Apr 8
Villain Deku
Word count:

Anger boiled at the edges of Midoriya as his gaze raked around the top of the building where he had confronted All Might all those months ago. His fists clenched, he stood up. He knew it sounded stupid, but he had an unsettling sensation of being watched. Someone was there, and they weren’t coming out.
What if they can’t? Some voice in the back of his mind whispered to him. What if they can’t reach you when you’re like this?
Midoriya shook, but with what emotion he was unsure. He was angry, he was sad, he was confused, repulsed, hopeful— A complicated, tangled up mess. Was this what he had been reduced to? A muddle of emotions? He had been trained to be better than this.
“Nevermind. Stupid question.” Midoriya growled. “No one would come out anyways.”
Maybe he could trick them out somehow? Or perhaps he could force them out. He was better at the second option, but doing that might scare them away. The same cold wind he was slowly growing used to circled around his hands before floating away around him. He tried to follow the wind with his eyes, depending on where it touched his hot skin, but it was nearly impossible. And suddenly, the wind stopped. It just stayed in place.
Midoriya blinked. What?
He tried to judge the shape of it. Was it someone whose quirk was to turn into wind? Had someone been with him since—
Since USJ.
Midoriya stumbled back, the back of his boots scraping against the ledge surrounding the edge of the building. No. No. No. He’s gone. He isn’t coming back. It’s just wishful thinking.
He hesitantly reached out, feeling out the shape of the wind.
Shoulders, a neck, hands.
“G-get away!” He shouted, fear beating its way into his heart and throughout his body. “GET AWAY!” He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. It was like he downed a bottle of adrenaline, and now was the moment before he went into shock. The moment where his emotions were heightened to the largest extent. A large rock on the ground levitated slightly.
And suddenly, the question couldn’t wait any longer.
He needed to know.
“Kacchan?”

Apr 8
Villain Deku
Word Count:

Bakugo sucked in a breath, hands shaking.
He knew. Deku knew. This was what he had wanted. How could he answer? Could he try to write with the rock that he had held earlier? Would it be too late by the time that his hands had stopped shaking and he could start writing?
He reached out, setting a hand on Deku’s shoulder. The villain stiffened, then fell to his knees. “I thought… I thought you were gone forever…” He whispered, staring at the ground. “I didn’t mean it. I thought I did, but I didn’t I never did— Kacchan, how could I? Can you ever forgive me?” He trailed off into silent sobs. Kacchan felt uncomfortable. The Deku he had known 10 months ago had been a crybaby, sure, but this was way more different than crying after Kacchan bullied him. It was raw emotion, and he wasn’t used to it.
Deku quieted, staring at the ground in front of him. “I’m sorry. I know it isn’t enough, but I’m sorry.” He whispered, voice raspy. “But I’ve dedicated my life to All For One. I can’t just take it back and say I’m leaving. He gave me this power. I would let it go in a heartbeat if it meant you could come back, but I can’t. The best thing I can do is just stay with Tomura. He’s given me a purpose, even though I’m realizing it isn’t as just as I believed that it once was.”
Bakugo felt helpless. What was he supposed to do? His hands were still shaky, but also still transparent. Another reminder that he was a stranger in the world of the living now. He wasn’t supposed to be here, and yet he was.
“Deku…”
He didn’t respond, of course. He couldn’t hear it, but somehow Bakugo thought that he might this time. Did someone have a quirk where they could speak to the dead? He would have to find one. If he could. Then they might be able to communicate… somehow.
“I’m being watched. Always. I can’t talk. Come with me, I’ll see if we can try to talk in my room. Somehow. I’ll find a way.” Deku murmured, determination flashing in his eyes like it always had before. Why hadn’t he noticed that?
Bakugo nodded, then remembered that Deku couldn’t see him and moved the rock again. He must have taken that as a yes, because he started towards the staircase again, pausing for a moment to stare at the scuff mark before continuing down the stairwell. Bakugo frowned. Memories had seemed to swim in his eyes when he stared at the mark. He wondered what it was from, and what this place meant to Deku. It must mean something, right?
Well then, I suppose I should follow him. Bakugo thought, and he started after who was once his childhood friend. He would try to figure this out for him. No, not for him. With him.
I will save you.

