Izuku Midoriya was a special case since he could speak, since he would take things around him and turn it into an opinion inside his little head. He never... liked heroes. He didn't dislike them exactly, but he always looked at the villains from the fights on the news or in person. He always wondered of their motives, why they were in the state they were, why they were the villain in the first place. He never really got scared of them, just interest, innocent interest.

The kids around him never exactly approved of this of course, they found it weird, odd, unnatural. Creepy if anything. It lead him to he a cast out, a bully victim his whole childhood. Even worse when he was five he was finally confirmed as quirkless, a full year since he was four, expecting an amazing quirk, only to get nothing.

Everyone said it was his karma of liking the villains, always rooting for them instead of the heroes. All Might was the only one he found that was slightly cool, at the age of five when he first made this opinion he could really only think of it as All Might actually being real, more convincing than any other hero.

He turned his attention to other things besides his peer's harassment. Even his mother found him weird, making him go to therapy every Wednesday a week. It didn't do anything however. His view on the hero society never changed.

Now he was in his last year of middle school. He was a very smart boy, his childhood tormentor, Kacchan, or better known as Katsuki Bakugo to other kids, always boasted on the fact that he'd be the best hero and lock Izuku in jail for being a villain.

The greenet was a nerd, getting into things he shouldn't, hacking into the school's website code and logging in as his teacher to find the test keys, teaching himself different things and the school's lessons a head of what they were teaching. It was pretty simple to do the more he actually looked into it.

It was so easy that he taught himself more and broke into a small police station during night, hacking into one of the computers to access files on wanted villains, wanting to know their motives behind their crimes. To his disappointment nothing really was ever listed for their motive. Though, checking on the background of thieves, he found the family suffering from debt or suffering from loan sharks... why don't the police arrest these people? They attack the victims of the real criminals..

In all honesty it made him frustrated.

As he looked, he found the vague mention of some group called "The League of Villains." He quickly took interest in the group. He found out rather quickly that it connected to the big attack that was covered up from the police five years prior. Of course he knew about it, as a big villain nerd nothing passed him. It landed the number one hero into a silence of five months, seemingly in the hospital to recover from some sort of an injury.

The League of Villains was connected the attack, huh? He found the leader was completely cut off from even the police files, though a name mentioned some sort of co-leader named Tomura Shigaraki accompanied by a man with a warp gate quirk.. that's so cool! This Shigaraki's quirk was also amazing, dissolving anything he touched. Though that was all on him, as well as a blurry picture of greasy blue hair of what looked like an older teenager at the time.

They've made more moves recently, the warp gate villain deemed 'Kurogiri' was spotted collecting different criminals from around the area...

Izuku disappointingly had to leave the police station because of the security moving around, though he downloaded the files from the computer also long in information so he could access the same account at his home.

...though his mother didn't like him getting on the computer. She was... if anything, scared of him. He's noticed how she flinched if he made a sudden move towards her or spoke. It made him a bit upset. was he really so weird to like villains, to do whatever he could to get information? He was a curious, growing boy... he didn't understand why people didn't realize this.

He recorded most of everything he found out about heroes and villains alike in note books, having analyses of heroes in one book to know his enemy and analyses of villains in another series of notebooks to know the people he admired.

He didn't ever let people stop him with his findings.

Like he just used the computer throughout night which led him to get no sleep for about a week as he looked through police files.

New villains were connecting with the League of Villains he learned to abbreviate to Lov for easier notes. Toga Himiko, Shuichi Iguchi with the alias as the villain Spinner, Shuichi Iguchi with the alias of Magne, Atsuhiro Sako with the alias of Mr. Compress, and even the mysterious Dabi. More have been being pieced together into connecting the Lov, like the recent villain that have broke out of Tartarus called Moonfish that may be with the Lov. Izuku really wondered what this league was planning and these little police files weren't saying shit.

