h

Endeavour's mouth opened and closed like a fish a few times, and Izuku could understand that, because his outer mood had just shifted from silly quirkless boy to murderer in a matter of seconds. And Dabi was going to hate him for adding this part on, but-- "Or don't you remember what happened to Touya?"

Endeavour blanched, and Izuku turned around and continued walking, keeping his back as straight as possible until he was out of Endeavour's line of sight. Then he collapsed against the wall, trying to regain his bearings a little. He'd just scolded a pro hero. He'd just scolded Endeavour, the Number Two Hero.

It had been incredibly enjoyable. He kind of wanted to do that again.

Iida Tenya walked past Izuku, not even looking at him. His face was an ashen color and he was fully focused on the conversation he was having on his phone. "Mother, I ask you to please slow down!" he said, sounding extremely worried. "I don't understand-- Is this something to do with Tensei-nii?"

Izuku froze. He'd forgotten about Stain… But, really? Already? And he'd chosen to do an Iida the night before the Sports Festival?

Oh no.

He got to his feet and slipped back out of the stadium tunnels. He sort of got the feeling that after the Endeavour fiasco, he wasn't welcome at the Sports Festival anymore, so he walked home. He'd done what he wanted to accomplish. He'd spoken to Hatsume, had taken a full notebook's worth of notes on the first years and also now potential support equipment for himself, and had yelled at Endeavour.

But Stain… What kind of timing was this? And Izuku still didn't understand why Stain was targeting Ingenium anyway. It was almost like… it was almost like Stain was running out of corrupt heroes to kill, and so was just killing anyone he could reach.

Izuku thought it might be around time to pay Stain a visit.

Chapter End Notes

EDIT: Okay I'm so sorry but the next chapter is not ready yet. Maybe tomorrow? Sorry sorry

Sides

Chapter Notes

Okay this is late i'm sorry life caught up with me (and by that i mean college is a butt)

But! Finals week is almost over and that means I'm going to have a ton of time to spend writing this and so I think I might start speeding up updates! I'm hoping to shoot right through this book over winter break (I won't finish it but I'll get a lot farther.) Okay that's it.

Tw// minor injuries, major violence mentioned, blood mentioned, manipulation, employment discrimination

See the end of the chapter for more notesIzuku's week actually got pretty busy, so he didn't have time to deal with Stain. Online school came crashing down on his shoulders hard . He'd started to lose track of time and school work with all the craziness in his life regarding Entropy and now he was paying for it. He spent the entire week getting ahead again, finishing all the assignments he had access to– even the ones that weren't due for a long time, until he was so far ahead he could ignore school until December without issue. In between that, he continued researching the League of Villains, relatively unsuccessfully. He did figure out where their bases of operations were, just from the interior of the buildings he'd seen (one had the look of a warehouse, the other was clearly a run-down bar). From there it was simple– a search through bars led to one in Kamino, and that led to a search for sketchy warehouses in Kamino, which led to him finding the other location. So he knew where the League of Villains were now. He didn't plan on doing anything with this information yet, but it was nice to have. He did briefly consider telling the police or Nezu, and then realized the police would probably mess everything up and make him lose the only information he had on the League of Villains. So he kept it to himself. For now.

Hatsume Mei, like the angel she was, sent him a new and improved bo staff two days after their meeting. He sent her the money immediately upon its arrival and she sent him a messy email with lots of exclamation points to thank him.

He'd had some time to try it out and it was cool . It was retractable, like his old one, but it came with an electric charge that could do anything from release a little zap to completely knocking someone out. It took him a full two hours of practicing with it to figure out how to use it without accidentally shocking himself but he got the hang of it eventually. It was also fingerprint activated, so anyone who touched it who wasn't him would send it hurtling back into retractable form, a nice addition. After playing around with it for a while longer he discovered one end of it also released some sort of gas, which judging by his lightheadedness after accidentally turning it on, probably knocked out whoever breathed in too much of it.

The other side had a little blade which could slide in and out.

He loved it. Hatsume was a genius.

The week ended quickly enough and Izuku felt sufficiently prepared to go on a little field trip.

Mom didn't want him to go. She was still shaken after USJ, which was understandable, but as Izuku pointed out, he'd lived through that, so he could live through a short visit to Hosu. She was still hesitant, especially when he accidentally told her he would be visiting Stain. Mom wasn't pleased at all with Izuku's friendship with Stain, especially after what happened to Ingenium. Izuku pointed out he was going to visit Stain to try to prevent that from happening again– which was true. He'd already lined up arguments.

