#//Notes to add that would interrupt the flow of the above fjdg:

[shootstyleheroine]

Ideas for the villain verse:

           After stepping in to help save Katsuki from the Sludge Villain, Izumi had not run into All Might again. After the confrontation with Katsuki after the fact, she’d taken a different route, having instinctively started after her childhood friend, only to change her mind and go off a different way.

          The one who had found her in the end had been Stain.

          One moment she was walking through an alleyway, the next she found herself waking up on a rooftop looking right at the hero killer. Before she could think to run, he’d activated his Quirk and she found herself paralyzed. As terrified as she’d been, her mind had still raced to figure out what he’d want with her, why he would even think to focus on a civilian like her. Through her frantic muttering, she’d gotten her answer:

          Having seen the news report, he had decided to question her on why she’d chosen to step in, even knowing her Quirklessness would have gotten her killed. When Izumi had answered honestly–that she couldn’t stay away, even if Katsuki had hurt her, even if she had no real strength to fight the villain, because she saw he NEEDED help–Stain stated she was more of a real hero than some of the pros he encountered.

          When she’d tried to brush it off saying a Quirkless someone like her couldn’t be a hero, he would point out it was a lie–the world she so desperately wanted to be a part of, the things she’d always wanted to do, was not so far from her reach and anyone who said otherwise was lying. More so, it was better she not try to think about being a hero like the kind she saw. He would say that she had everything she needed to be the sort of person that REALLY mattered: someone who could keep people SAFE, someone who could make a CHANGE to society that would make it all better, even for people like her.

          At the time, in tandem with her being in a low point after dwelling on Katsuki and All Might’s harsher words, Stain’s declaration seemed so tempting to her. If there was a chance that even someone like her could make a difference, that she COULD help those people who needed it, she’d be a damn fool if she passed it up. She agreed, even if Stain warned her it would be difficult, even when he told her that once she took that step, she could never turn back. Even knowing the kind of man who was offering her his hand and his help in achieving it.

                                      She took it anyways.

          Even while anxious and wary at first through her visits, in the end, she came to not mind how the man carried himself. Harsh, strict, sure. But he also taught her how to fight. How to protect herself , through Quirkless combat, armed or not. The knives scared her and maybe the rhetoric he preached about conviction and heroes was something that set her on edge, but he was still the kindest person outside her and Katsuki’s families to her.

           Stain was still the only one who really believed even she could be a hero. He was the only one who truly appreciated listening to her near endless rants and observations about the heroes she knew, local and not; someone who would even answer back and supply his own thoughts to help further her own, things he noted about the ones he had met or hypotheses of his own. He was the only one who even let her study his own Quirk, weaknesses and all, and encourage her to tell him everything that came to mind. He VALUED her input, unprompted or not. He LET HER QUESTION HIM, and EXPLAINED, perhaps with annoyance, but it was better than being threatened. It was better than being told to shut the hell up because he didn’t want to hear it. He RESPECTED HER. He never retaliated or raised a hand against her, outside of a spar he refused to tone down for her, because he refused to think of her as weak. How could she ever dislike such an arrangement?

                   She honestly forgot just who she’d been dealing with.

          Ultimately, her happier views on his mentorship were shaken when he’d finally conceded to taking her out with him, on a trip to another city. He carried her on his back, talking with her about a local hero there. What his Quirk was, his battle and personal tendencies–Izumi answered each and every question eagerly, and more. Even questions on the best way to handle combat against such an opponent–she couldn’t help but assume it was one of their usual conversations. That maybe he was testing her and how well she remembered their lessons, though belatedly wondering what that hero in particular had to do with anything. And why Stain was asking in terms of him fighting the man.

         She found out in the nastiest way possible, when Stain suddenly dropped her and enacted each and every little thing she had said. And took the hero down with ease in front of her.

          Reality spelled clear right in front of her–remembering that, yes, this was the Hero Killer she had been learning from. The Hero Killer might seemingly have some sort of soft spot for her, but he was still every bit the ruthless murderer of his reputation. He was still the man who killed heroes he deemed unworthy of the title, whether she liked it or not.

          To ensure Izumi didn’t interfere, Stain had taken blood from one of the fresher curatives used to tend to her after a spar and paralyzed her while he took care of the hero. Rather than kill him immediately, it was a deliberate speech he’d made to the man, about how Stain may have physically brought him down, but it was the Quirkless Izumi who had truly spelled his ruin. SHE had been able to see through his weaknesses, his fighting style, his overconfidence and make it so easy, a Quirk wouldn’t even be needed to take him.

          Because of her O bloodtype, Izumi had been freed from her mentor’s Quirk sooner than anticipated, but before she could step in and help the man as she intended, he’d begun spewing a mess of hateful words to the both of them. At Stain, for the things he did and his Quirk, at Izumi, howling how it was impossible that someone so weak could ever manage such a thing, how LAUGHABLE it was. Was she so damn desperate to be worth anything, she’d stoop so low as to buddy up with the Hero Killer? Worse off, have him speak a lie than would at best be a damn joke?

