A Hero's Dirty Work (Villain Deku / Vigilante Deku au)

It was dark out. It was dangerous, and there was a terrified victim who needed saving every time he turned around. There was no money, and there was fame, no cameras. Just the whispers, the rumors, the conspiracies.

Which meant, of course, that there were no heroes.

Izuku was alone. Really, he'd been alone for years, ever since he learned he had no quirk. Now, though, he couldn't bring himself to follow after Bakugo's back, bravely proclaiming his goal to the world and facing the scorn with determination. Because he knew now, for an inescapable fact, that he didn't want to be a hero. Heroism, after all, is what got his mother killed.

The event awakened something in him, something that might have been a quirk. His obsession with quirk analysis and heroes, after all, was not normal. But, heroism as a profession had its limits. All he had ever wanted was to save people, help them however he can. And sometimes, he'd found, the law just got in the way.

He didn't hate the laws, or the police force that enforced it, but he now understood very personally there was no "one size fits all" set of rules when it came to suffering. In name, he supposed, he'd become a villain. He found he didn't care. Because in practice, he saved lives, he stopped the suffering of those who needed him, and he was there when no one else could be.

And that's what makes a hero, no matter what anyone else tells him.