Luckily, mid-argument with Mom, Dabi called.

"Hey!" Izuku answered the phone cheerfully, waving apologetically at Mom.

"I saw you got kidnapped."

"That was weeks ago, where have you been?"

"In a ditch."

Izuku winced. "Really?" It wasn't that unbelievable. Dabi didn't exactly have a stable salary. He pretty much did freelance work, whatever odd jobs he could get his hands on. It often wasn't reliable work, mostly because his face was so scarred that employers claimed they didn't want him "scaring off customers." Maybe they didn't say that in so many words, but it was clear.

"I mean, kind of, but I met this girl."

Izuku fought a smile. "Oh?"

"Huh? No! No, shut up! No, gross. She's in high school. Or she was in high school. She's high school age. She's obsessed with murder." He seemed to realize Izuku was teasing suddenly and said indignantly, "Also, you know I'm gay."

"Yeah. Well, what about her?"

"Nothing, just met her. She drinks blood. Reminded me of Stain."

"Stain, yeah. Oh!" Opportunity struck. "Hey, want to go on a field trip to Hosu?"

"Always."

"Really?"

"No, why the hell would I want to do that?"

"Stain's there."

"... And?"

"You could bring your new friend…? Training opportunity, Dabi."

Mom perked up at the idea of Dabi going with Izuku to visit Stain and Izuku grinned. This was perfect. Dabi technically didn't even need to come all the way with him, as long as Mom thought he was. That was the important part.

"Hmm. Interesting suggestion. Still sounds terrible. You haven't met this demon yet. You don't know what you're getting yourself into."

"Hey Mom, would it be okay if I went to Hosu with Dabi ?" he said, even though Dabi hadn't given an affirmative answer. Dabi could read between the lines. He could figure out what was happening.

"That would be fine," Mom agreed.

"Cool. Meet you at the train station tomorrow, Dabi?"

"Sure. But– hey, are you on speaker phone?"

"No."

"Okay well Endeavour's going to be out of town this week so I want to take this opportunity to raid his house. So I'll go as far as the first stop on the train with you and then I'm ditching you, sorry."

"Nah, it's all good. See you at the station tomorrow. I'll text you."

"Cool." A pause fell, tense like Dabi wanted to ask something else but wasn't sure if this was a good time.

"Do you need something else?"

"Yeah," he said softly. "I wanted to talk to you about the kidnapping. Who took you?"

"League of Villains."

"Do you think they're… Do you think they're strong enough to do some real damage?"

"Why?"

"All I need is a little instability and I'll be able to get to the places I need to be. So I was wondering if you thought they could get me there."

Izuku wrinkled up his nose. "I mean. If you're going to side with a villain team, the yakuza would probably be best. They're all insane and I'm pretty sure their goals are long-term instability, based on the rumors I've found online. But if you want someone who's going to achieve a lot of things in a short amount of time, then yeah. That's the League of Villains." As much as he hated to admit that Dabi would probably thrive in a team-up with Izuku's kidnappers, it was the truth.

"Hmm."

Izuku remembered suddenly that his mom was standing there and said quickly, "Does your friend, um, have a preference for long-term or short-term?" If his mom thought Dabi was trying to team up with villains, she might stop liking him, and that would have bad consequences if it happened now. So he shifted the conversation slightly so it sounded like they were talking about a friend of Dabi's who was interested in villainy..

"Toga?"

Izuku sighed in exasperation. Talking in code was difficult.

Dabi got it a second after the sigh. "Oh– your mom's still there. Um, yeah, I want short-term. Toga, by the way, just wants everyone to die except the people she's in love with, which I think is anyone who bleeds."

"She sounds lovely. I think the League of Villains are trying to tear apart society completely. They might even just want to end all life honestly. So if y– if your friend decides to go with them, she should take care to remember that she'll have to move really quickly and then get out. Also I don't advise going with them at all. I think they're psychopaths. She might have to fake her death to get out, honestly, and I don't even think that would work. Maybe getting arrested would? They don't seem the forgiving type, and you're - she's probably not good enough to go against all of them at once. The leader has something weird going on with his quirk."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence."

"Sorry."

"Well, it's all hypothetical for now anyway," he said dismissively, although Izuku could tell that underneath that he was genuinely considering it.

"Right."

"Okay, well, sorry to bother you mid-argument. I can go– oh, but why are you going to Hosu? What's up with Stain?"

"The whole Ingenium thing."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Yeah. I'm going to try to get through to him more."