           The more he talked, the more it made her falter. Tremble, as she’d have to hear such horrible things from a HERO of all people. Were these the kind of people that were seriously protecting others? No...it was just as Stain had said–there were people among the Pro Heroes who needed to be weeded out and disposed of. This had to be one of many who looked down on the Quirkless, why? Because they had a neat little Quirk? Because they didn’t take people like that seriously??

                                 What the hell was up with that???

          The more the man would scream and spew his curses at them, the more Izumi’s heart ached and her blood boiled. She could scarcely notice Stain slipping behind her, gently sliding a knife into her palm that her twitching fingers would instinctively grip until her knuckles whitened. She could scarcely hear the Hero Killer whispering his rhetoric in her ear all over again, fueling her emotions set in a harsh disarray. Reminding her of what he set to do, of what he promised her she could do to be a true hero to others. If she followed him, if she did what she needed to do now, she would be just that.

          He’ll admit it, he task he set himself to do, the task that she must do now, was immoral. Yes, it was cruel and sickening, and it WOULD ruin her. But SOMEONE had to do it for the sake of the people. SOMEONE had to FIX their current society, SACRIFICE and RUIN themselves for this cause, to RISK IT ALL FOR THE PEOPLE.

                                    Wasn't that what a hero did?

          In that moment, she hadn’t thought. She hadn’t hesitated. Stain’s murmured words, the man’s screaming, her own pent up rage and resentment all exploded. She found herself suddenly blinded to it all as she gave a yell of her own and charged forwards at him. The next moment she’d opened her eyes, she was straddling the man, his blood staining her front, his torn body and the glinting knife in her hands.

          Naturally, she’d screamed. Well, almost had–Stain covered her mouth and took her away before her distress could alert the approaching authorities of their presence. Leaving the corpse to them, the two would move to a more secure location.

          The journey had been numbing. Save the initial scream in shock, she’d found herself petrified, a cold, sick feeling that stuck with her and only grew the more her fer and guilt began to set in and fester. She found herself suffocating, trying to piece together just what happened. The more she’d dwell on it, the more she’d attempt to make sense of it all while listening to garbled things the Hero Killer told her, the more the startling realization would settle in:

                        She didn’t feel bad about killing him. Not at all.

          That was what dug at her, what clawed into her chest and gnawed at her heart. It was just so easy, impossibly so, like squashing a damn bug underfoot. 

           It wasn’t what she’d DONE that had scared her so, back there. No, she’d screamed from the gruesome vision of how she’d left the hero–no, the failure. The fake. The bastard parading around in a costume, claiming to be a hero, when the reality was he wasn’t suited for it. Ah...but that was putting it too lightly, wasn’t it? How could someone who thought such things be a hero? That a Quirkless person wasn’t capable of besting him because of what they lacked?? That she was worthless for it???

          That was something Kacchan and his little friends would say wasn’t it? Kacchan, those people, that ‘hero’...were these seriously the sort of people protecting others? Protecting the Quirkless, who could only look on at these powerful beings?? These unreachable, untouchable chosen ones???

          The more she’d thought about it, the more her heart broke, the more everything she’d known would crack and splinter apart. 

          Stain was right all along, wasn’t he? She understood him now. He alone stood against all of this, fought to change things for the better. He sought to purge those so-called heroes that were truly nothing but a mockery of the ideal. The fame-seekers. Those with such a big damn ego they felt they NEEDED to be at the top, looking down upon all. Those who only sought prestige and money, who didn’t really give a rat’s ass about those they were supposed to protect. Stain was working his damn hardest, but there was no way one man alone could stand against all that. There was no way one single man could make such an impact, not when all of society was against him.

          So she’ll become that too. This was the very thing her worthless life needed to be anything but something so simple. So meaningless. This was what she could truly do to make a difference, to ATONE for causing the very incident that had drawn the Hero Killer to her. Stain had been telling her all along, and she had been too damn close-minded, too damn foolish to see, to SEIZE the moment it had been offered to her.

                                            She’ll be his acolyte. 

          Better yet, she’ll take on his former name–the name of the very thing that had possessed her up until he’d finally set her down again and checked up on her, only to find her in a bizarre state of stunned awe and and tear-streaked panic all at once:

                                Stendhal.

#//You know; this was supposed to be a quick bullet point thing #//But I am incapable of that I guess lol #;mun has spoken #//Prolly not the first person to use this idea; but eh #long post for ts #hc #v; what’s a god to a nonbeliever? #blood tw #death tw #blood mention tw #death mention tw #//Notes to add that would interrupt the flow of the above fjdg: #//She does end up obsessed with Kacchan #//Tells Stain that she wants to see the sort of hero he will become; but above all SHE would be the one to end him if the need arose #//She has the double identity similarly to Stain in Vigilantes #//Izumi Midoriya all times except when the mask goes on #//Doesn't want to meet Kacchan face-to-face anymore though bc he can smell bullshit a mile away #//So she'll stalk him instead; befriend his friends if she meets them #//See what kind of heroes THEY are too while she's at it; make plans to deal with them accordingly #//Still is the fangirl as ever though; bc that will NEVER go away #//More to add/edit later #//Bc rn I gotta go mimis