"Please, come in."
Izuku followed the invitation and stepped into the staff cabinet room turned temporary interrogation chamber, or at least that was what it felt like to him while facing Detective Tsukauchi and another police officer from across the table.
He was already drawing on the Calm Mind as much as he dared to, not wanting to appear odd. The story of how the events at USJ happened and how he felt about them was clear in his mind and the rest of the world didn't exist except for the two men in front of him. He sat down, maintaining a neutral expression. The police officer started a voice recorder.
"Please state your name," Tsukauchi said.
"Izuku Midoriya."
"You were one of the class 1A students present during the U.S.J incident?"
"Yes."
"Please describe in your own words what happened from the beginning."
Thankfully the events had been set so that Izuku didn't really need to lie about his actions, just his surprise and some of his feelings of the situations, and even those were dominated by genuine fear he had felt for his friend. He both naturally and purposefully let that come through in his description to cover his other feelings.
"Midoriya, I am not sure if you have noticed, but during this whole discussion you have not expressed feeling any fear for your own safety. Were you not afraid with actual villains trying to kill you?"
"It... was a shock at first, but I didn't have time to fear... for myself."
"Only others?"
"Yes."
"You were focused on their safety, not your own. Was that your main focus while fighting?"
"Yes. Why are you asking about this?"
"Are you aware of the level of injuries you inflicted?"
"Yes."
"In other areas the villains suffered severe frostbites and dangerous levels of electric shocks, but the storm dome where you fought had by far the most severely injured villains with burns, piercing wounds from shrapnel, and broken bones. It is miracle none of them seem to be in danger of dying anymore."
"They tried to kill Toshi... and Tokoyami. THEY are lucky they failed."
"Why is that?"
"Because I would have kille..." Izuku paused. With the Calm Mind there hadn't been the emotions that would have usually stopped him from blurting out the words.
"You would have killed them?" Tsukauchi asked and discreetly slid his hand forward on the table to touch Izuku's. It was too late to make up a different response.
"Probably," he responded truthfully. "There have been a couple of times T... my friends have been threatened or in danger. Those times are a bit of a haze, but I... I know I would kill to keep them safe, and they know that much. At USJ I had enough time to aim in front of the attackers and not at them with my explosive attacks to not kill them, but I wouldn't risk Hitoshi's safety to spare the villains from the shrapnel. It stopped most of them at once."
"And the one whose quirk you took?"
The words didn't hold any more judgement than the previous comments on the violence Izuku had inflicted on the villains, but the other police officer seemed tenser and stared at Izuku more constantly.
"I barely stopped him from decapitating Tokoyami. Then he tried to kill Hitoshi. I was too slow. The only way I could have stopped him in time was to aim to kill and... That time Dark Shadow was faster, but the villain could still have gotten back into the air so I stopped him and took his quirk."
"Do you intend to return the quirk?"
"No. Do you have any more questions about what actually happened there?"
"Did you notice anything odd or specific about any of the villains?"
"Mostly I was surprised we could beat them relatively easily, and I mean the whole class. They or someone leading them was good enough to trap us in the dome, but most of the villains were out of their league against fresh high school students. There only seemed to be like two really dangerous ones, besides the creature that fought All Might. The leader and the one with the teleportation quirk."
"You and your classmates also fought impressively. I think we are done here. Do you have any questions?"
"Have you arrested Bakugo yet?"
"No, he is still missing, though the city has had a number of noise complaints about explosion-like sounds."
"It's him. His quirk is as loud as himself," Izuku said, squeezing his hand in a fist.
What was the firecracker doing?
-----------
A book hit the wall hard enough to crack it. It was one of the books Katsuki had gotten for UA, laws of heroism or something else stupid. Now it was just a reminder of the shitty situation he was in, all because of that Deku villain. It was bad enough that that rich bastard bought out the school and got him expelled. Now he might get imprisoned, and for what? For keeping that Deku in his proper place when no one else would? He was the one who had stolen Katsuki's quirk twice and was still trying to do so.
"He doesn't have an option!" The old hag shouted downstairs. "If he doesn't give up his quirk he is going to prison! He won't have much use for it there and our family will be ruined even after he gets out! Whenever that might be."
He couldn't even count on his own mother. For all the attitude she always gave him, she was just going to bow down to Deku's demands.
"How could we fail so badly at raising him? Despite everything Midoriya is doing he is right about that. How did Katsuki end up like this?"
Katsuki gritted his teeth. His mother wasn't just bowing down to Deku, but taking his side. Still fuming, Katsuki looked for something to destroy, but his eyes kept returning to the news stream about what had happened earlier that afternoon. UA hero class had been attacked by villains.
