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Katsuki stared at the contents of the envelope he had just been given. It couldn’t be true.
There was a new villain in town, as there always seemed to be in a city this large. At first, he had seemed inconsequential, someone who Dynamight would bring down on some random Tuesday and be instantly forgotten about. But he hadn’t been. He’d shown himself as a formidable opponent, and unfortunately, not one who cared much for civilians. Half of his time fighting him was dedicated to rescuing random people that this guy put in danger, thankfully no one had died yet, but there had been some major injuries. And not only did this guy keep popping up over and over again, but Katsuki couldn’t catch him.
It would have been less infuriating if it hadn’t been for the fact that he hadn’t seemed to use a quirk a single time.
“Sorry Kacchan,” Deku had shrugged, “I’m kind of useless here. I’m a quirk analyst, and if there’s nothing for me to analyze, then you’re fresh out of luck coming to me. Have you considered it being an intelligence quirk?”
And that was it. That was all his quirk analyst had been able to give him. Which had been frustrating on so many levels.
But now…
“Deku!” He yelled, barging into Deku’s office.
Deku jumped in his chair, his knee making a loud banging noise against his desk, “Kacchan!”
Katsuki grimaced a little on the inside, he hadn’t really meant to scare him like that. But he wasn’t about to apologize for it now. “I need to talk to you.”
Deku leaned back in his chair and rolled his eyes, “If this is about Breakpoint again, I swear. There’s nothing I can give you about his quirk. If he has used it I can’t tell, and if he hasn’t there’s nothing to tell.”
“It’s not--!” Katsuki aborted his sentence, “Okay, yes. Maybe it’s about Breakpoint, but it’s not about his quirk.”
Deku raised an eyebrow, “Is this going to be a long conversation?”
“Maybe, I don’t know! Why?”
“I just clocked out for lunch,” Deku said, “If it can’t wait, then I guess you can join me.”
“What? No, we should just talk about it here!”
“Well, I’m leaving, so you can either join me, or you can wait here until I get back.” And with that, Deku grabbed his jacket and left with a grumbling Katsuki trailing behind him.
_____________
Deku came back to the cafe table with two steaming cups of coffee. He put one in front of Katsuki.
“What is this?” Katsuki yelled.
Deku raised an eyebrow over his own coffee cup that he’d been about to take a sip from, “Coffee?”
“I didn’t ask you to get me anything!”
“Well yeah, but I invited you out somewhere and I’d feel bad if I didn’t get you anything, so…” He gestured forward, “Coffee.”
Katsuki rolled his eyes but gave in. The coffee was exactly how he’d always order it himself, so that was good.
“So,” Deku said after a moment of silence, “What was so urgent that you needed to follow me out of the office to talk to me about.”
Katsuki sighed. In truth, he didn’t actually want to ask about this. Definitely not here, but he trusted Deku, and with this new information…
“You know who Breakpoint is.”
Hard copies of e-mail exchanges, sent to him anonymously, detailed several conversations from Deku’s personal e-mail that chronicled information about Breakpoint from before Breakpoint had even debuted.
Deku blinked in surprise, “Oh.”
And that was the final nail in the coffin. If he’d denied it or had any kind of valid explanation ready, Katsuki would have accepted it wholeheartedly, but he’d just said Oh.
“So it’s true then.” Katsuki struggled to keep his voice down. There was no need to alert a cafe full of civilians about sensitive information.
“I--” Deku looked away, “It’s complicated, okay? I can explain.”
“What is there to explain, Deku? Did he threaten you or something? I saw the e-mails.”
Deku’s eyes snapped up to meet Katsuki’s, “What? No. I-- He didn’t threaten me.”
“Then what is going on, Deku?” Katsuki needed to know as much as he could about this situation. Maybe Deku was more innocent than he sounded, and there was a way where Katsuki didn’t have to arrest him for, at the very least, failure to report.
“I-- We can’t talk about it here,” Deku said, standing up abruptly. “Let’s go.”
He started walking briskly in a direction, clearly headed somewhere specific, but definitely not toward the agency.
