Chapter six

lida is annoyed. Simple as that. Being partnered up with one of the most hardheaded people in class is not the best thing because no matter how many times he tries to reason with Bakugou, the explosive and angry child doesn't want to listen.

It's like he doesn't really care about this assignment because he's too busy with his own thoughts that he knows won't lead to anything good. His red eyes are on the building, a scowl etched onto his face. Whatever he's thinking, the spectacled kid can tell it has to do with Midoriya.

"What the hell was that you psycho?"Why does he call him a psycho? Midoriya doesn't seem to be a psychopath, yet Bakugou has been calling him one since the start of the school year-well, yesterday.

"And go!"

They enter into the building upon the call. The scene the find is very unexpected. The hallways are dimly lit. A few lights are out of the sockets and are left swinging. The chill in the air bites at their bare skin. How did they even manage to get it like that, lida is not sure. He notices the scratches along the walls and on the floor. It looks like a scene straight out of a horror movie. They suddenly come to a halt when the echo of insane laughter rips through the silence. It's apparent that Bakugou is getting pissed off with the situation, small explosions come from his clenched hands.

He scowls and glances at lida, snapping for him to stay out of his way. If that shitty nerd appears, I'm going to kill him. Before they can continue any further, they stop dead in their tracks once again when creepy humming cuts through the air, chilling their bones at the sound. Immediately, the area grows colder and holds an aura of death which has them releasing a small shudder.

(Bakugou won't ever admit to it, but he doesn't like this.) The feeling that Death has come for them puzzles them. They're going to die? Why does it feel like that? It can't be right. Surely, lida is misreading something and his imagination is running freely. This is only a training exercise, he reasons with himself, yet why does it even feel like this?

They creep forward a little more when a song starts being sung. As Izuku's voice bounces off the walls, the sound of metal on metal reaches their ears as if someone is dragging a blade across it.

"Ring around the rosy,"

"What the fuck is that?" shouts the violent hero wannabe. He searches his surroundings, looking around for the source. Looking for that fucking psycho who thinks he's so much better than him.

Once he gets his hands on him, he's going to show him. The humming continues. Where is that sound coming from?

"The evil thing it knows me"

"Come out!" A small explosion before lida hushes him and tries to reason with him. That doesn't go so well. "Where the fuck are you? Huh? You think you can scares us, you little shit? You're fucking dead wrong!"

"Ashes, ashes, I can't fall down. "

Izuku abruptly appears and knocks lida off his feet with the butt of his scythe. His hood is knocked back and his mask is on his head to reveal a sinister smile is pulled across his face and his eyes

-his wide, green eyes show bloodlust. "Mi-Midoriya?" whispers lida as he stares up at the boy. The shock of seeing such a happy and go-lucky teen be so-so insane is worrisome. This has to be an act. The boy he knows from yesterday is not there. He is nowhere there, this is a villain. No friends. A training exercise. One that he isn't sure about anymore-not when staring at the curly-haired teen.

"What's wrong?" he asks, his voice full of fake innocence. His head is tilted as the scythe in his hand is angled a certain way. The tip is pointed towards Izuku's back but the edge of the blade is near lida's throat. He genuinely looks surprised to see them there, but lida knows better. Why does he hold an aura of death? Why does this feel real?

This is supposed to be an exercise! "I mean, haven't I always been known as a psychopath?

Why are you so surprised to see me act like such,

Kacchan?"

That seems to break him out of whatever stupor he was in. "Deku!" He sends a blast towards the victim of his torment, yet he nimbly moves away from it with a small chuckle and a "that's better".

Izuku swings the scythe so the it knocks into lida once more, purposely avoiding to hurt the other too much. "I'm going to fucking kill you!"

"Oh! I'd like to see you try!" He quickly acts, moving to hit them with the scythe but not hurt them.

Once they're both on the ground, he pivots and runs. His mad laughter bounces off the walls as he dashes towards the opposite direction from where Uraraka is. He goes through winding hallways, leading them astray. He's facing them now after a few twists and turns. He cackles lowly, dragging the blade of the scythe on the ground as he hums a different tune now. Why is he singing? That's only making Bakugou angrier.

While Bakugou is running towards him, lida is at a crossroads. The hero is staring between the hallways and thinks, He's probably trying to lead us away, which means the weapon is back this way! They've split up now. Now, it's up to him to capture the weapon. He ignores the crazy call from his friend. He can't be sidetracked by his questions

-his words.

