Baby steps

the world stood still

Once a very long time ago, when Izuku was eight years old, he had encountered a villain. It was a cloudy day, causing everything to feel darker. It was one of those days where you just wanted to stay inside and drink hot cocoa. But alas, Izuku had been dragged out of the house to go grocery shopping with his father. He had been antsy that day as any eight-year-old would be, and he had begged and begged to be allowed to play in the park that was right across the street. Eventually, his father, who had been a bit out of it that day, agreed to let him go.

So he had gone to the park; it would only be about fifteen minutes until his father would come to get him. The park had been empty, with no one around, but then he heard a sound. It sounded like a wounded animal or maybe heavy panting? It was hard to remember so many years later. Hearing this, Izuku had walked to a lone tree that sat in the middle of the park. A man sat there holding a wound with a wadded-up jacket; he seemed like he had just gotten out of a fight.

" Mister?" Izuku asked as he looked down at the stranger " are you alright? Did you fall from something?" He had asked. He was young; this kind of injury didn't affect him as it would now.

" scram kid...you'll get involved," the villain had told him. But, izuku, who at the time was a kind-hearted child, took off his backpack and pulled out a bandage with frogs. " what's this?" He had been asked. " you know I'm a bad guy, right? Your mom probably doesn't want you talking to me."

" Well... it's a bandaid; you put it on when you get hurt," he says as he takes off the plastic and he puts it on the villain's arm. " and then you will feel better...I don't think you can be evil. You have pretty eyes," he says. And Izuku proceeded to sit down. He looked at him, and he smiled a little. " I don't have a mom, so don't worry! No one will be mad," he says.

Izuku had sat for the villain for fifteen minutes that day, and he didn't see good or evil; no, he just saw a man who needed help. When he was young, he was Naïve; the green-haired boy had believed you could see the best in everyone; even if they seemed bad, they had to breed deep down. But that was before he had grown up and had learned the truth about what life is really like. How different something could have been. How the people who teased him didn't just do it because they felt bad about themselves, and the teachers who stood by weren't planning on helping you because they never cared. And how the two people who are supposed to protect you...well, they had lied to him for sixteen years.

Hours...it had been hours now. He had been taken to a tall building, no lights; as he looked down, he saw a sea of darkness. Almost like a pool, and if you fell, you would just keep falling.

"It's time," he heard. All of a sudden, the darkness that had been below filled with the lights of the city, and as he turned his head, he saw a camera. " hello UA students, faculty... and any civilians who may be here with us tonight," Shigaraki said. " here we have our star. This quirkless man can't seem to get anything but the littlest of respect. In this horrible world, we have created, it is kill or be killed, and we just deal with it. And naturally, this child shouldn't have even been born, watch as your hero's do nothing; watch the media forget this happened when the next big story comes along," he said as he grabbed onto the green-haired boy. He held him over the edge of the building, keeping a grip on the chair.

" Shigaraki-please, I haven't done anything... I just wanted to live for myself for once- please, you're better than this...is killing innocent people...going to get your message across?" He said, his eyes brimming with tears." Don't do this... you aren't bad...deep down."

" You should have gotten away when you could, brat," he said, and he put his fifth finger on the chair, and the world stood still.