Who was that Dabi? What was his full name? A blurry picture of a man with scars covering his neck, face, and arms with black hair and an assortment of piercings covering his face and ears was said to be this so called Dabi. Dabi is the Japanese idiom for "dabi-ni-fusu" meaning "Cremate the Body." This inspired the name for his unconfirmed blue fire quirk, cremation. Izuku did some math for the rough estimation of the man's height by comparing the height of a what looked to be a normal sized air conditioner which he got the rough estimate of 6 feet. He did this with all the other villains that had pictures attached to their files... but he wasn't satisfied by the time he tore everything apart about this 'League of Villains' by the end of the week.

But Thursday, he was out after dark at the park, swinging on a swing set, alone and quiet besides the frequent squeak of the chain. He was just going through his villain analyses, scanning his notes from the league. If anything he was just bored.

That was until he saw a familiar.. awfully scarred face.

"..Dabi?' He found himself murmuring with blown up eyes, them wide and unblinking as if he did the villain would vanish. Before he couldn't think better of it, the boy gleefully hopped up, grinning as he approached the suspicious figure.

He was leaning on a tree at the edge of the park, smoking a cigarette

The villain was not expecting some fanboy running up to him begging for an autograph.

"Oi, fuck off kid, I ain't a hero."

"I know! You're Dabi! The soon-to-be-leader of the League of Villain's Vanguard Action Squad because you have the most developed quirk!" He started rambling, grinning as the dangerous male looked at him in a slight horror.

"..the fuck?"

This snapped Izuku out of his mumbling. "S-sorry! I get excited and get a head of myself... I'm your biggest fan! I love villains and like to research them... even if it's kinda illegal the way I do the research.."

By the end of his sentence he was sheepishly scratching his cheek but yelped when he was dragged into the more secluded small grove of trees they were previously positioned outside of.

Dabi looked rather.. mad. "How th' fuck did ya figure that shit out?!"

The greenet shrank back a little, though was awing over him internally. "I-I broke into a police station because I love v-villains.."

His explanation was meek but it held no hesitation, just the slight stutter that attacked his speech in times of unease.

"Why do ya.." The black haired man started before pinching the bridge of his nose, Izuku took time to take in his features.

His estimation of Dabi's height was still standing strong at the number of six feet, though he could see him much clearer in person than some blurry photo. His scars were slightly tinged purple, his eyes were a shocking, intense turquoise blue, staples held his scarring and normal skin together, his ears and nose had piercings, and his hair wasn't just a black blob as the photo's clarity provided him with but was actually quite spiky, though it looked soft.

He unconsciously rocked on his heels, leaning forward and reached up to touch his hair only to be broken from his small trance when he realized Dabi was glaring at him expectantly, holding his cigarette casually between two fingers, slightly curled in an almost lazy way. He noticed his nails were painted black.

"Shoot, did he say something?" He mumbled, though thought he was speaking inside his head.

The villain's glare melted into a dry look. "I did. I'm assumin' ya didn't hear a fuckin' thing I said then."

"S-sorry! I..I didn't.." He pushed his pointer fingers together as he balled his other fingers into a first, awkwardly shriveling into himself for comfort, trying not to feel like a complete idiot.

"Th' hell do ya like villains?" He growled. Izuku couldn't help but note his speech was rather lazy and almost laid back. If you took away his rough tone, he seemed like a calm dude, level headed unlike the other spiky-haired guy he happened to know. This would mean he probably made the decisions and Izuku's prediction of him being the leader of the upcoming 'Vanguard Squad' he heard the back allies rumoring from 'Lov,' which he pieced together to being the League of Villain's abbreviation.

As he rambled on inside his head, and out loud unbeknownst to him, his hands mimicked the idea of holding a pencil and holding a note book, taking imaginary notes as he processed and held the information away for later.

"Oi! Fuckin brat!" The villain had to snap in front of Izuku's face to gather his attention. once more.

Izuku jumped this time, so lost in the new though minor revelation that he disappointingly didn't get to finish that he was once again not paying attention.

"Ya got some sort of damn info quirk? Huh?" Dabi sighed, groaning softly.

The boy shrunk into himself once more, his twig like arms flexing up to cover his face from two angles as he peeked out nervously. "I-I'm q-q-quirkless.."

His nerves sky rocketed as he murmured this, expecting to be shut out as everyone else did to him, mumbling unknowingly once more a, what he thought was silent, plea for him not to do just that.

