His hands tremble with such intensity the phone falls from his ear. Clatter, clatter on the hallway floor. The name on the screen blurs against the luminous background and suddenly his entire vision is consumed by the neon screen light calling him to its glow. Why? He wonders that himself before realising his bones ache and his knees feel tender. He's fallen then, why is everything so hard to discern? He's more disciplined than this, he wonders briefly if being drunk feels similar. Words replay in his head over and over like religious chanting - a worried stammer of grief ending in a choked sob.
"I- It's your brother... I'm at the hospital... you need to come down..."
He can't. He can't even move, he can't even speak let alone make his way to the hospital to look upon his dying brother. Who'd want to do that? He can't blink and his eyes sting though he's unable to close them. He lies here paralysed with shock.
~~~
It's the break between events for the U.A. sports festival. Aizawa groans and pulls off his headset, leaning his head against the back off the chair. This is exhausting, all he wants is to go home and nap. The crowds below continue to cheer and chant at the entertainment spoon-fed to them during these short breaks. Aizawa's eyelids feel heavy watching it. "Is it just me or is this day taking longer than usual to be over?" He asks the man sitting beside him who laughs shrilly at his misery. Sometimes Yamada can be so inconsiderate. "Knock it off, I'm sleepy,"
He can only open his eyes when said inconsiderate teacher places a hand on top of his.
"Aww, do you want me to get you some coffee babe?"
"Fiiiine." Aizawa can never say no to coffee. Or to Yamada when he's being cute.
Yamada whistles to himself, bored awaiting the vending machine to release its sweet nectar. He bounces on the balls of his feet. Kneeling down, he sees the coffee only just beginning to trickle into the cup before a small spurt than he'd like begins the agonisingly slow delivery. His husband was right - today really is a drag. Seconds tick by like hours even if this is a particularly exciting tournament. The break itself seems to stretch on into an eternity.
It's only the subtlest shift in natural light that catches his attention. He turns to bask in the light of the entirely glass wall before noticing a dark shadow distorted on the floor on the floor. It warps around, whatever it is, is blurred into a mass in the blinding light from outside. Frowning, he walks towards it with mild curiosity. Huh, what is that? Did someone lose a backpack or something? He ponders internally, under features of the mass can finally be distinguished.
Limbs. Clothes. Hair. A school uniform - it's a student!
He rushes to their side, finding Tenya Iida of the First Year 1A Hero Course on the floor, gasping for breath. His glasses are cracked, he's sobbing with such intensity it shake his entire body. Yamada rolls him into the recovery position. Honing his unique voice quirk, the teacher screams down the corridor.
"Heeelp~! Heeeelp~! Get an ambulance!"
~~~
Izuku Midoriya sits in the cloakroom, psyching himself up for the next event. His PE uniform has a light layer of dirt on it, which he tries to dust off unsucessfully. He stares at himself in the mirror, looking at the tiny wounds on his face from random spurts of dust or scuffles on the fields. The UA Sports Festival is brutal, honestly, The audience watching has no idea the stamina involved in performing in events like these. His joints and muscles are already beginning to ache, just barely holding on. Opening his phone, he stares at his lockscreen and smiles.
A picture of himself, Uraraka and Iida in the cafeteria together. Uraraka has her big, cheesy grin on and is giving the peace sign. He's in the centre, matching her grin with a toothy smile with his arms outstretches to take the selfie. And then, there's Iida. In the background, just smiling nicely like the polite boy he is. His best friend and his boyfriend, those who give him the courage to struggle on no matter the strength of his adversary. Even when the adversary is the sports festival.
"Stop it," he scolds himself, sniffling into his hand. "I can't cry at everything!"
There's a soft knock on the door.
"Come in!" Izuku calls happily, wiping his tears on his uniform sleeves. Whoever it is, probably a friend here to wish him well, he wants to show how well he's handling the festival. Take it with a smile, just like All Might.
The clicking of the handle is even softer than the knock. Aizawa's blank expression worries him more than it should. There's a lingering melancholy in the teacher's eyes Izuku can't place, but can identify all too well. The trepidation of delivering bad news. "Huh, Mr Aizawa?" his toothy smile falls to a confused frown. "Excuse me but, what are you doing here?"
The man's face concealed by darkness, the door opens further to shine light upon the smooth tears at the edges of his eyes. The bandages around his face can't conceal such despair. "Midoriya, please follow me," he walks away from the door, disappearing into the corridor.
Izuku grabs his earphones and runs after his teacher, who's stride has him halfway down the corridor already. Or did he run? It would have been odd to run just to that one spot and stand s still to wait for him. "Mr Aizawa, sorry but what's all this about?" he asks innocently, brows furrowed in worry. Something isn't right, he has a knack for analysing people. For reading their emotions. And Aizawa is acting off, in a way he never knew possible for the withdrawn hero.
"To the hospital,"
"The hospital?" Izuku gasps, more in confusion than anything.
"Yes, keep up. There's an escort waiting for us,"
*
When Izuku arrives, his boyfriend is sitting on one of the blue plastic chairs in this depressing waiting room. The chairs don't even have armrests, Iida's hands are clenched into fists on his lap, drawing up the cloth of his PE trousers. His face is pale, deep bags under his eyes and an expression of pure horror. He looks like he hasn't slept in weeks, or like a fire alarm just startled him from a nap. Tears fall, but his face is drained not only of colour, but anything resembling sentience.