Apr 11
Villain Deku
Word Count:

Midoriya walked past the bar, ignoring Kurogiri who was standing next to the counter. He felt the Nomu’s eerie yellow eyes following him as he stalked across the room. He had to act normal. He wouldn’t suspect if he just acted normal, like he always did. But this normal felt… wrong, a bit. Like it wasn’t him anymore.
Don’t think about that. You are happy Kacchan and All Might died. He thought. You are delighted by the fact you caught his class, and that you can torture them. A spark of his old bitter happiness flared at those words. He settled into his personality he had developed over all those months, making sure no one would notice anything was wrong. He pushed open the door and walked out.
He walked towards his room that he had set up, entering and shutting the door behind him. That was normal too. No one would suspect him. It became a mantra, echoing in his mind over and over.
Midoriya grabbed his laptop and flipped it open, clicking on Google Docs and setting it next to him on the bed. “Kacchan, if you’re still there and this isn’t some sort of prank, type something out that only you and me would know.” He whispered into the air, feeling silly as he waited for a response. This could be some elaborate scheme to test his loyalty.
He got up, walking to his en-suite bathroom and washing out his hair in the sink, getting rid of the black dye that he always wore to cover up the fact he was Midoriya. He brushed off the powder covering his freckles too, before walking out and checking the document.
Nothing.
He growled. “Of course. Some stupid joke by the League I suppose.” Midoriya slammed the laptop shut, fire burning in his eyes.
I’m so dumb. Of course Shigaraki would play a prank like that. He sighed mentally, tightening his hands into fists as he glared at the ground in front of him. How did he even fall for this? It must have just been the wishful thinking.

Apr 15
Villain Deku
Bakugo’s POV

Bakugo wandered the halls, lost. He hadn’t been fast enough to keep up with Deku, and then he had turned a corner and disappeared. So now he was trying to find where he went, and he was not having too much luck.
He muttered a few curses as he rounded another corner and saw just more cold, gray stone walls. The sight was getting more and more annoying as he saw more of it. He stalked down the corridor, wishing he could blow everything up and send it skyrocketing. Except Deku was here. That was a really, really weird concept, that Deku was alive. It still sent chills through him. And now all the work Bakugo had done to get his attention was probably vanishing the longer he stayed away.
“ARGH!” He shouted, attempting to punch a wall, but his hand just went through it. He blinked. That’s new.
“Is someone there?” A voice called from far away. Bakugo froze. Had someone been able to hear him? No, that was impossible… He slowly began moving towards the voice, which still echoed through the halls. He thought he heard a sigh coming from not too far away and began moving faster, his boots making no noise on the floor.
Bakugo sucked in a breath. It was a hallways of cells, with some empty and some open. As he passed some of them, he thought he noticed heroes who had been gradually going missing for months. They weren’t familiar to him, but he had seen a couple of pictures of some of them on TV before. Was this what Deku and the League of Villains had been doing this whole time?
Deku isn’t separate from the League of Villains. He had to remind himself. He’s one of the leaders of it.
More scuffling noises from ahead. He moved towards them cautiously, then remembered no one could hear or see him. He could be as reckless as he wanted. Not that he necessarily wanted to be reckless, but he stored away the fact nonetheless.
Bakugo’s eyes widened as his gaze landed on his class, stuffed into one of the cells nearby. They looked broken and hopeless. He hadn’t been able to imagine anything like that before. Kaminari without a smile, Kirishima without a spark in his eyes, the entire class silent, even the loudest of the group. He shuddered. This was what Deku had reduced them to. What this place had reduced them to.
“Who are you?” Someone behind him asked. Bakugo turned, looking for who was talking to the class. It was a girl, about his age, with light purple hair and bright green eyes, not yet dulled by being in the cell. He wondered how long she had been there.
“Is there a ghost here?” Someone in his class asked, the strict one with blue hair. He looked just as tired as the rest of the class, and Bakugo couldn’t remember his name, but he knew he was annoying as h3ll.
The girl nodded. “Who are you?” She repeated, staring directly at Bakugo. With a stab of surprise, he realized she was talking to him. Her Quirk let her speak to ghosts, probably.
“Uh… I’m Bakugo Katsuki.” He told her, studying her more intensely. Something was off about her.
She repeated what he had said to the class, and about half of them stood up and flung themselves against the bars. “You’re not lying, right? This isn’t some sick joke?” Kirishima asked desperately.
The girl shook her head. “No, he’s really here.”
Bakugo blinked. Now…
He had a way to talk to Deku.

