Chapter Text
“Wh-where am I?”
“You don’t need to know,” said a disembodied voice, a voice (painfully) familiar to Bakugou.
“De- Izuku?”
“You mean the boy you killed? Yes.” His eyes widened with horror as he feebly tried to protest. “N-no…”
“Do you really believe that? Or do you just want to convince yourself that you’re not a murderer?”
“I didn’t exactly kill him!”
“Not directly maybe, but you might as well have. It’s the same thing, really. You still think you’re the best, don’t you? No matter how many people you kill, or how many lives you ruin, you’ll never think it could be your fault. You don’t learn anything; you refuse to entertain the notion that you might be wrong. Fine, then. Go destroy the world, nobody can stop you.”
“Kacchan!”
Bakugou whipped around. There he was, Midoriya Izuku, in his black gakuen uniform. But the side of his head was caved in, his eyes were empty black sockets and nothing else, and he was covered head to toe in dark, dark blood.
“Izuku!” Bakugou screamed.
He grinned in an eerie caricature of his fake smiles, exposing all his teeth. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it? Me dead and out of the way to your greatness? Now you can be the amazing hero you always wanted to be, the one I always knew you would be, without being held back by a useless dekunobou like me. You were right about me all along, you know? But I stubbornly, pathetically clung to life, to hope. How stupid of me. You’re so amazing, Kacchan! Even before anyone else, you were the first to realize how worthless I am. I’m so glad I took your advice and jumped! Now I’m out of your way, and you can be the number one hero you’ve always been destined to be.”
“NO!”
“Katsuki, Katsuki, wake up!”
He shot up in his bed, drenched in sweat. He hurried to scoot away to a corner to hide from the hauntingly, painfully familiar voice.
“Woah woah, easy! It’s just me.” Bakugou Mitsuki held up her hands in a gesture of surrender.
For the first time in a decade, Katsuki burst into tears, heaving sobs that wracked his entire body. He rocked back and forth, clutching his knees to his chest.
“I killed him. I-Izuku, I killed him. He was so innocent and optimistic, and I tried my best to beat it out of him. I guess I was successful, huh?” He laughed brokenly. “It’s m-my fault he’s dead. I’m the one who told him to go kill himself. I knew he took my words seriously always, why did I have to say such a thing? I might as well have killed him with my own two hands,” he muttered to his knees.
Mitsuki stared at her son, shocked, seeing his behaviour around the topic of Izuku all these years in a new light. She could no longer console him like she had been trying to do before his confession, so she just stared blankly as Katsuki sobbed his heart out. She sat there frozen, doing nothing. Exactly as she had done all these years.