Meanwhile, everyone is staring at the monitor that shows Izuku and Bakugou fighting. Most of them nodding and agreeing when Tsuyu said that Izuku is terrifying as a villain. They can see that Izuku had pulled down the mask and pulled up the black hood. It was terrifying to see someone so cheerful and upbeat act like that. They can hear his laughter, hear his singing, and hear all that is being said on his end. Even All Might is unnerved by his successor's sudden change in mood. He's okay. This is just an exercise. They planned this, but why? Why do I feel so unnerved? Something bad is going to happen. Young Midoriya, you better not hurt anyone or get hurt yourself.

"Come on, Kacchan, you've never been like this before! What changed? Tell me, do I scare you? If I don't, then you're about as insane as me!" He cackles with such a sinister tone that it really chills some of them. His tone causes their blood to cur with every word he says. They watch the deadly arc that barely misses cutting the blond's throat.

All Might's grip tightens on the communicator the longer the fights goes on. They can tell that he isn't even trying to hurt the other but even then, they can't help but be concerned.

Deciding to give themselves a break from the other fight, they glance over to Uraraka's end and see her handling lida well on her own. As they fight it out, they can see Uraraka cringing when Izuku speaks again. She says something to lida but it's blocked. Midoriya must've had her keep her communication device off. Whatever is being said, and albeit that they can't see lida's face, they both wear matching looks of concern. Even if it's all an act, it's starting to get very worrisome on Midoriya's part.

Izuku rushes forward and sends a kick to Bakugou's chest, but he's blown back with one of the other's explosions. His grip on the scythe slackens and it clatters to the ground once he comes in contact with the wall. A grunt comes from his mouth and he can feel bruises starting to form. He picks himself up off the ground and scowls slightly behind the mask. I need to keep this up! How can I do that? Wait. He smiles. Thank you serial killers and your complex minds. "Wow!

You sure are strong! I'm quite surprised!" The teen's weapon is behind the angry blond. An unseen grin is on the "villain's" face as he rushes forward. "Oh! You should be really careful with the right hook of yours! It'll be quite sad if your arm is ripped off one day!" He grabs the wrist and upper arm to flip his bully over his shoulder. "You never change! It's quite boring!" He grabs his scythe, twirling it in his hands as he turns back to him.

"Sad that you can't-"

The explosion is unexpected. It's so large that sends Izuku flying to the opposite wall while causing damage to their surroundings. Bone breaking can be heard throughout the com. He bites back a groan of pain, his back hurting, his arm in agony, and something sticky and warm trails down his left calf. "They did good in designing it like how I wanted. Like it? These gauntlets store up my nitro-glycerin to create a bigger blast." A cruel smirk is on his face now. He's really pissed off and now, he will show the shitty nerd why he shouldn't mess with him. "What the fuck is wrong, shitty Deku? Lost all your shitty confidence?"

The laughter that comes, takes him aback. His mask is askew and one glowing green eye is shown behind it. The eye is trained on him. As he gets to his feet, he fixes the mask with a small hum. He moves and reveals a piece of glass sticking out of the wounded leg. "Oh, so those do something! I thought they were for show!" His voice drops low as his grasp on the weapon tightens. "I can't wait to break them."

"Bakugou! I forbid another blast like that!

Midoriya! Stop using that weapon! You're going to kill each other at this rate!"

"But isn't that what Life basically is? We live our lives, then we die. Death comes for us all one day, but some make it come sooner. After all, people kill each other for no reason other than petty revenge, or for fun." With each following word, the boy steps closer to his childhood tormentor with the blade screeching against the floor. "Villains, heroes, civilians. We've all killed someone-mentally, physically-it doesn't matter. One person dies and life goes on, so what?"

"You're fucking insane!"

"We're all insane in our own ways."

The timer rings signaling the end of the exercise.

And the shaky voice of All Might comes through.

"The villains-Villain team wins."

They all watch as Izuku sighs and puts his scythe back in its holster. One he removes the mask, albeit the hood hiding his eyes, they can see a bright, happy smile was hidden beneath the mask.

Not a sinister one. It was all an act. A really well put act. Everything is okay until the green-haired teen is punched square in the jaw by Bakugou.

He's fuming, they can see him yelling at the shell-shocked boy. He moves forward but stops dead in his tracks when that smile comes back. Something is said, they can't hear, but whatever was said -it was enough to anger Bakugou further and suddenly Izuku is on the ground, burns on his face (one around his eyes and another on his cheek) from where he was punched twice. He's not moving.