"You know, I saw what you did to the purple monster thing at USJ on the news. I think… I think it might be hard for you to have this discussion from a moral high ground right now. That thing… It looked like a monster but there was something human in it."

Izuku's face twisted up in disgust. He hated that he'd done that, and he definitely wasn't going to do it again if he could help it. He was still having nightmares sometimes. "I know."

"Okay. Well I don't know anything about persuasion or whatever so I'm not the person to ask anyway. Good luck, dude."

"Thanks."

"I'll let you finish your conversation. Bye."

"Bye. Have a good one."

"Ha."

Shaking his head, Izuku hung up. He grinned brightly at his Mom, who looked almost startled to have his full attention or something. "So I can go to Hosu?"

She nodded, tears coming to her eyes. "Sure, honey. Just be safe–" She wrapped him in a huge hug and he returned it warmly.

Hosu. He was going to talk some sense into Stain.

--

All for One didn't get annoyed often, but he was annoyed now, because of a green child who was tripping over all his plans.

He hadn't expected Shigaraki Tomura to actually do well at USJ, of course, but he also hadn't expected a quirkless little boy to come in and kill a Nomu. All for One had been quite surprised, and if he hadn't been so angry, he would have been impressed. Tomura, though, in a burst of intelligence likely prompted by Kurogiri, had brought the green boy back and All for One suddenly had full access to one of the most terrifying weapons in the world. People always made the best weapons. No one ever saw them coming until it was too late. They were expendable, free to take and free to throw away. What an interesting weapon Midoriya Izuku would be too. Quirkless. No one would expect him. His very presence would send waves through the hero community. His brain alone could topple entire civilizations.

All for One was curious.

One touch was all it had taken. All for One momentarily had full access to the young man's past. He'd watched him stab a Nomu, something that was supposed to be invincible, killing it instantly. Anger had flashed through him, and then curiosity took over, driving him to look farther.

Luckily, Midoriya Izuku had an ugly past, a past that would be easy to twist to All for One's side. Most people were easy to move, once he knew what angle to take, with only a few outliers. All Might was one of them, and little Midoriya Izuku used to love All Might, didn't he. Loved him right up until the man blundered through a conversation with the quirkless child and chopped all his dreams into little pieces. All for One sometimes wondered who really was the blind one between the two of them.

But that was beside the point.

The conversation with All Might set a great deal into motion. The seeds of hatred had already been planted by that interesting young man Bakugou Katsuki. All Might gave those seeds some sun, a bit of exposure to the real world. A little flower of hatred bloomed in Midoriya Izuku's heart.

All for One wondered what would happen if he gave that little flower a drop of water. Would the flower grow thorns, maybe?

It would have to be a delicate affair. Midoriya Izuku was one of the most intelligent children All for One had ever met. He would notice anything that seemed off, even if he was enraged. All for One needed to be careful, more careful than he'd been in a long time. He couldn't afford any slip-ups.

He would wait for the right opportunity, and then he would strike.

Midoriya Izuku would fall right into his waiting arms, and his plans would be able to move forward as normal.

Chapter End Notes

I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS this is going to be so much fun

Explode

Chapter Notes

On this very day I decided I want a Katsuki redemption arc

ALSO WE HIT 1000 KUDOS! I'M SO HAPPY! :D

tw// suicide, nightmares, violence, mentioned paralysis, mentioned murder, explosions

A sentence from a long time ago was echoing around Katsuki's head and he didn't understand why he suddenly felt so guilty .

He guessed it was probably because he'd been worried, even if it was just for a few hours, that Deku had gotten himself kidnapped and killed. Katsuki never would have been able to forgive himself if that happened, which was ridiculous because he'd told the fucker he wanted him dead multiple times. He'd believed he wanted him dead. He did want him dead.

But not… Not like that?

"If you want a quirk so desperately, jump off a roof and hope for one in your next life!"

And not like that either.

It was more like he wanted Deku to never have existed in the first place.

He'd been having this dream lately. Every night, actually, since the USJ. It was kind of pissing him off the more he had it, especially since now it was starting to make it difficult for him to fall asleep.

In the dream, Deku was standing on the edge of a roof. Katsuki was behind a wall of glass and he couldn't get past it and Deku couldn't hear him, even though Katsuki slammed his fists into the wall and screamed at Deku not to jump, please don't jump.

Deku just looked over the edge of the roof, almost teetering in place as though daring the wind to just nudge him a little further, make his decision easy.

Katsuki hit the glass harder, sobbing now, until finally it cracked, long splinters fracturing the smooth surface. The pane crashed to the floor and he yelled, "Izuku!"

