong, they buckle under him. His vision goes black and when he opens his eyes again, Devil has a knee on his back and is tightening the restraints he's tied already.

"You just... Took him out." The heroling by the wall says, looking shellshocked. Devil sighs and shifts off of Stain, but sits on him before he can move. Even though his muscles feel like noodles right now. What madman had created that taser?

"You've said that like seven times, Iida. Yes. I tased him. I wasn't going to spend an hour of my life fighting this bastard, I have things to do." Devil pats Stain's head like he's some kind of misbehaving dog. The prongs of his taser presses against his neck at the same moment. "Morning sleeping beauty. Don't try anything, or I'll tase you again."

Stain turns his head slightly to glare at the child who has taken him down. All these heroes, and none have even touched him. Then one kid shows up and the hero killer is down. How.... weak.

"...Underhanded." Stain accuses. Devil rolls his eyes.

"This isn't a blood drive, old man, and I'm no blood donor. You're just too used to people letting you brawl them to incapacity." He reaches into the bag of groceries he'd placed down earlier and withdraws another egg. Stain tries to wiggle away, but his muscles are still recovering and the Devil calmly cracks the egg on his head without even focusing on him.

Instead, he's looking at the entrance of the alley, at a detective flanked by policemen who have just appeared.

"Izuku." The detective says, sagging in relief when he sees Devil unharmed, hurrying over. "You're oka—are you cracking an egg on the hero killer?"

"Maybe." Devil answers, slipping his hell taser into his sleeve and standing fluidly. "I stabilized Native and Iida but they probably need an ambulance. I'm not great at medical stuff."

"You said you were—" Iida the heroling gasps, just as two officers pull him up and begin carrying him out. Stain subtly tests the strength of his bonds, now that Devil is off of him. They're tied well, but he hasn't been stripped of all of his knives. Another two officers pulls him to his feet, dragging him behind Devil and the detective out of the alley.

Stain puts up a fake bit of struggle to grab his knife. He'll cut what's holding his wrists, then kill Devil and escape. Easy. The cops don't even realize what's happening amidst all of the other chaos they drag him out into until he's lunging for Devil. The younger vigilante turns when he hears the shouts, giving Stain just the opening he needs.

Something else gets there first.

A large, winged creature—one of Shigaraki's, no doubt—dive bombs them. It barely misses Stain himself, instead grabbing the Devil's arm and lifting off again. The claws on the thing pierce right through his armored hoodie. Stain sees the blood splatter onto the top of a car and everyone hears the kid shout in pain.

"NO!" A few someones nearby scream in unison.

And well, Stain may still have egg on his face, but he has to admit, seeing the Green Devil as a hero will be a nice change of pace. Even if he's an annoying little shit who questions Stain.

The creature is still low enough that when Stain leaps off the nearby hood of a police car, he's able to drive his knife right into the thing's brain. It drops Devil to go crashing into the ground, and Stain is there to catch him. The heroes and police form a loose circle around where they land, tense and waiting for Stain to reveal his motives.

"The only one who kills me is All Might!" Stain shouts, setting a barely conscious Devil on the ground. "And the only one who kills this brat is me!"

And then his vision goes black and he passes out along with the Devil.