Apr 26
Villain Deku - Echoes of Pain
Deku’s POV

Midoriya stalked through the halls, getting more and more angry at himself with every step. He was so gullible. And now he’d probably pay the price for it once Tomura and the Master saw that he’d betray the League in a heartbeat for Kacchan.
No. I don’t feel like that anymore. He reminded himself. The words felt empty. There wasn’t a way he could stop them from being a lie. He’d need to work on that, somehow.
He brushed his hand over the cold stone wall, feeling the jagged lines that showed him where to go. He didn’t need them anymore, but they were familiar and calmed his mind somewhat as he ran his fingers over the edges. He wasn’t sure where he was going right now, but that didn’t matter. He would go anywhere as long as it took him as far away from his thoughts as he could possibly go.
Midoriya blinked as the hallway with class 1-A came into sight. This… definitely did not take him away from his traitorous thoughts about Kacchan. If anything, it made them even more prominent in his mind. Kacchan’s class— Well, his former class, anyway.
The group of students seemed to be staring urgently at the girl across from them. Midoriya remembered her well. She hadn’t gone down without a fight, and her appearance and her personality were very odd indeed. Obke Kurai - Her name sounded somewhat like ghost ruin if translated into English. Supposedly, she’d been named that because when she was born, her twin died.
Her Quirk was Communion. She could speak to ghosts, and if the ghost’s will was weak, she could get them to do what she wanted. Kurai could also make ghosts visible to others for a short amounts of time, around 10 minutes to an hour depending on how much energy she had at the time. It was a constantly activated quirk, at least the seeing ghosts part of it.
How strange that he’d been led here just after he’d been tricked into thinking Kacchan’s ghost was still around.
Midoriya started towards Kurai and class 1-A, his shoes clicking on the floor. He hadn’t bothered to change out of his suit yet, so the shoes were black leather that made a satisfying noise when he walked.
Kurai stared off into space, not blinking. Midoriya wrinkled his nose. She was very, very weird. Never made a lot of sense when he talked to her. Apparently, she was so used to talking with the dead, she didn’t know how to have a real conversation. That got a smile out of him. A real one.
He was about to announce his arrival with some witty quip when something Kurai said made him freeze.
“…He says that his death won’t be in vain. He’ll bring him back. The League must have done something to him, he never would have acted like that. It just isn’t like him. He says… Hmm. I suppose I could just make him visible so he could tell you himself, but I’ve been wasting away in here. I can only bring him back for a minute or two. Do you give your consent?”
She was actually talking to a ghost.
That, or Kurai had gone insane after weeks in the prison.
Still, Midoriya found himself hesitating instead of marching towards her. He wanted to see if this was actually true. Her Quirk hadn’t been completely confirmed, considering she wasn’t even in the top 200 heroes. In fact, he was pretty sure she was still a student. She’d seen the League taking someone out though, so she had to be brought here or killed. She would be a valuable asset to the team, if she turned.
Kurai nodded and reached her hand through the bars of her cell. Midoriya thought he saw something flicker for a moment. Something seemed… familiar about the figure that had appeared for a moment. Perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him, or this prank was even more elaborate than he had originally thought.
~A few hours later~
Midoriya slammed the trays of food in front of the cells.
“We can’t have you dying on us, now can we?” He asked, giving a cold smile to the prisoners. To be honest, he was only doing this so Kurai could gain some energy and he could see if this was just a bluff or not.
He made a show of walking away, then ducked behind a corner and slipped on one of the devices that made him invisible for about 5 minutes. It’d been based off a sample of the invisible girl’s— Hagakure, he believed —DNA that someone had harvested at some point.
He moved towards a pillar just behind the cells, hiding himself just in case this took longer than the device allowed him to be invisible. He watched as Kurai seemed to inhale the food. Once she was done, she said, “I think I can do it this time. Do you want me to try?”
She looked at the class and then stared into space for a moment before nodding. “Alright. Let’s give this another try, shall we?”
She reached out like she had done earlier, and a familiar figure flickered into sight.
Kacchan.