Izuku turned, made eye contact with Katsuki, smiled that stupid relieving smile and Katsuki could breathe again.

But the turn put his balance off and his foot always slipped and Katsuki wasn't fast enough to stop him from falling so instead he launched himself right off the roof with him. They fell together, Izuku always too far away from Katsuki to reach, and he was smiling contentedly, like this was exactly what he wanted. Katsuki was always crying.

Three times out of the many, many times he had this dream, Katsuki woke up when Izuku hit the ground.

The other times, he watched Izuku hit the ground and felt perfectly ready to let death take him too when someone's arms wrapped around his waist and he was swept perfectly to safety. This actually managed to make him feel worse. If Deku– Izuku, if Izuku died, Katsuki wanted to be taken right along with him.

The haunting words that always woke him up were in All Might's voice. "It's all right," he boomed. "Maybe he'll have a quirk in the next life."

And then Katsuki woke up.

When the dream ended with Izuku's fall, Katsuki woke up screaming. His mother was not pleased.

When the dream ended with All Might, Katsuki woke up silent, but the guilt and the terror kept him up for the rest of the night. It was starting to show– he had horrible bags under his eyes and the hag kept looking at him like he was going to topple over and die any second. His internship was starting tomorrow too, making this all around a terrible experience for him. He didn't want to show up for the first day of internships exhausted because of some stupid dream.

All of this led up to where he was today, sitting in the kitchen while the hag and his dad sat at the table across from him.

"And so," his dad finished calmly, "we're putting you in therapy."

"EH?" he screeched, already hating this.

"You don't have a choice, kiddo," Mom said, crossing her arms.

Izuku used to hate being called kiddo.

God it was so fucking annoying how Izuku kept popping up in his head like that! Izuku didn't belong in his head! Deku belonged in whatever shithole he was in right now.

"You haven't been sleeping right since that USJ attack. We think it might be PTSD and we want you to see a therapist. Simple as that."

"Fine, stupid hag," Katsuki said, chair screeching as he stood up. He wanted the dreams to stop and he wanted shitty Deku out of his head and if the witch thought going to see some shrink would help, then he would go see the stupid shrink. He wasn't so stubborn that he didn't have common sense. "When's the first appointment?"

The hag had the audacity to grin as she said, "Fifteen minutes."

Katsuki almost exploded the kitchen table.

Musutafu wasn't exactly a small city, but it didn't have anything on the hustle and bustle of Hosu. Izuku spent the first twenty minutes of being here completely lost before he started to figure out how the roads worked. After that, he spent the rest of the afternoon walking all over the city, figuring out its ups and downs, essentially scouting where the best places for vigilantism would be.

Luckily, the busier the city, the darker the alleys. Izuku had discovered that a long time ago. The more people there were around, the easier it was to hide.

By the time the sun set, he knew the city reasonably well. Not as well as Musutafu, of course not, but well enough that he felt he could probably have a fight with someone here without getting his ass kicked.

He scaled one of the buildings he'd found earlier and perched on the roof, looking out. After a while of sitting without seeing any movement at all, he settled down and pulled out his phone from inside his shoe. His mom had had a few conditions about his being here, one of which was that he called her every night.

"Izuku!" she answered the phone happily.

"Hey, Mom," he said, grinning already. It was incredible how the sound of his mother's voice could calm him down immediately.

"You're okay?"

"I'm fine! Dabi went to go get some groceries really fast," he lied easily, flopping backwards onto the roof and looking straight up at the sky. He wished he could see the stars. It had been a while. "Our hotel's really nice."

"It's so loud!"

"It's on a busy street."

"Did he take the money I sent?"

"Not yet, sorry. I'm working on it though."

"Okay. How's Hosu?"

"Busy."

She laughed. "Yes, I'd expect that. Have you met… him yet?"

"Not yet. I want to do that tomorrow night after I've gotten a better feel for the city. I have the feeling I'm going to need to chase him. A lot."

"Be careful."

"I will."

They talked for a while longer, back and forth, discussing whatever came to mind. And then finally she hung up. He sighed, laying sprawled out on the ground for a long minute before he pulled himself together and got up. Finding a secluded corner of the roof, he curled into a tiny ball and fell asleep.

He could have actually gotten a hotel, but he didn't want to be traceable, didn't want Midoriya Izuku to be anywhere near Hosu when shit started going down. So Midoriya Izuku stayed back in Musutafu, and Entropy spent the night on the rooftops of Hosu.