The villain only took a rare interest in him, "Quirkless? And ya can think shit down so easily, so quickly, ayh?"

"I-I guess.." The greenet was trying to figure out if he meant that as bad or good despite it being some of his best qualities.

"..is that why ya don't like heroes?"

"..w..well I don't exactly dislike them.. I just don't like how villains are shamed for society even if they do a petty crime.. the greater amount of amateur criminals and thieves most of the time are just victims from abuse or poor childhoods from my research results.." He sighed, arms dropping to his side once more as the villain didn't just walk away or snap out in disgust, though it seemed unlikely from what his speech showed, as he admitted to being quirkless.

"So.. you like villains better?"

"..I mean I don't dislike or like heroes. The only one I even remotely admire is All Might... he seems.." He thought of a word to use. "Pure. I guess... he doesn't seem money or attention seeking like others are."

Dabi chuckled a bit bringing his cigar back to his lips and held it there, his posture slumping a bit as his thumbs hooked his pockets and dangled at his sides. Even the villain's posture seemed to be lazy and relaxed, reflecting what was shown from his speech.

"Ya'see through a ideology I kinda admire kid." Izuku beamed at the fact he wasn't called a brat this time.

"I do?!"

"Most heroes of society are fake, greedy, a glutton for punishment from people that support that ideology." The scarred male explained. "Ready to be shot down by us villains that don't get what they do."

Izuku hummed, eyes falling to the ground in a saddened way as he realized something, holding his note book of villains. He didn't really have a pen or pencil Dabi could sign his book with which was disappointing...

"Man it was so cool meeting you.." Izuku admitted, grinning back up at the male. To his glee the villain nodded.

"I'm kinda surprised ya even like villains. Wha's cha name?"

Izuku straightened at this, opening his mouth to answer before he hesitated a little. What if Dabi sold the fact he knew a lot about villains and people tracked him down..?

"...D..Deku. You can call me Deku..!"

The scarred male didn't question it, reaching back up to the cig and breathed in, taking it from his lips to puff out grey, nicotine scented smoke. Izuku coughed softly, though sucked it up.

"It was nice meeting ya, Deku."

Izuku stayed up all night that night, freaking out about his meeting and decided to look into the ideology Dabi brought to his attention to actually exist that was exactly like his. Soon he found it. 'The Stain Ideology.' Stain? Who?

Soon he discovered the Hero Killer: Stain, awing over him for the rest of the night.

Though by now, many things were resulting from his lack of sleep and burning curiosity just in school alone.

"Okay class..." Izuku was blanking, spacing out as his head bobbed, almost landing on the table, "...heroes!!"

Wait what did the teacher say? He looked back up, keeping his head low as his obnoxious class cried out in excitement over something he didn't even hear.

"Hah, damn extras. I'm getting into UA! I've already started fuckin' training, I'm gunna be the number one hero and surpass All Might!" Bakugo boasted. Oh. They were talking about high school applications... Izuku scoffed softly, but Bakugo heard it and whipped his head around to face the greenet.

"The fuck you talkin about Deku!?"

"I didn't even say anything, Kacchan." Izuku retorted, sighing at the nickname he's been given.

"You little fucking bitch!" The hot head roared at Izuku's dismissive attitude. He was never afraid or impressed over Bakugo as others were, almost indifferent to him. It irritated the blonde to no end.

The teacher broke it up before Bakugo could commit to more property damage.

After school however the torment continued.

Izuku brought out his hero journal as he didn't like bringing his hero books out of the house, not wanting their information to get out. Now he was rather glad for this fact.

"You still write this shit? Damn villain?" Bakugo growled as he stole the note book and exploded it with one burst of his quirk, chucking the remains out of the window.

Izuku's face remained stoic and unamused as he looked at him. The lack of reaction if anything pissed Bakugo off even more, stomping forward, grapping Izuku by his school uniform. "Pathetic fucking villain, maybe if you didn't fucking like villains you wouldn't have got cursed to not have a quirk~... maybe go take a god damn swan dive off the roof and fix your mistakes in your next life, huh~?"

