Level Zero - Villain!Bakugou Rehabilitation

10 || Mournful Memories

Midoriya Izuku's POV

Most people assumed that if you ever met a high-ranking Villain, the only thought you'd have going through your head would be to get away from them.

If he was completely honest, Izuku had believed this himself for most of his youth.

Despite his glowing aspirations for becoming a Hero, he had learned ever since he was little that a Quirkless boy like him couldn't do anything. Really, he'd only get in other people's way.

However, even after years of hearing these truths and facing up to the facts, Izuku still couldn't help himself. He wanted to get into the middle of the action, to help everyone he could and improve the situation in any way possible.

This of course was never a logical train of thought, and even now after meeting his adored idol All Might and inheriting his very own superpower, it continually got him into trouble.

Just like Izuku's irrepressible urges to protect others, he also couldn't stop his tendency to mumble incoherently to himself, or take note of the people around him, Hero and Villain.

They were just parts of who Izuku was.

So his excitement when he found out that the illusive, feared, anonymous supervillain 'Ground Zero' had joined his class was off the charts.

Instead of being filled with apprehension and fear like his other peers, the only things running through his head were uncountable questions.

What role did he play in the League?

Why had he become a Villain?

How had he learned to fight so skilfully?

Were the explosives on his outfit a part of his Quirk, or hand made?

What was his Quirk?

But most importantly, who was he?

Izuku had come up with hundreds of possible answers for each of these questions, focusing on the last one specifically.

He got himself hugely wound up over it, coming up with thousands of variations for what Ground Zero could look and act like.

Seeing the young Villain for himself had left Izuku absolutely speechless for the most part, and instead of continuing to feel the nervous elation he'd been experiencing all day, it came down in a huge adrenaline crash.

The second Ground Zero walked through Class 1-A's door, Izuku had been hit with a dizzying wave of nostalgic sadness. It had been so strong and so vivid, he'd almost fallen off his chair and burst into tears.

With a slim but muscular build similar to the other boys in 1-A, Ground Zero had light pallid skin and routinely narrowed eyes of a deep scarlet hue.

His ash-blonde hair had hung low over his furrowed brows, and his mouth had been twisted into an annoyed frown.

The Villain had given the rest of the class a collective once over, before taking one of Izuku's friends seat in front of him. It was true, Izuku had been trembling through the entirety of homeroom.

But it wasn't from a sense of fear or concern for his own safety like many of his friends and Ground Zero himself had assumed, rather, it was shock.

Yes, that was the perfect word for it. Izuku had fallen into a shell-shocked state, and an unshakeable sense of foreboding dread weighed over his shoulders.

There was just something so eerily familiar about the Villain's deep voice, something so dreadfully recognisable about his sharp glare.

Now, looking back on that morning, Izuku realised where the similarities lay.