Shadow Monarch Hero: Viridian (SMH: Deku rewrite)

School Day

"You!" A shout echoed from behind Izuku as the massive structure before him garnered his awe. But he couldn't spend too long admiring the towering heights of UA, or its majestic gardens that lined the walkways to the school's entrance, because someone was behind him.

"Bakugo..." Izuku turned on his heel to face the wrath-filled blonde.

Momo tensed up beside him, stepping back from the situation, but ready to throw herself at Bakugo if the chance arose. She knew this was Izuku's battle, so she'd give them space for now, it was what he wanted, much to her chagrin.

"You don't belong here!"

"Why?" Izuku asked simply, his voice level despite the pounding of his heart. He wasn't scared, not in the slightest. By this point, he and Bakugo, if nothing else, were equals. But in reality, Izuku far outpaced his childhood friend. He was filled with emotion, desperately trying to remain calm, for the sake of maturity.

"Extras don't belong at a place like this!"

"I don't think it's fair to call me that." Izuku responded. "I helped clear a Recursive Gate for my Entrance Exam. I survived a freak accident in a Gate. I went through a Reawakening and got a Quirk. I've been through more than enough to no longer be an 'extra.'"

Bakugo scoffed. "Once an extra, always an extra! It's not about what you have now! You'll always be the same person deep down!" By now the surrounding trickle of students had noticed the altercation, gathering around the duo in curiosity. Bakugo's shouting never helped.

"You're right. I am the same person. The same person who wants to provide for his family, and save lives." Izuku shook his head. "We were friends once. Good friends. The type of friends that basically lived with each other. We were almost brothers. Why? Why throw all that away for some stupid pride?"

"Pride?!" Bakugo shoved his finger into Izuku's chest. "You don't know a damn thing about pride! Just some worthless E-Rank who pathetically threw himself into Raiding Teams so he could scrounge around in the dirt for money! You don't know a damn thing!"

"Yeah? And do you know what it's like to have death breathing down your neck? Do you know that feeling so completely that you remember it when you go to sleep and wake up?" Izuku spat out, all of his pent-up anger and sadness spilling out. "You're right. I don't know alot about pride, not like you, because I realized, in all the times I'd come close to the reaper, pride means nothing when you're seconds away from death." Izuku's aura began to leak out, Monarch's Presence being activated, freezing Bakugo in place. "I can take pride in avoiding death time and time again. And I can take pride in saving people from a Gate that held thousands of High-Orcs. So yeah, you can keep your pride about always being Number 1, whatever that means. But I know that I wasn't born with some silver spoon in my mouth, yet I subverted death day after day. You've never faced that thing down, not like me. In my mind, that makes you the extra."

Every capillary in Bakugo's body damn-near bursted with rage. It was so intense, that even Monarch's Presence was swept aside.

"SCREW YOU!" He screamed, swinging his fist at Izuku's face.

Izuku just leaned back. "You really can't just put this behind you? You can't think rationally for even a moment? Forget the past. You and me both. Let's just go back to being friends."

But Bakugo didn't listen, swinging again and again and again, growing more frustrated with each miss. Izuku wasn't retaliating, just avoiding as he tried to speak with him.

"I SAID SCREW YOU!" His open palm flew towards Izuku, who delicately slapped it aside, directing it upwards, so that the explosion that erupted from his hand hurt no one.