All Might tells lida to go and get them, now.

Uraraka is to help take Midoriya to the infirmary.

All Might continues on with the lesson after they leave. The other students' exercises go by fast, not as entertaining as the first group's.

After the lesson, All Might scolds Bakugou for the last and unnecessary punch. It was so bad, it broke his jaw and gave a second degree burn. He knows to keep the two away for a while. If this happened because of a simple exercise, he'll have to figure out a plan for the two. Aizawa can probably help.

Upon arriving to the infirmary, All Might sees that his successor is awake now and his eyes are wrapped. His friends are there with him and they're laughing and joking. Even with this, All Might knows that he has to have a talk with Izuku

-his display was very concerning in a sense. He understands it's all part of an act, but the things he said. "Young Midoriya, how are you doing?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm fine! I apologize for how I acted. It was the plan that I came up with. Lead them away while terrifying them. I've learned that causes people to react in certain ways, but I'm guessing that it didn't go as planned since I got a little into it. Uh, how are the others? Hopefully I didn't scare them too badly."

"No, my boy. Although, I may have the idea they're glad you're a hero and not a villain."

"Oh, yeah, me too." He gives them the famous blinding, bunny smile. "Um, can I take these bandages off now or do I wait?"

"It's best to keep them on until lunch," says

Recovery Girl. "I want you to make sure he comes here once the last class is over. I'm going to do a check up and then I'll tell you whether or not if you should keep them on or not."

They head to their next class and Midoriya bows upon entering when he notices the teacher not there yet, apologizing for having caused them an concern or have frightened them in any way. "I feel like I may have had gone a little overboard. I'm really sorry."

Kirishima is the first to smile and pat him on the back, telling him how cool it was. "It was scary at first, but hey! It was all part of the lesson, you have great acting skills! Quite manly! How's your injuries?"

Yeah, that was barely acting, he thinks. "Oh, they're fine. My leg and arm arm fully healed. They hurt a little but I'll be okay.

"I have a question before Present Mic shows up."

Kirishima smiles when he gets a nod to go on.

"What happened to your lip? How'd you get the scar?"

His fingers skim over the scar and blinks, recalling the faint memory. It's a small scar but it's a reminder of a day he can't remember well.

Something he suppressed. "Oh. I cut it running into a door when I was younger," he lies.

"Ah gotcha."

He heads to his desk with the help of Uraraka, humming softly as he taps the surface of it. He's unaware of the looks he receives, some are concerned over the whole matter with his eyes and hope that he's okay-others are unsure what to think. After his display during the training, it's kind of concerning and are unsure what to make of him. He winces when Mic-sensei comes in yelling at the top of his lungs.

Everything is fine. "Midoriya!" Never mind. "Are you paying attention?"

"Hah? Oh, yeah, I'm paying attention." He turns away from the teacher and lets him carry on. Why the heck did he call me out?

"Please, keep your muttering to a minimum." Oh.

"Okay!" And he falls away to whatever he's teaching. "Don't memorize because it will end up changing. English is a crazy language."

"English beats up other languages in an alleyway and picks up any loose words from their pockets," he says under his breath. The few people who heard him let out a few chuckles, one going as far as snorting.

The burns around his eyes left a faint pink scar above his right eyebrow, but other than that, he's healed and can still see. lida ruffles his friend's hair leaving to go eat upon Recovery Girl's orders.

She has to speak with the boy for a moment and he'll be eating with her. Once they're sure his friends are out of earshot, he sighs and lifts his eyes to the elderly woman. "What all do you want to know about my curse?"

"Just the basic. What all you can do, what elements does it have to deal with, and how dangerous it is."

Izuku's shoulders are rigid, his eyes following his homeroom teacher as he strides towards them.

"You told him?" he whispers, frowning as he stares at the nurse. /shouldn't have trusted her!"I don't care if he can help or not. I wanted to keep this a secret until-"

"Until what? Until Death comes for you?"

"How did you-?"

"I'm not an idiot, if that's what you think. I knew something was going on with you once I first saw you. Your medical records say nothing about light sensitivity, then you bring out your scythe during the exam, not to mention your hero outfit, and finally, your quirk apprehension test. I felt the cold aukw of death. I've felt it before, every time a comrade falls." Aizawa-sensei is glaring at him, he is not in any mood for lies. "So tell us about your curse."