He Let the World Destroy Him

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/11176248.

Rating: Not Rated

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Category: Gen
Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero
Academia
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku & Yagi Toshinori |
All Might
Characters: Midoriya Izuku, Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko, Yagi Toshinori | All
Might, Bakugou Katsuki
Additional Tags: villain!deku, quirk stealing, deku loves a good long con, Revenge
Language: English
Series: Part 1 of All for One and One for All
Stats: Published: 2017-06-12 Words: 1,795 Chapters: 1/1
 He Let the World Destroy Him
by WynterTwylight

Summary

All Might told him he couldn’t he a hero without a quirk. Bakugou Katsuki said the same
thing. Midoriya Izuku, however, quickly realizes that while he can’t become a hero, he can
become one hell of a villain.

OR Midoriya gives up on being a hero, hunts down Shigaraki Tomura, inherits All for One,
and gets his revenge. Maybe.

Notes
See the end of the work for notes
It wasn’t quick, the switch from one side to the other. The conversion was slow, and like any
major change, it wasn’t easy. Midoriya Izuku didn’t wake up one day and say, “hey, I want to
be evil and destroy everyone who’s hurt me.” No, those closest to him ignited the shift,
personally taking his dream, ripping it apart, and then daring to return the broken pieces to
him. The fact that they did this to fifteen year old child was beyond Izuku’s comprehension,
but what wasn’t outside his understanding were the near-endless possibilities of one thing.

Revenge.

...and ways to rise up to prove them wrong, of course.

And so it began as a fleeting thought of what Izuku would do to them if he only had the
means. Those flickers grew into desires that hatched plans that found solace in one of Izuku’s
many dedicated notebooks, waiting to be put into action. Thoughts of hatred and anger
became Izuku’s regular state of mind. Soon, he’d become too lost in the noise to return and
Shigaraki Tomura knew Midoriya Izuku was the One because of it.

Izuku readily accepted All for One on his knees and sobbing.

With his new quirk by his side, he could steal back what had been stolen from him by the
universe. Life had been cruel to him, yes. His cards were not pretty, his fate shattered and
torn, his dreams cracked and broken, but now the world was his for the taking.

All he had to do now was grasp it, choke it, and kill it.

~~~~~~~

The first quirk he stole had been simple. Easy. A test, just to see how his power worked.
Shigaraki-sensei had been kind, shown him mercy when everyone else had not. Granted him
that which he’d always wanted: a quirk, the best quirk. The quirk to steal others’ quirks.

Midoriya Izuku could have any quirk he wanted.

Oh, how the tables had turned.

“You don’t have to do this,” the man whimpered, form crowded against the wall behind him.
He was secluded. Scared. Close to broken.

Midoriya took a shaky breath. Did he? Did he actually have to do this? Did he really?

He did. This is what he’d been waiting for. He trusted Shigaraki-sensei, looked up to him,
and in turn he had trusted Midoriya.

Midoriya refused to break that trust and give him a reason to regret his decision.

Midoriya crouched down. “Just close your eyes,” he said in a soft voice. “It will all be over
soon, and then I’ll never bother you again. Just... sleep,” Midoriya didn’t want to watch the
man’s eyes as he lost his quirk. He was terrified, and Midoriya was the source of that fear.
Midoriya thought about leaving and choosing someone else, someone less innocent…

Midoriya shook his head. There was no room for his empathy here. It would be shoved down,
strangled, dampened, destroyed, killed in the days to come .

It will get easier with time, Midoriya.

Shigaraki-sensei’s words repeated themselves in his head. He believed in me when no one

else would, Midoriya reminded himself. And I have to show him a new quirk by tonight. I
have to prove I can do this, that I’m as worthy as I said I was.

~~~~~~~~

“Find a bland individual with a weak quirk. This is just practice, Midoriya, I promise I’ll
teach you how to fulfill your true purpose in due time,” Sensei told him. Midoriya sat in a
chair close by, not paying attention to his Sensei’s movements around the room and instead at
his words.

Any words Shigaraki Tomura spoke to him were important. He scribbled at quirk levels of
speed.

“But why not now?” Midoriya asked. He wasn’t impatient, but he was undeniably curious.

Shigaraki-sensei tsked and Midoriya wanted to take back his words and curl up into a ball in
response. “Look at me, Midoriya,” Midoriya’s eyes snapped to Shigaraki-sensei’s
immediately. “I promise, I’ll give you everything you need,” he told the boy. “Trust me now
and you’ll be helping a lot of people very soon.”

