If he's anything like me - BakuDeku

Vigilantes Talk Heroes

Katsuki and Izuku strolled down the street, in the middle of the cracked road, searching for villains. Under normal circumstances, this would be considered illegal, since they were trespassing on private abandoned property, but Toshinori said this was the type of place villains frequented. He was against the two boys going villain-hunting all by themselves, but Aizawa convinced him he'd keep a close eye on them. Stealthily, and from a distance so as to not scare away the villains who would underestimate two fifteen-year-old boys.

"This is fun, don't you think?" Katsuki said, leisurely stuffing his hands in his pockets. "You and me, doing vigilante work together under the moonlight."

Izuku shrugged. "I guess so, but I kind of feel like I'm going to die. What if–"

"Ah, ah, ah! No 'what if's, remember?" Katsuki said with a devious smile. "We're just two dudes going hunting."

"You mean trespassing on abandoned government-owned land and acting as bait for dangerous criminals who could and probably will decapitate us the first chance they get?"

Katsuki's smile widened, and he nodded cheerily. "Yup! Sounds pretty fucking great, don't it?"

Izuku sighed, dropping his gaze to the cracked cement at his feet. He kicked a pebble, trying his hardest to calm his nerves. "I love hero work just as much as the next aspiring hero," Izuku said, "but I don't know how I feel about being a vigilante. They kill people, don't they?"

Katsuki shrugged. "Depends on the situation, but yeah."

Izuku shook her head. "It feels wrong to kill people, regardless of what they've done."

"If a rabies-infected rat was hurling at your face and you had the choice to shoot it with a pistol, would you pull the trigger?"

"No. It's a living, breathing creature. I'd find another way to deal with it."

"Okay, let me rephrase it. What if this rat has a brand new disease and if you don't kill it, the disease will spread and kill hundreds of people? What're you gonna do then?"

"...Can I knock it out? Or, like, contain it?"

"Yeah, you can, but it'll get up again. Sooner or later it's gonna spread disease. You'd have to knock it out again every day."

Izuku frowned. "Fine, I guess I'd kill it. It's just a rat, anyways."

"Alright, what if it was a bunny? Cute, gray, and fluffy bunny with a new deadly disease coming right at you. Still shooting it?"

Izuku grimaced. "...I'll do what I have to."

Katsuki smirked. "That's vigilante work. Sometimes you have to do things that others see as immoral. But it's for the greater good. Eraserhead, back in his vigilante era, killed a few villains, too. One of them was a human trafficker who had over a dozen children locked away in a cellar. If Eraserhead hadn't killed that villain, deactivating the mute-quirk that the villain was using on the children, then those kids never would have been found."

"But Mr. Aizawa could've just used his quirk," Izuku argued. "The villain didn't have to die."

"The villain was registered as quirkless," Katsuki explained. "And he was armed and dangerous. There are a lot of circumstances where a hero can't just arrest a villain. And there are some circumstances where a hero is abusing their power, doing more harm than good, and needs to be taken out."

"What?!"

"If a hero is, I don't know, beating their spouse and torturing their kids, are you going to let them stay in the public eye?"

Izuku frowned, shaking his head solemnly. "No, of course not. And taking their hero license wouldn't do much... I guess vigilantes are pretty underestimated."

Katsuki nodded. "It's because they're so underground. Big corporations like the Hero Commission don't like to acknowledge them, since those heroes don't help their funding. Heroes like Hawks, though, rake in a couple hundred dollars every time a civilian is saved."

"Jeez," Izuku muttered. "That's pretty corrupt."

"Yeah, hero society sucks," Katsuki muttered. "But that's why me and my Izuku are gonna be heroes. We want to change the game. Well, I do, at least. Izuku wants to be a vigilante like Eraserhead, staying underground where he doesn't have to follow any laws. I want to be in the spotlight like Mirko, Edgeshot, and Best Jeanist, which means I won't be able to kill people, but I want to change the public's view on heroes. They're people, too, not just shiny icons. They're just like everyone else."

"I think Mirko is doing a great job of spreading that message. I've always thought she was a great hero," Izuku said. "She's..."

"Badass," Katsuki finished for him. "And hot."

Izuku's face was swallowed by his blush, thankfully hidden in the night's darkness. "Y-yeah," he blurted. "But I thought you didn't like women?"

It was Katsuki's turn to blush, nearly choking on his own spit as Izuku called him out. "I don't!" he blurted. "I'm gay, but Izuku is bi, and he's got a fucking scrapbook of all the people he finds attractive. I just–"

"You looked through it, didn't you?" Izuku didn't even try to hide his boisterous laughter.

Katsuki blushed with embarrassment, hiding his face in his hands. "It's not my fault! I wanted to see the hype about the stupid fucking valentine's day special calender! And Izuku just happened to have Mirko's page right after Hawks'!"

"So you were looking for Hawks' nudes?!"

"If you two problem children don't stop yelling about my colleague's naked pictures, I'm leaving you here for the villains to find you," Aizawa said from his hiding place on top of one of the buildings. Immediately, the boys were stone cold silent.

"I totally forgot he was watching us," Izuku whispered.

Katsuki nodded numbly. "I think I'm going to die. That was so fucking embarrassing."

A few beats of silence passed. Izuku kicked another pebble. "So... that scrapbook. Where does your Izuku keep it?"

"Seriously, Midoriya?!" Aizawa hissed.

"I'm sorry!" Izuku cried. "I'm just curious! Mirko is really pretty!"

"She's great, but Hawks is better," Katsuki snickered. "Actually, the best in there was probably Snipe. Who would've thought–"

"Quiet! I think I hear something!" Aizawa blurted. The boys froze; Katsuki rubbed his hands together to generate some sweat while Izuku charged up fifteen percent of One For All.

Seconds ticked by. Nothing happened. Izuku frowned. "I don't hear anything."

"Yeah, I just wanted you two to shut up and stop talking about my coworker's naked bodies," Aizawa grumbled. "Now c'mon, we're almost at the villain hotspot."

Izuku and Katsuki groaned, dragging themselves forward.