"Tenya?" Izuku sits in the chair beside him. Iida looks like a fragile vase, thinly blown glass just dried. A slight wind would shatter him. Aizawa was silent the entire ride, he hasn't been told anything. He places his hand on Iida's, the skin is so warm his own fingers feel like ice. "What's going on, Tenya?"
Iida looks like he's about to explode. Like he's holding in a burst of blue charge to propel him 50 mph into the wall by his engines. "My brother... he's been hurt. We don't know if he's going to make it,"
"I'm so sorry!" Izuku wraps around Iida's shoulders, crying into his nape. It's enough to trigger sobs from the larger too. The chains of shock no longer bind him. His emotions flood to the bottomless pit of despair passing between him and Izuku. "What happened?!"
"Hey kid," Yamada whistles Izuku over, who slides his arm off his boyfriend's shoulders with reluctance. Approaching his teacher, he jumps in for a hug too.
"Iida's in shock," Izuku didn't think Mic's voice could be so gentle and quiet. "It was a violent attack, his brother is suffering severe injuries. He might die. Just... try to comfort him for now, okay? I don't think anyone else could get through to him,"
"Violent attack?! But who would..." Izuku knows Iida's brother is a pro hero, but the way Mic was talking makes it sound like not such an ordinary fight with a villain. There's something about the words 'violent attack' that sounds more sinister and targeted.
Looking up at his teacher and into his eyes, they tell Izuku all he need to know. The Hero Killer Stain got to him... but isn't this the first time he's left someone alive? Izuku wonders, maybe just to keep himself from succumbing to his emotions, what exactly he was planning. This can't have been accidental, he must have left him alive for a reason. He's too good to just miss a victim, surely.
No, he shakes his head. On one hand, he can't let his own emotions take over - he has to be here for Tenya! But similarly, he can't get wrapped up in analysing everything when he needs to be there emotionally for his brother, in a non-constructive way without really overthinking it. It'll be hard for him, difficult to shut off his brain and focus on one thing, especially if that's anything to do with emotions. Looking over his shoulder at Tenya though, Izuku knows his place right now is to be the comforter.
"Yeah, thanks Present Mic," he nods, going back over, Placing his hand on Iida's back, he rubs it gently, whispering words of encouragement until a doctor appears by the doorway.
"You can see him now. He's not awake, but stable,"
"Deku - come with me, please?" Izuku doesn't think he's seen his boyfriend so vulnerable before.
"Are you sure?" Izuku asks, worried he may impose. Worried he might not be any help, that he could be more useful doing something else. Like tracking down the Hero Killer.
"Yes, please come with me," Iida almost begs.
"Okay, okay," Izuku speaks quietly, taking initiative and leading Iida through by the hand.
Under a tangled mess of chords and tubes lies Tensei Iida, pro hero. IVs drain from his body from several points of entry, the metal needles stuck into his skin slicing through like undiscovered lands claimed by explorers. His body lies a mangled disarray of limbs and scar tissue hidden under similarly textured bandages, the few visible ones that could be swiftly healed by a quirk. He's been butchered like produce.
"We managed to revive him, he was seconds from death when they found him..." Iida explains solemnly, slumping into the chair and staring at his brother. Completely numb to it all, his fade turns varying shades of yellowish-green. He sweats heavily, nausea building in his gut. Seeing his brother like this is repulsive, nothing more than the repugnant figure of a nightmarish ghoul. It doesn't even look like Tensei, he can't even make that connection when what lies before him is the farthest thing from his brother he could imagine. "Sorry I called you here away from your event. I don't think I could've faced this without you,"
Izuku doesn't hear him. He stands in the middle of this barren white hospital room staring at the abomination before him. Like a bionic organisms, it breathes under the force of an oxygen mask. The only thing he can feel is rage, blind rage he can't comprehend. He feels like screaming, though does so only internally. The Hero Killer Stain has done unforgivable, but nobody is irredeemable in Izuku's eyes,. There is always a reason, a way out, a rehabilitation, reformation. Until today. The Hero Killer Stain is irredeemable. Anyone who hurts his Tenya is.
Izuku Midoriya vows not only revenge, but death for the Hero Killer. His only mission in life frim how on is decided, the path on which he will fall. Not one of heroism, but one of violent vindication.
When he leaves the room, Izuku pulls out his hero notebook. The one he never leaves home without. Flicking through the pages, each one almost memorised verbatim, he arrives at his destination note. A theory he's been working on for a while. What makes a villain? Izuku has studied n great detail the politics and moral philosophy or heroism and more specifically, that of professional heroes in today's society. He has narrowed the formula down to 3 interconnected traits that create a villain - not a criminal, but a true villain, those who militantly fight against pro heroes and their branded heroism.
1) A villain will have a strong sense of justice or moral principles, which may or may not conform to the basic standard of heroism (autonomy, altruism etc)
2) A villain will have been the victim of tragedy which warps their moral compass, often leading to disillusion with the society built around quirk use.
3) A villain will be an incredibly determined individual, willing to sacrifice everything, including their own freedom, lives and the live of others, to achieve their version of a just society.
He takes a own from his pocket, the one his mum gave him last Christmas, with smiling frog keychain dangling from the tip. He holds it between his teeth and places a tick next to each point he matches on the Formula for Villainy. Izuku stumbles back, pressing his hand to his mouth in shock. Despite everything, he wasn't expecting this. He matches all 3. "I- I'm a villain..." he whimpers to himself, sliding onto his knees against the wall. But time to grieve for his innocence is sparse. It's time to embrace his new place in the world as Deku, the villain with All Might's quirk.