May 4
Echoes of Pain
Bakugo’s POV

Bakugo watched himself flicker into sight in his classmate’s eyes. Their expressions immediately changed, but no two were the exact same. Kirishima looked like he was in denial. Kaminari was so happy that tears sprang to his eyes. Everything else faded out of sight as he realized that the two people he had constantly pushed away were really his friends.
“What’re you looking at, extras?” He told them, grinning. The entire class seemed to let out a breath. Bakugo leaned towards their cell, but he had to make sure Kurai could still grab him. “You got yourselves into a pretty bad mess, huh?”
Kirishima let out a somewhat choked noise. “We got ourselves into a mess? Bakubro, you’re—“ He paused, holding back tears. Bakugo wasn’t entirely sure if ghosts could cry, but he really didn’t want to test the theory. “I know, I know.” He sighed. “At least I’m not locked up like some background character.”
“Better alive and locked up than dead and free,” Someone muttered. Kaminari hit them.
Bakugo had to remind himself that his class was desperate, but it took almost all of his restraint to not explode them right then and there. Then he remembered that he was— Well, Quirkless. The thought made him want to explode something even more.
“Maybe.” He said with a shrug. “But I can help you guys from out here. This— This League of Villains we’re dealing with did something to Deku. He was Quirkless. He never would have acted like this.”
“I thought he said you were the one who made him like this.” The half-and-half guy spoke up, studying Bakugo with cold eyes. Suddenly, everyone’s gazes seemed to sharpen, hitting him like a thousand spikes from all angles. He winced.
“Well… I guess I did, sort of.” He started slowly, choosing his words carefully. “I, uh, wasn’t great to him after I found out he was Quirkless.” He sighed, looking up at the ceiling so he could get away from the stares of his former classmates. He thought that everyone probably knew what exactly he did, considering how he’d acted around them.
Looking back down, he surprisingly found more sympathetic faces than disgusted. Of course, there were a few, but much less than he’d expected. “Besides, he never really got angry when I did it. Sometimes he just smiled and left, and others times he said nothing. His reactions might have varied, but he never got mad.”
The one with the round face— It was Ochaco, right? —scoffed. “Right, because he’s incapable of getting mad. He probably got angry when he got out of sight. How would you know?”
Bakugo shrugged helplessly. “What do you expect me to do, know everything? At least it’s more than you can figure out by yourselves. From what I’ve seen so far—“
“Wait, you’ve been following him around?” Kaminari interrupted, eyes wide. “So you know what the League might be planning?”
“Well… not really. Look, it’s been one day. They haven’t really talked about anything. Although… Deku does know that I’m still here. Probably. I confirmed it as much as a could, but he might have stopped believing when I got lost in this g0d@mn place.” He growled, nearly falling through the wall as he attempted to lean against it but instead ended up falling through it, and out of Kurai’s grasp. There were shouts of fright as he disappeared from their line of sight.
“Sh1+.” He sighed, looking at Kurai. “You got any more energy?”
She managed a weak shake of her head before collapsing. There were groans from his class, and him too. “Maybe tomorrow.” He said, then remembered no one could hear him.
“Time to find Deku, I guess.” He said, walking back from where he’d come after giving a reluctant glance back towards Kirishima, who was staring at where he’d been just a moment ago. Turning towards the hallway, he froze. Deku was staring right at him.
Dead in the eyes.