Villain or Hero...?

A Talk With Beast

Izuku had no dream that night. He was just in the same room he was when he fainted, white nothingness.

Just torturing silence, silently judging him of what he had done.

When he woke up, he cried again, despite having cried in his dream the whole time.

He thought about the pain that both of them went through,

{"YOU BRAT! W-WHAT ARE YOU- ARGH!"} Omura Yuudai. A villain who just wanted to survive, not spending his live in prison, be free.

{"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"} Sugita Ryoichi. A kind hero, not well known, but everyone who knew him loved him.

He was the one who killed them. He was the one who killed them.

{"I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!"} He didn't know much about Omura-san, but he did know that he wasn't a bad man. But that didn't matter anymore. Because he was dead. Izuku didn't blame him for not forgiving him.

{"I forgive you."} That was what Sugita-san said, but did he mean it? He was a kindhearted person, yes, but that kindhearted as to forgive his murderer?

That was when he noticed something that he should've noticed much sooner.

... They appeared in his dreams, right? So he just imagined them saying that? Was that another cruel trick of his brain?

They couldn't just be illusions though, he wouldn't have seen their – or, well, a bit of Sugita-san's and Omura-san's – memories if they were justillusions made up by his brain. Or, at least, he was pretty sure that they were memories.

Another cruel aspect of his quirk then?

Seeing the people he killed and took their quirk from even after they died?

"I don't know if I should laugh at the cruelty or cry more."

He didn't want to, he really didn't want to–

But the desire to know more about his quirk(s) was bigger than ever.

He cried harder.

–

"Izuku, are you alright?" asked Beast from the seat in front of him.

"I'm fine," answered Izuku with a small smile.

A few days went by. The only rudimentary 'exciting' thing that happened was that a few children from his class speculated that he was the child that was taken hostage by the gun villain the other day. Bakugou argued that that couldn't be, because he was quirkless, useless Deku, how could he of all people kill a villain. Whereupon the others argued that someone – a hero (or vigilante) – could've saved him and that they just never said anything. Whereupon Bakugou answered – You get the gist of it.

Nobody asked him directly about it though.

"You don't look so fine the last few days, did something happen?" asked Beast with a worried tone, expression as stoic as – no, wait, you could see by the slightly furrowed eyebrows that he was worried.

Izuku laughed nervously. "Yeah, I really am fine."

"If you say so."

"Say, Beast, when did you first kill someone?" asked Izuku after a short pause, fidgeting with his hands.

Beast raised an eyebrow at him. "From where comes the sudden interest?"

"F-From nowhere in particular." He shoved the thoughts of Omura-san and Sugita-san into the back of his mind. It wouldn't really help him to break down in front of Beast.

Beast sighed. "I think it was with fifteen. My best friend wanted to commit suicide, wanted to take a swan dive off a building. I tried to talk him out of it, succeeded, but failed to grab him when he slipped. That was my first kill."

Izuku stared at Beast for a long time. "Izuku–" Izuku abruptly stood up, ran around the table to Beast and hugged him. "Wha–?"

"That must've been horrible..."

"It was, but I'm over it."

Izuku let go of Beast. "You're ... over it?"

"You need to accept it. You can't do anything about it once they're dead. Regret just makes everything worse, it eats you up," Beast said with a sigh. "I went through the whole 'I regret everything' phase, but at the end, you can't do anything about it. They're dead. They will never come back again."

"Beast... do you know how many people you killed?" Izuku asked with a slight frown on his face.

"57," he said without even thinking for a second. "I killed 57 people up until now." To be honest, he should've expected that.

"And you forgave yourself for every single one you killed?"

"I did." After all...

"I don't– How can you do that so easily?"

"It's not easy. After a while of killing, you, or so was it with me, at least, become numb to it."

They're villains.

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