Katsuki cursed. He quickly threw away his empty coffee cup and hurried after him. “Hey! Where are we going?”
Deku glanced back at him, “Just trust me on this one. Okay?”
“You can’t just ask me to trust you after revealing you’ve been hiding crucial information from me this whole time!”
“Kacchan, please. It’s just somewhere where I know we won’t be overheard. By anyone .”
Katsuki crumbled, “Fine.”
He started having second thoughts when Deku led him through a maintenance door under a bridge. Then of course, that wasn’t the end of the journey because, behind a large electrical box, there was a tunnel.
“Is this some kind of hideout?” Katsuki said, not quite ready to commit to going through this tunnel quite yet.
“Kind of,” Deku said.
“Why is this not private enough for this conversation?” Katsuki said, frustrated. This all would have worked out so much better if they’d just stayed at the agency.
Deku looked down, “Because we aren’t just going anywhere Kacchan. I’m,” He took a deep breath, “I’m taking you to see Breakpoint.”
“What?” Katsuki shouted, “Deku, that’s something you have to warn me about! I don’t have any of my gear on me, and you’re just taking me to see a villain?”
Deku winced, “I know. But please, just trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
Katsuki wanted to yell. This wasn’t how this conversation was supposed to go. Deku was supposed to provide an explanation for all of this and then Katsuki was supposed to go back to square one. This was the only situation where going back to having nothing at all was the best possible outcome.
He decided not to say anything. He had his quirk, and that should be more than enough to take this guy down if he tried anything. So Katsuki marched down the tunnel, deeper underground than any tunnel should have any right to be.
Eventually, the tunnel came to a stop and a little room branched off to the side. The walls were coated in some weird dirty white substance that almost looked like clay but was probably mold or something else disgusting. But more noticeably, the room was empty.
“I thought you said Breakpoint was down here?” Katsuki turned back to Deku who had joined him in the room.
“He… he is, Kacchan.” Deku looked him in the eye.
“Where? I don’t…” Katsuki trailed off, “You’re Breakpoint?”
Deku nodded.
Katsuki couldn’t help it. He laughed, “No way. Where is he really, Deku?”
Deku frowned, “I am Breakpoint, Kacchan.”
Katsuki rolled his eyes, “Get serious, Deku, you can’t be Breakpoint, you’re quirkless.”
“Being quirkless is exactly why I do it.” Deku said, “Come on, he’s never once used a quirk and you never even considered that he could be quirkless.”
“Because you can’t do that kind of stuff when you're quirkless! You aren’t useless like I thought as a kid, but a quirkless person couldn’t do the kinds of things that Breakpoint has done! He’s hurt people for seemingly no reason, and you couldn’t have done that!”
“It’s not for no reason, Kacchan,” Deku rushed, “It’s all to get quirkless people recognized by the government. Most quirkless people can’t even hold down a job it’s so serious, I just want to prove to people that being quirkless doesn’t mean we’re incapable of doing anything!”
“Okay fine. Someone who’s quirkless may have the capacity to hurt people, but not you! I’ve seen you cry trying to kill a spider!”
“You think I don’t have the capacity to hurt people?” Deku asked.
“Of course you don’t! You like bunnies and fluffy cute stuff like that!”
“Well, those are some bold words said by someone with an explosion quirk standing in a room full of C4,” Deku said with the most serious expression that Katsuki had ever seen on his face.
Katsuki froze. He looked around again. “Are you insane? That’s enough C4 to kill both of us almost instantly!”
“And take out a good chunk of the building we’re standing under. I wouldn’t use your quirk if I were you.”
Katsuki didn’t want to accept it. He refused to accept it
But he had nothing else to go off of.
“Why?”
“Because you would blow up a buil--?”
“No! Not that, idiot! Why would you be a villain, it doesn’t make any sense!”
Deku’s eyebrows pinched, “I already told you, I need to make sure that quirkless people are recognized. Most quirkless kids are bullied to the point of extreme depression by their mid-teens, and the numbers are only getting worse! I just want to help!”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were doing this?” Katsuki yelled at him. He wouldn’t have helped him commit crimes, but if all he wanted to do was bring attention to an issue that really did need attention brought to it, then he could have helped Deku find some other, less destructive way to go about it.