True to his word, the next day he spent all day wandering the city again, doing a few test leaps over buildings, finding the busiest areas and the dirtiest neighborhoods.

He was dead on his feet by the time he was done with that, so he decided to wait just one more day before looking for Stain. However, he was now thoroughly convinced he had gotten a complete sense of Hosu, and he thought not only could he escape an ass-kicking, he could actually go around and kick other people's asses. Which was exactly what his goal was when he started touring the city.

The next day, he began his search for Stain. It only took him a couple hours and a lot of hacking from his phone to figure it out, although to Stain's credit, that was a pretty long time for Izuku. After he found Stain's hiding place, he spent the rest of the day trying to memorize the city from a birds-eye view.

As the sun started to set, he took off over the rooftops, feeling completely comfortable weaving through the city. He went straight to Stain's hideout and perched across from its one and only entrance, waiting for Stain to make an appearance.

He did soon enough. He looked angry and tired, like he hadn't been sleeping well and he was about ready to go on a murderous rampage. Izuku couldn't have timed this better, actually. It had been a while since he'd felt this much malicious intent wafting off of Stain. He'd maybe never felt this much, actually. Stain looked like he wanted to tackle Endeavour, that's how mad he was.

"Hey," Izuku said, waving.

"No," Stain said, walking right past him.

Izuku made an injured noise, hopping to his feet and following him. "Nice to see you too."

"If you're here to try to stop me again, I'd like to remind you that our 'no killing' deal ended when you got accepted to UA."

"But I thought–"

"What?" he snapped, and it took all of Izuku's willpower not to recoil. "You thought that I'd stop killing just because I met your broccoli-shaped head?"

"Kind of!" Izuku said defensively. "I kind of thought you'd maybe care more about heroes after meeting me. I kind of thought you'd see there were better ways to teach them a lesson."

Stain glared at him. "You're naive, Deku."

"You're being a jerk," Izuku bit back. He really was being more of a jerk than usual. Izuku wondered what set him off. Maybe something with the League of Villians…? "I thought you trusted me more than this."

"And I thought you respected me enough to let me do what I need to. I haven't killed anyone anyway. I just–"

"Stain, severe paralysis isn't really any bet–"

"You were the one who told me to do that!"

"I was trying to get you to stop killing people!"

"I'm itching to beat someone up right now, Midoriya. Stay out of it." He slipped off into the shadows.

That actually kind of stung. He'd used Izuku's real name, for one thing, and Stain and Izuku had been doing stuff together long enough that Izuku would have thought Stain would want his company, at least a little bit. Izuku stayed still while Stain disappeared, biting his lip, completely lost in thought.

His meeting with the League of Villains must have gone poorly. There wasn't really another explanation for why Stain was so pissed. Izuku had been watching the news all morning, and there wasn't anything there that would make Stain angry. That left Shigaraki.

He thought he heard a muttered, "Three birds, one stone, then," from somewhere above him, but when he twisted to look, there was no one there.

Grimacing a little, he stretched out his legs and started off after Stain at a sprint. He was going to get that man to see logic if it was the last thing he did.

Tomura was delighted. He'd come to Hosu to kill Stain, wreak some havoc on the heroes, get some attention for the League and, then lucky him, Entropy showed up! Now he could "accidentally" kill Entropy while purposefully killing Stain. Sensei wouldn't even know.

It was genius! He would get the annoying green thing out of his way so he could actually think straight again. And in the meantime he would get revenge on the Hero Killer and he would bring everyone's attention back to the League.

It really was killing three birds with one stone.

His meeting with Stain hadn't gone well at all, for either of them. It had set Tomura into a bad mood. After throwing what Kurogiri claimed was a "temper tantrum," he'd spent the last few days watching Stain, reveling in the realization that the meeting had set Stain into a worse mood. Stain had managed to suppress his anger for a couple days, but every villain knew that suppressing anger only made a bigger explosion when it finally came out. Stain was close to exploding now. It would be very funny if he continued to take it out on Entropy.

Tomura had Kurogiri warp him to the top of a tall building in the city so he could watch the destruction unfold. When he felt he had the best viewpoint, he set three Nomus loose on the city. That would be more than enough. Enough to kill Stain, certainly. Killing Entropy was just a side quest. Even if he didn't manage to kill Entropy, he had a name now. Midoriya. Stain was angry enough to reveal it.

Tomura could do a lot with a name. He could commit several murders with a name. He could blackmail. Of course, Sensei already knew Entropy's real name, but he hadn't told Tomura. Apparently Tomura couldn't be trusted with such information.

