Izuku looked into Katsuki's hopeless, dull red eyes- what once was full of wrath and confidence burnt down to mere fear and regret.

The ghost stood up wordlessly and started to shrink his body- black, lifeless eyes slowly morphing into his previous emerald green. The image of Katsuki's childhood friend.

A small glowing toddler with the innocence of a thousand. His aspirations and kindness high, a smile and soft, welcoming hand greeted Bakugou at the door; waiting for him in silence. Perhaps he was dreaming again.

He wouldn't be surprised if this was all a thing in his mind, after all most of the torment so far had been. Bakugou just wanted it to be over, he wanted to go home. He wanted to apologise.

Apologise to Inko, seek forgiveness from izuku, even if he knew there was none left. Midoriya was but a hollow shell of his, kind former self. Though when Katsuki looked at him, that little toddler with a becoming smile; the blonde felt comfortable for once.

He wanted to jump into the boy's arms, even if his body would warp and fade at contact.

Katsuki swiped away his tears, standing up on shaky legs and taking cautious steps towards the hallway. The only light provided was an ill green shine resting almost angelically on the 'child's' body.

Izuku's small hand swished almost hypnotically in the air, Katsuki dragged himself towards him - body and mind utterly exhausted. It felt as if someone had taken a hoover to his skull and completely drained his insides till he was left nothing but a shell of regret.

Bakugou dragged his sweat-soaked sleeve across his face to wipe away tears and mucus, he looked an absolute disaster, but that was the least of his worries right now.

Was izuku going to comply to his request and actually kill him?..

"Come on Kacchan! Let's play!" The dark surrounding suddenly melted and formed a beautiful summer's day. Youthful giggles permeated through the clear air. They belonged to Izuku... and him. They were sweet, innocent in a newborn animal type of way.

Inko perched on a oak wood bench; a slender woman with oceans of long green hair tumbled over her shoulders, fanning around her back in the gentle breeze which screamed euphoria. Her eyes were strained on two children, lips singed into a smile.

"Hey wait! Slow down!" A spiked hair boy complained, fists whitening while climbing up a red ladder to keep up with his excitable friend, throwing himself on the top of the climbing frame with a pant.

Katsuki looked shakily down at his hands, they were small and pudgy - sweat beading the little palms. Honestly, at this point the boy shouldn't be surprised at all. Not at the fact he was literally a child, nor how he couldn't even control his own body or speech. This had happened aplenty times, another one of Deku's sick tricks.

But the thing was... should he take it seriously this time? The air felt different, not like in that school of horrors.

Nearby, a large TV screen plastered on a skyscraper projected a news report. People gathered like clusters of flies to a nightlight, eyes glued to the blonde woman replaying a video of the recently convicted All Might in prison - having a conversation with a woman who was out of view.

Katsuki felt himself twisted between two realities, on one hand, there was the real world. The present tense. But at the same time, here he and Izuku were; toddlers on a playground.

His friend's voice rang in the background, lighthearted and nostalgic.

The recording continued to play; apparently submitted anonymously into both the hero agency and multiple branded news agencies across Tokyo.

"Don't lie to me. Please I just want to know the truth," a broken voice wept, disjointed and lost.

The camera swerved quickly, catching a glimpse of All Might chained in his cell, whole body littered in quirk suppressants, heavy duty tempered glass and iron.

"Well.. long story short it was accidental manslaughter. A bunch of kids ganged up on him one night and took it too far, we hid the body out of precaution for UA... guess that doesn't matter anymore since it could be potentially shut down anyways"

The recording stopped, that was all the evidence needed.

The news woman reappeared, her black eyes flared with something between betrayal and worry - for izuku? The so called missing boy? Potentially, but not likely. Everyone had forgotten. The posters with his smile and tufts of green hair claiming rewards for safe return blown away on the streets; disregarded and stepped on.

But now, his proclaimed death had shed a new light on the corrupt nature of the amazing UA hero school. An insight to the mind of someone everyone looked up to, an idol and protector. The hero's civilians cheered and trusted.

Katsuki felt his bones chill with dread as the stacks of people watching only multiplied, their expressions a mixture of anger and sadness. Some quirks released haphazardly in the crowd, spouts of ice, lengthened limbs, gouts of wind and floating rubbish becoming unveiled in the horrible news.

If there was no heroes to trust... then what would become of the whole of Japan?

This single thought process seemed to go haywire in almost everyone's mind - spurring them into panic.

The little red eyed boy could see the chaos slowly unravelling... everywhere. The news was absolutely everywhere.

Tearing his gaze off the screen, Bakugou sucked in a breath and felt his small feet pad against the sandy playground floor - drawing closer to the green haired boy sat cross legged drawing on the ground with a small twig.

"Deku!" He forced out, throat ragged and torn. The other didn't look up, only continuing humming with a smile; eyes glued to the the illustrations.

"What the fuck- have you... done," he said breathlessly, coming close enough to peer down at Izuku's handiwork. On it there was the numbers one to fifteen - all neat in a row. And every once and a while... he crossed one off with two eerily straight lines.

"Kacchan, don't say words like that, mama will get mad" izuku mumbled, pointing a small finger at the unmoving lady. Katsuki oesophagus constricted , a lump crawling up his throat at his uncanny tone of voice. Then, Bakugou's stubby legs brought him towards Inko who looked still enough to be a frozen in time.

Reaching out his hand, Katsuki stretched for Inko's delicate hand resting gently on her knee - and instantly her body dissipated into the darkening sky thick with shouts and protest from panicked people.

"I'm not here..."

"I'm not, I'm-"

"You're right Kacchan, you're not." That same uncanny voice cutting in; tearing the words out of Katsuki's throat as the realisation dawned on him.