His class had been attacked by villains. He was supposed to be there beating up real villains. Taking out a bunch of villains on his first week at hero school would have showed everyone what he was capable off. Paved his way to greatness faster.
And Deku had taken that from him too. Small explosions crackled on both of his palms. He wanted to destroy something, preferably something with white hair.
"The deadline is today. We have to tell them we agree!"
"..."
"I know he doesn't want it, but... after how he has acted... maybe being quirkless shocks him to a better path. His quirk is what this all started with. Maybe not having it is better for him."
Like hell it was. No one was going to take Katsuki's quirk, again, and live. His parents could die and go to hell for all he cared if they thought he was going to hand everything over to Deku. He was already strong enough to be a hero. He didn't need them.
Katsuki left his room, being quiet for the first time since waking up and sneaked into his parents' bedroom. It only took a few seconds to get the cash stash the old hag kept there. He had already packed everything else into his backpack.
He pushed open the window. For someone like him it didn't matter it was on the second floor. Even if he couldn't use explosions to fly off because of the noise it was effortless for him to just slide down a drainpipe. He ran off the lot and behind a corner faster than his parents could walk up the stairs. Then he walked. He would have loved to walk straight to the Deku's house and blow it up, but he didn't know where it was. At school he hadn't exactly cared about where that villain lived.
All he knew was Soumei. That engine for brain had mentioned going there with Deku, so he lived somewhere in that region. Still, Katsuki wasn't going to just walk around hoping to randomly run into that bastard. That engine for brains 'friend' of Deku's would be easier to find, being from a famous hero family and all. Still a headache. Family of pro heroes could be a bit much even for Katsuki, for the moment. He'd need to keep up his training. He'd be stronger than any of the extras that stayed at UA.
First, he needed a place to stay somewhere his parents wouldn't find him, also cheap. The money he took wouldn't last long if he didn't acquire more and use it sparingly. So he kept walking towards the poorest and shadiest part of the city. Soon the sun was going down and the surrounding buildings cast long shadows over him. He noticed several people sitting on the sides of the road or walking shakily, probably on something. A woman walked across the street quickly looking around every few seconds. Katsuki strutted down the street like he owned the place, only dreaming about someone trying to mess with him. He should have been there as a hero making villains terrified just by walking by.
A shadow moved next to him.
"Hey, if you don't want to get hurt give..."
He yelped when Katsuki caught him by surprise by grabbing the wrist of the knife hand. A single yank pulled the fish-faced guy off balance and brought his face straight into a meeting with Katsuki's other fist. The knife clinked against the asphalt of the street, a mere moment later a larger thump followed. Katsuki pressed his foot on the worthless loser's chest and shook his hands in disgust to get rid of slime sticking to them.
"Damn mutant. Even quirkless losers at least aren't physically revolting."
The fishman tried to get up to lunge at Katsuki, who kicked him in the head, knocking out the would-be robber with no real effort. He hadn't even needed to use his quirk to deal with the slimy villain at least as fast as pro heroes.
Katsuki grinned, it was a grin that would make parents usher their kids away, but a grin nonetheless.
They thought he needed to rot three years in some hero kindergarten to beat up villains and be a hero. He'd show them. He'd show them all by beating so many villains the heroes of the city would be left out of work. UA would regret kicking him out when he became the number one without them, and then...
He would crush that insignificant bug Deku who dared to get in his way. With the media now properly aware of that quirk stealing villain everyone would know who was the villain and who was the hero.
Katsuki's stomach rumbled. He'd still have to feed himself until people recognized his greatness. He looked down towards the still unconscious fishman and his slightly bulging pocket. He crouched down to take the would-be robber's wallet.
"You tried to rob me so it's only fair you compensate me, wouldn't you say? Who better to pay for the heroes' work than the villains?"
The wallet had a bunch of cash and a ring, probably stolen from some weakling who couldn't take care of themselves. Katsuki dropped the wallet and started counting the money. A photograph slipped from between the bills. It was of some little fishgirl, who was probably smiling. It was hard to say with a face like that. Katsuki tossed the picture away from his money. Just mutants robbing people to breed more mutants.
He glanced down at the fishman. He couldn't just call the police and hand him over. The old hag had probably already sent them after Katsuki. Still, the fishman would just go rob some weakling if Katsuki left him here.
He raised his foot and slammed it down on the scaly wrist, breaking it. The unconscious fishman jolted but was still out cold. Bakugo repeated the same for the other wrist.
"Let's see you use a knife now."
He walked away, looking for more villains and a dry place to eat at as rain clouds rolled over the city and the unconscious villain. He'd probably be fine. Why would a fish mind some rain.