It was enough.

~~~~~~~~~

“Are you going to kill me?” the man asked, his voice laced with a healthy amount of fear that
thankfully wasn’t enough to make him rash enough to run. Given that Midoriya had already
plotted out in his head every possible escape the man could attempt to make, he’d stand no
chance if he tried anything. Midoriya’s plans were like a chess board, just with living,
breathing, and presently terrified pieces.

God, the human spirit fascinated him.

“Of course not,” Midoriya scoffed, getting back to the subject at hand. He was running the
risk of monologue-ing, something that he regarded with distaste in both his Sensei and his
former heroic obsession. “If I killed you it would be messy. The response time of the
authorities is far too quick for me to dispose of your body properly. Also, I have other plans
for you that don’t involve... that.”

“Wh—what kind of—”

The man was silenced by a black-gloved finger to his lips.

“Shhhh, now,” Midoriya told him. “You’ve talked too much.”

And he stole his quirk.

The world suddenly went red and Midoriya tasted blue. Then, just as he was wrapping his
head around his newly crossed senses, the fire came.

There was a feeling of a flame licking his skin, the insides of his veins, behind his eyes, and
within his lungs. Everything just burned, the pain too intense to scream. Midoriya tried to
move, to think, to breathe and focus, but he couldn’t do anything. Then, as quickly as it came,
the unmistakable feeling that Midoriya had somehow become hell itself vanished. He’d later
learn all of his pain had lasted one second.

One second.

Nearby, the man had just finished dropping to the ground, body slack. Slightly paranoid,
Midoriya checked for a pulse.

Thump thump.

Midoriya sharply exhaled in relief and waited a few more moments to confirm the man’s
condition before removing a thick paintbrush marker from his coat. He pulled down the
man’s shirt collar and slashed a line across his collarbones that teased at the base of his
throat. Midoriya then sharpened the four corners of the loose rectangle and his work was
done.

The authorities might eventually figure out that Midoriya’s mark was a subtraction sign, but
right now all that mattered was that Midoriya was on the map.

He had no use for being able to make his eyes glow different colors, but at least his Sensei
might get a good laugh out of it.

The authorities questioned the man after they found him, courtesy of an old lady walking her
poodle. They offered him many things: blankets, food, water, rides home or to the hospital,
and phone calls, but what he wanted was something to get the damn ink off because no matter
how much he scrubbed with medical-level cleansers and abrasion wipes, it hardly budged. He
couldn’t live with it. His wife, his children, everyone on the street would see…

He was quirkless now.

He went home crying, hiding the mark as best he could but not nearly enough.

Meanwhile, Shigaraki did laugh at Midoriya’s eyes, especially when Midoriya wouldn’t stop
changing their color during their conversation, and the follow-up, and the next follow-up..

“That is by far one of the most useless quirks I’ve ever seen, Midoriya,” Sensei laughed.
Midoriya glowed at the sound. Literally. “But now your eyes truly are bright, kid. You’re
going to do just fine…”

~~~~~~~~~
The last quirk Midoriya stole had been hard to do, difficult, almost shattering.

But it was also the most satisfying.

Midoriya and his current victim were far enough away from civilization that no one would
come looking for them, no one would try to stop them, and no one would hear his screams.

A fist connected with solid flesh and the much taller man stumbled back. Midoriya dove
forward into a shoulder roll, using the time his opponent was off guard to sneak behind him.
Midoriya’s smaller form turned to face the hero from the ground and when he saw vapor
seeping from his adversary’s skin, he grinned and made his final move.

Midoriya encased his hand in layers of rock, shifting his fingers into a hardened fist. Before
he could hesitate, he slammed it hard into the back of the man’s throat at the top of his spine.

All Might went down in a flurry of steam.

Now, the body in front of Midoriya was still and motionless. Blonde hair was crumpled, the
strands tangled and astray. Frail eyes regarded him simultaneously with fear and curiosity.
They were the eyes of a man Midoriya had once adored.

“I know you,” All Might—Toshinori Yagi—said, voice weak.

God, he’s so pathetic, Midoriya thought.

“I’m surprised you remember me,” he said, watching in amusement as Toshinori tried to
stand up.

He failed.

Midoriya laughed, just a little, trying to shove down remnants of worry.

“You told me I couldn’t be a hero without a quirk,” the villain told him, stalling. “And you
were right, All Might. I couldn’t be a hero without a quirk,” Midoriya crouched down,
balancing easily on his toes. He’d practiced this. He’d prepared for this moment. He’d been
dreaming about this for months .

“You can be a hero now,” All Might said.

“Tch, you should have said that then,” Midoriya said dismissively. “But it’s too late, All
Might. I’m a villain now, and a very good one at that.”

“But you don’t have to be--”

“No, no,” Midoriya interjected. “I said you were too late,” Midoriya adjusted his footing.
“And now, you have to deal with failure, because you’re not going to get to save yourself,
you’re not going to get to save your quirk, and you’re not going to save your successor. You
lose, All Might.”
Toshinori shifted, lit by a new fire that wouldn’t carry him to success. Midoriya didn’t even
look at him, instead scanning the surrounding area for any sign of One for All’s latest vessel.

“You won’t get away with this...” Toshinori sighed, resting again and breathing heavily.

Well, this was hardly the first time Midoriya heard that .

He laughed. “We’ll, see, won’t--”

“Deku! Still useless as ever,” A familiar voice scoffed from the shadows, stepping out into
the open.

Midoriya turned.

Finally.

Kacchan’s angry face stared back at him. “I should have known you’d fucking be here you
fucking piece of shit.” Kacchan spat on the ground. “Now, fight me, fuckface. I’m ready to
settle this.”

Explosions littered Kacchan’s form and lightning arced across his skin. Midoriya felt his
quirks slowly rise like an itch, ready to respond.

He flashed his eyes red and grinned.

“Just like old times, Kacchan.”

End Notes

Thanks to guardianlioness for her incredible support on this drabble, planting the idea of a
villain version of Midoriya in my head, and for beta-ing this <3

If you wanna chat, I'm Aizawa's Scarf on tumblr. My blog is currently undergoing
renovations, but I'm still in the building.

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