He said this in a teasing tone and for the first time in forever, Izuku flinched, jaw dropping in offense. Though, who wouldn't be offended? He just told him to kill himself.

The blonde scoffed and let him go, practically tossing him on the floor before walking to the classroom door. "Fucking pathetic. Villains always loose, just like you."

Said door slammed close as soon as he taunted this out.

Izuku dragged himself to retrieve his soaked book of hero notes, it had landed in the koi pond behind the school of all places... though he wasn't terribly upset. After all, heroes weren't the boy's main concern.

He sighed a bit and started walking home, going under a bit of a short cut to avoid people and just get back to the safety of his room quicker.

Though he happened to cross paths with an escaping criminal, deemed a worthy hiding place.

He was knocked off his feet with a small wheezy yelp, squirming as a gooey, semi-solid, semi-liquid sludge like substance surrounded his body in an instant. His eyes went wide with panic and for the first time in some time, fear.

"You'll be a good skin suit~" A grimy, bone chilling voice gurgled out, seemingly the sludge itself. He couldn't suppress the shiver that downed his struggling body, a distraction enough for the liquid to pry open his jaw and start pouring - no, pushing it's way into his throat and lungs.

"Stop struggling kid, it'll hurt for a bit more~"

Izuku clawed desperately at this sludge, hand passing through his own captor to his awe and dismay. This quirk was so cool! It was solid enough to knock him off his feet and hold him in place, but too liquid to grab, claw, or punch... but as the victim of the quirk at the moment, he wasn't too such he liked it all the much.

The bitter, vomit like taste it had flooded his senses as it started filling his lungs with the sewage like fluid.

He recalled learning of Pulmonary Edema, which is exactly the lungs filling with liquid, he knew if he didn't stop this thing in the next few seconds.. there was a chance his heart would fail.

He could already feel that terrible burn in his chest and throat, he couldn't tell if it was from the sedge or the swelling in his lungs.

His vision was fogging, black and white spots blinking into and out of his vision from the lack of oxygen too.

He really was going to die. Just like Bakugo suggested he should. Just in the way no one expected.

He was crying before he knew it, tears streaming down his terror-paled, freckled cheeks. His face was messy as he weakly struggled to breathe in stead of the violent thrashing he was managing at first.

He felt his vision fade, catching a glimpse at the mouth of the bridge, though, was it? There seemed to be some sort of white rim of light around a blurry figure, he couldn't tell what it was in the moment however, and he probably would be too dead to ever figure out.

He felt irritating, though soft pats to his face, a soft grunt of complaint escaping him making them halt. He was already disturbed though, face scrunching as he suddenly became aware at the pounding agony drilling into his skull. He sat up only to find his body soar, blinking his aching and puffy eyes to get used to the sudden bright light of the sun and sky that flooded his vision.

He moved to glare at who ever was disturbing his... sleep? What? Wait.. the sludge villain!

He suddenly felt much, much more aware, only being met with a wide, grinning face.

He had to blink a few times.

"Al...All Might?!" The greenet exclaimed before violently coughing, almost wheezing, his voice gurgling a bit. It was harder to breathe, voice raw and screaming out louder in pain than his shock of the number one hero in front of him.

The hero laughed, jolly and brave as all interviews, videos, and admittedly the merch Izuku has in his room of him depicted him to be.

"Yes my boy, tis' I!" The hero struck a pose, being kinda selfish and egotistical, though his charm passed it off as nothing. "I've captured the villain that attacked you, so no worries!"

Izuku coughed again, cringing in pain. He thought that All Might would notice and ask him if he was alright... but instead he turned, still grinning, and gave a thumbs up, holding up a.. soda bottle in his other hand? Looking closer, it had the sludge in it.. "Well, now that you're awake and all good!-" Which he clearly wasn't. "-I'll be getting this guy to the police station so he doesn't cause more trouble!"

"Whh..w-wait!" He wheezed with trouble, and with an excruciating and trembling body he forced himself to stand. "C-can I ask you something?"

It had been something he was curious about for some time, and now that the number one hero was right here, he needed to ask.

