Several days later, Shoto finds himself visiting Bakugo in prison.
This time, cigarette-less.
"What the hell do you want this time, ugly?" Bakugo snarls from his cell. "I'm getting awfully sick of you constantly visiting my cell to gloat the horrible shit you've done to Izuku and to society."
"I'm trying to figure out why nothing makes me happy anymore." Shoto says.
Bakugo raises a brow. "Oh?"
"I have everything I want, everything I need in life." Shoto continues. "And yet... it's not enough."
"I'm not sure where you're going with this." Bakugo says. "So you've realized that you're a spoiled rich brat. Congrats. You deserve a medal."
Shoto sighs, unperturbed by Bakugo's insult. "Not even visiting you to taunt you brings me joy anymore..."
"Get on with it, dipshit." Bakugo snaps. "Why are you here."
"I want to know why you chose a life of Villainy."
Bakugo's eyes narrow.
"Is this how far society has fallen?" Bakugo questions. "Have you gotten so bored with being Number One that you're considering becoming a Villain?"
"That's the thing, though. Society has fallen. It's fallen, so far, that even though I've done atrocious things in the name of a Hero, no one cares. No one. Cares. And I don't understand why."
"What's there to understand." Bakugo says. "Society consists of assholes."
"You're not helping." Shoto shakes. "I'm trying everything in my power to keep finding a reason to remain Number One, but... I don't want to protect these monsters anymore. I don't want to be a monster anymore."
Shoto grits his teeth. "All I do is hurt him. All I do is hurt Izuku. And I can't control it. I can't."
"I can't."
Kacchan chuckles. "What. Your killer instincts stronger than your human ones?
"I'm not human." Shoto's flames speak. "I've never been."
"Well, at least after all this time, you've finally become self-aware of what you are."
Bakugo grins maniacally.
"You're a fucking monster, Todoroki."
"It's not my fault." Shoto whispers. "I—"
"Should rot in Hell for all the shit you've done." Bakugo finishes.
"You don't understand."
"Oh? Are you seriously going to try and convince a person with a Quirk like mine that I don't understand what it feels like to be a monster?" Bakugo presses. "You gonna try and convince me that I'm not a monster, too?"
Before Shoto can reply, Bakugo speaks.
"Your Quirk's eating at you from the inside out, isn't it? Like a maggot. Tearing apart your psyche. Overriding anything human that's left inside you.
"Be quiet." Shoto replies quietly, even though it's true. Even though he wants it to stop.
"It happens to all of us, eventually." Bakugo continues. "Only, the more you deny it, the more you try to fight it, the worse it gets."
"There's no stopping it, really. That's the burden that us folk with Quirks bear. Sooner or later, our Quirk takes on a mind of its own. It affects all of us all differently, depending on what the Quirk is like, but. Like I said. There's no stopping it.
"Some people let it control their personality completely. Some people try to fight it, but fighting it usually just results in the Quirk's influence on the person getting worse somewhere along the line."
"You've probably been fighting it your entire life. Something I'm really not sure has been doing you any good, Todoroki."
"I never wanted to hurt him," Shoto weeps. "I never wanted to hurt Izuku."
"But you did. You did, because the demon inside you overrode all logic."
"I'm not a demon." Shoto tries. "I'm-"
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—-
"A monster, am I..."
"Yes... I suppose after all the things I've done to Izuku through the years, one could call me that..."
"But... I'm not like the rest of them."
"You definitely have bigger self-delusions of grandeur than most monsters out there, but. That doesn't change what you are, Todoroki."
Katsuki snorts. "Living in self-denial is bad, you know. When people start to accept what they actually are, on the inside. That's when good things will actually start to happen."
Katsuki crosses his arms. "But what do I know. It's not like I was born with a Quirk like yours, Todoroki."