But he had the information now, and he would be using it however he wanted.

In the distance the first explosion bloomed. Tomura grinned.

And then he settled back to watch the city burn.

Hosu

Chapter Notes

Hiiiii I'm so happy it's winter break I'm giving you another chapter without warning:

Also tomorrow I'm going to be on a plane for a long time which means I'm going to be able to write for four hours which means I'm going to be ahead again when I get off the plane. And all of this means updates are now 2 times a week, Wednesdays and Sundays, you're welcome

okay last thing, the next couple chapters are a little rough and I'm sorry, I honestly don't know where these ideas come from but then I think them and part of me is screaming YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO THESE CHARACTERS and the other part of me is cheering so. I'm so sorry. This one is okay but I think the next one is going to be rough and the one after that is... yeah. Um. Sorry.

tw// major violence, blood, major injuries, death/murder, mentioned racism and terrorism

Stain was fast, but Izuku had spent far too much time chasing him in dark alleys to lose him. He was actually catching up when something slammed into his side with such force he flew into a wall. Coughing, he staggered to his feet, already on full alert for what on earth had hit him. He didn't have to look hard. It was standing right in front of him, big and purple, with an exposed brain and dead eyes. Izuku bit back a scream. Not again.

Abandoning his Stain chasing, he took to the shadows as the Nomu threw another punch, a strike which just barely missed him. Using every trick in the book to get away , he slipped down the alleys, already mapping out a route that would take him away from bystanders.

When he glanced back to check where the Nomu was, it wasn't there at all. Somehow this made him even more stressed and he flattened himself to a wall, eyes wide as he waited for the Nomu to spring out and hit him again.

After a full two minutes, he let himself relax a little. He would have thought he'd imagined that entire interaction if he hadn't had a blooming bruise in his side to prove it was real. But the Nomu was gone now and he could resume his search for Stain.

An explosion rocked the city and he grimaced. The Nomu wasn't entirely gone, then. It must have just found another target.

He took to the roofs, sprinting along them and keeping an eye out for both the Nomu and Stain. The explosions continued and he could tell a good portion of the city was on fire but he didn't really want to go take on a Nomu single handedly again, so he decided to focus on what he knew he could handle– a homicidal vigilante with a grudge.

Finding Stain again wasn't that hard because where Stain went, screams of heroes followed. He heard the scream and veered towards its source. Sure enough, Stain was down there, torturing what looked like Native from this distance. Izuku dropped down.

"Stain."

"Good god, Deku, what's it going to take to lose you?" he spat, fully distracted from Native now as he turned around to glare at him.

"More than that," Izuku said, rolling his eyes.

"I am completely justified this time!" Stain insisted, waving a katana at Native. "He's racist! He's running a small terrorist organization!"

Izuku wrinkled up his nose, mostly because Stain had a point. "Okay, fair enough. But can you please try to stop injuring people who don't deserve it?"

Stain crossed his arms. "They all deserve it."

"No! No they do not!"

"Hero Killer!" a new voice called out from down the alley. Izuku and Stain both turned to look. Whoever was down there looked like an Ingenium copycat. Izuku got a sickening feeling in his gut because for some reason he felt that he knew him. Worse, his voice sounded like a kid– Oh, no. Iida. It had to be Iida.

"Oh, look," Stain said dryly. "Another one."

"I'm here to avenge my brother! He was a true hero, Ingenium! And now I'm here to kill you!"

This would have been funny if Stain wasn't in such a bad mood. Any other day, Izuku would be able to get Stain to laugh that off, but not today. As it was, this was actually painful to watch. Iida had no clue what he was getting into.

"You know why I attacked your brother?" Stain asked, stepping towards Iida. Izuku took his distraction as an opportunity to help Native, paralyzed in the corner of the alley. Stain said some threatening bullshit, Iida responded by bursting into tears and screaming at him some more, and Izuku tried to stop the blood from pouring out of the hole in Native's side.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"Help– kid–" Native panted.

Izuku pursed his lips together, glancing over at Iida. Stain pounced at exactly the same second, knife flashing out, and before Izuku could even react, he heard Iida scream.

He was on his feet in less than a second, already sprinting down the alley. Stain wrenched the sword out of Iida's shoulder just as Izuku got to him and Iida screamed again, clutching at his arm. Izuku grabbed Stain's shoulder and dragged him away, somewhat horrified by everything happening here. He put himself between Stain and Iida, trying to protect them both as much as he could.