"I'm sorry, but it'll have to wait." The hero crouched up and down, almost preparing to leap. Why wasn't he giving Izuku his time? The greenet frowned in frustration. Heroes were so frustrating...

"P-please I just need a minute of your time..!" He begged, stumbling over to him.

"Post it on my fan page! I answer questions all the time on there!" He grinned, at him, glancing at the sky, almost just ready to leap into the air. Izuku did the only thing his panicked mind could think of: latching himself onto All Might's leg just as he leapt hundred of feet off the ground.

When the hero realized this, he tried shoving him off. "W-Wait no, stop! I'll die!"

He landed on the top of a building, Izuku collapsing onto the floor, shaking even more and wheezing from the sudden shock of soaring through the sky.

He willed himself to calm, looking up at All Might in a daze. "..P..please just.. l..lemme' ask something.."

All Might sighed. "I don't have time kid. Look, take that door-" He pointed to the one on the building, it would lean down into the rest of the building. "-..and go tell someone you had a small accident with you quirk and ended up here, I need to go and I don't have time for you."

Izuku's eyes widened, not only was the only hero that he thought was pure riding him off even after almost accidentally killing him, but he was also getting him to lie?

"I-I don't have a quirk!" Izuku cried out, biting his lip. His head unconscious ducked down, he squeezed his fists tights, fighting to keep his voice steady. "I-I thought you were a good hero... and you're being so...so... selfish!" He couldn't help it, roaring this out as tears sprung to his eyes. He felt his jaw groan out as he ground his teeth together in frustration. "Just let me talk!"

When he looked back up to glare at the number one hero, he couldn't help but yelp at the sudden, pathetic and shriveled up looking man that hunched over in his place.

Slouched eyelids hung over prominent blue eyes, blond tattered hair framing his sunken face. "Kid..."

Izuku stumbled back, skittering till the sole of his shoe dragged along the concrete floor and he fell onto his butt.

"Y-you're not All Might!" Izuku hissed, glaring at what he assumed to be an imposter.

"I am.. I am.." The man sighed, holding a skeletal like hand to his face in exasperation. "I'm All Might."

Izuku shook his head, still not believing it.

The skeletal figure sighed, raising his shirt to show off the injury along the bottom left side of his stomach. "This injury prevents me from keeping my muscle form for long. I'm limited for about three hours a day now of hero work..."

The greenet gaped at this.

"I got it about five years ago in an accident that the police tried to cover up.." He explained, this information clicked inside of Izuku's head, his breath momentarily hitching.

"Oh..." The greenet murmured, eyes still wide.

"I cant let this form get out to the public." He sighed, explaining this in a disappointed way. "You get it? That's why I was trying to jump away before you could see."

Izuku frowned softly. Even with this form All Might should worry about others and not this rather... pitiful complexion.

"I just.. do you ever think of the villain's side of the story?" All Might seemed taken aback by this question.

"I mean, no. They're a criminal and chose to do what they did. They deserve any justice they get."

Izuku bit his lip and frowned even more at this. "But..."

"Don't take pity for a villain that's doing wrong."

"B..but..-!"

"There's no need to worry about them."

Izuku's brows furrowed in frustration. "You're wrong... you're not a hero. You're not a hero."

The freckled teen got up, the number one hero in front of him just looking at him with a dry look. "Kid, wait.."

"No!" He snapped, stomping over to the door. "You're no hero! I'll keep that pathetic secret of yours but you're not a god damn hero!"

Tears were in his eyes, he clawed at his arms. His body burned horridly, his eyes felt swollen and puffy, his head echoed excruciatingly. It all hurt too much. He couldn't breathe.

Blindly, he made his way out of the building, hearing distant explosions and ruckus. He couldn't bring himself to think of what caused it, trying to walk home.

Though, before he could even make it half way, he collapsed to the floor. No one was around either, he felt like shit.

The only person who he thought was okay was just a fraud. No one understood his views. He felt like he was dying. It wasn't only from All Might either, he knew the sludge villain did something to him.

Izuku wasn't sure where he was, he only knew no one else was around and he hurt all over, physically and emotionally.

Before he knew it, he was passed out, for all he knew, he was left for dead.