"But, this is happening. I'm just helping you see the truth, your actions are what lead to this."

Izuku stood up from his seated position, dragging his stick behind him in a slow- lingering pace. The boy pointed towards the stray pro heroes who were trying fruitlessly to calm the rampaging civilians down; all the while they demanded answers be given, and justice served.

Katsuki stared at a building which had just gone up in flames after someone's quirk reacted with another, the blare of fire engines in the distance becoming louder with screams tuning into each other like an apocalyptic orchestra.

"My poor mother, so distraught over the loss you caused her, created this mess to avenge my death. Oh, it all stems from you Kacchan. Why don't you just..."

Izuku paused, dropping his stick- and in that moment, the world seemed to dull. Sounds mushed and buffering together in a mellow hum. For a second, Katsuki considered there was actually small flies hammering against his skull, that was until a cool breeze washed over his face.

Opening the eyes that seemed pinned together, Katsuki peered down at what looked like scattering ants running from an exterminator - his toes dangling like bate to a hungry fish over a perilous edge.

"...take a swan dive off the roof of a building?"

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Trust wasn't even a word class 1A and B associated with anymore.

Izuku had been gone for quite some time, though, both classes made it painfully clear that he was not needed for chaos to erupt again. Their two scenes almost mirrored the outside world - utterly crazed in their need for survival and escape... that they were willing to do anything.

In the end, no one could rely on quirks the way they would've in the real world; it was all raw power. Like a test of primal instinct lodged deep inside the brain which needed to be dug out.

It was a mind game, like most of our favourite ghosts' tricks and torture was.

No one had the disease like midnight, absolutely no one. In fact, it wasn't even contagious as it was concocted by Izuku's own hand and made to scare and disassociate from reality.

But, the occupants of the remaining class 1-A seemed to think otherwise. They simply saw what they wanted to, killed whom they thought would be a danger to themselves and their survival.

And... in the end, they brought their fate upon themselves, damned each other for such stupid reasons like they did Izuku that night in the alley - sure it wasn't all of them, but they each played a part.

Bodies littered the flours of A and B, some still straggling for breath and heaving themselves across the ground in search for any saviour. A cloud of death and hate veiled thickly across the dark school, suffocating any living morsel.

Todoroki had rolled onto his back, weakly holding his side which had been impaled in the struggle that ensued after Iida claimed to see the black veins on Tsu. Everyone had gone completely mad after he said so, now, Iida himself was laying half draped over a desk with fragments of his skull pooling the floor beneath him.

The dual haired boy wondered how it had come to this all, how even he - in a desperate attempt to live, had ended multiple of his friend's lives. Maybe, instead of just watching Midoriya endure such discrimination; he could've stepped in. And perhaps his future would've played out differently.

Shoto took a deep breath, every nerve in his body screaming to not do so as another gout of thick, warm blood leaked from his wound.

He wanted to be a hero. Prove to his father that he could be better, kinder than him. But as Todoroki stared up at the abyss of a ceiling - painted in the odd splatter of red, there really was no difference between him and Endeavour.

Letting his hand slide away weakly from the wound, Shoto felt his eyes grow heavy - the flow of blood around his body slowing by the minute as his heart became weaker. At the same time, the boy heard several more of his fading classmates release one last breath into the stale air.

Todoroki guessed it was his time too, so with a parched sigh, his head hung to the side, cheek pressed against the cold floor in a final, long sleep.

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"What's wrong, you begged me for it just a minute ago. Now I'm letting you kill yourself by your own accord"

Izuku floated just in front of Katsuki, his green body hovering in the air which lead to a dangerous drop. Just looking at the distance - it would be impossible for anyone to survive a fall like that. Maybe that was a good thing however, katsuki thought. That way the worry of being alive and dying a painful death wouldn't be in the back of his mind. Once the floor was close enough... it'll be all over in a second.

Everything would be quiet. Bakugou could sleep forever, without nightmares this time. That thought brought the boy unexplainable piece. To rest with no tomorrow, no today, no yesterday.

It really didn't sound all that bad.

"Your life here... is over, Kacchan. Just give up"

Izuku beckoned, like a mermaid leading his very own sailor to their watery grave - so they could be together, for all eternity. Forever. 

Needles prickled at every fibre in Katsuki's body, being so close to reckless death making his brain scream it's flight response. It took every fibre of his being not to run away and hide again. Sweat caked the blonde's forehead and underarms, and one bead of the salty liquid rolled off his nose and fell down the building.

Bakugou imagined that drop to be himself; free and careless.

"Everyone hates you now. Your own family, heroes, the public... you'll never become a hero. So what meaning does your life have now? You're useless Kacchan."

Exhaling another hot breath, Katsuki curled his back and slowly slipped his index finger into the back of both his shoes - tugging them off and placing the trainers neatly together by his feet.

Then, izuku watched him fall.

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Twenty years later.

"Nooo way that's just an old tall tale, psh who would believe that!" a small boy wined, shaking his head of brown hair in denial.

"Why do you think that building has been abandoned and closed off for years and years since the disaster?" Said an old man who scratched at his stubbly jaw of greying hairs.

The younger shrunk back a little at his piercing gaze, the red rims around this man's blackened eyes made him want to recoil and run away. It was true that the old school had been boarded off for as long as the boy had been alive, but all the adults claimed it was simply uninhabitable due to gas leaks that ensued after the protests.

"The heroes didn't want anyone to know the horrors which went down in that school, so it's been untouched since. I tell you, he's still there, in the halls of that school" the man leaned forward, wiry black hair streaking around his hunched shoulders and stale frown.

Shaking his head, the boy stepped away fearfully "I need to get going mister... t-thank you for sparing your time"

Standing up straight, he moved the scarf around his shoulders and sniffed "call me Aizawa, boy"

The end