“You weren’t ever supposed to know!” Deku yelled, “That was the whole point!”
Katsuki seethed, “It’s my job to arrest villains! Obviously, you didn’t want me to know! That isn’t--”
“No! Kacchan, you’re still missing the point. I didn’t want to fight you! I never did!” The fight seemed to drain out of him, and Katsuki could see how exhausted he looked.
Katsuki decided to employ a softer tone. This didn’t seem to be the time for shouting, no matter how much easier that would be, “Deku--”
But Deku interrupted him, “Kacchan, I’m right about this, you know I am. This is an issue that needs attention, and I’m just bringing attention to it. Once people realize how we’re treated, they’ll change. The public just needs to know exactly what happens, and everything will get better, I know it will. There’s just one more thing I need to do, and then I’m done. You can arrest me, whatever. I just need to finish my plan. Please.”
“Deku,” Katsuki’s heart had dropped into his stomach. “I can’t let you do that. What about all the people who are going to get hurt, who have gotten hurt? People do need to know about how quirkless people are treated, and it needs to get better. But this isn’t the way to do that, Deku. I understand--”
“You don’t understand anything !” His voice had started wobbling like it was taking every ounce of effort not to cry, “You are part of the problem. The way you treated me when we were kids, and the way you treat me now!”
“I don’t--!”
“You act like I’m breakable! Like I’m made of glass or something! You may not be the one trying to shatter me anymore, Kacchan, but I am not fragile! I never have been!”
“Deku, I--”
"Please!" The first few tears had made their way down his cheeks, with more soon to follow, if experience was anything to go by. "Please, Kacchan. I'm right! This is the only way! I've tried every other way I could think of! Social media! Protesting! I even made a freaking petition, and it went nowhere. People just don't know enough to care yet! With what I have planned, I only need to go out one more time, and depending on certain people’s cooperation no one will even need to get hurt as long as they do what I say!"
Katsuki had to end this. Deku's hopeful optimism wasn't going to get him anywhere in this case. People would get hurt, and nothing was even going to come of it. "It isn't even going to work! I'm sorry to have to be the one who has to tell you this, but people don't care, Deku! They don't! I agree that people need to know, and things need to change! But people don't care, and people don't change!"
Deku went still, and the steady downpour of tears continued. He closed his eyes. His voice was quiet, barely audible, “You think so?”
Katsuki felt his anger fade, “I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. People are going to get hurt. People have gotten hurt . You need to stop.”
Deku shook his head, “No, this has to work, it’s the only thing I have left.”
“People don’t change, Deku,”
“ Then I’ll make them! ”
Katsuki actually took a step back from Deku’s sudden outburst. “Deku--?”
“No, you’re right, Kacchan. Nothing is going to change unless I make them change.”
Katsuki tensed, his body getting ready for a fight almost subconsciously because something in Deku’s voice had changed. It wasn’t how Deku had sounded before. A second ago he’d been desperate, but now, he sounded almost… resigned.
“I don’t want to hurt them, Kacchan. But if they leave me no choice, then I’m going to have to.”
“Deku, I--” Katsuki took a deep breath, settling into combat mode deliberately this time, “I can’t let you do that.”
Deku nodded slowly, “I understand.”
“You do?”
“I do. You have a job to do. I get that.” Deku sighed closing his eyes, “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” Katsuki could kick Deku into next week if he needed to. Was he apologizing for what he’d said?
Deku nodded, reached into his pocket, pulled out what looked like a detonator, and pressed the button.
Katsuki lunged forward, tackling Deku to the ground and knocking the device out of his hand, but it was too late. It had been pressed.
“What did you just do?!” He strained his ears for the sound of an explosion, or something similarly destructive, but there was nothing.
“I’m sorry, Kacchan,” Deku says, and the worst part is, that Katsuki could see the devastation in his eyes. Whatever it was that he had just done, he hadn’t wanted to, but he’d done it anyway.
A deep pain throbbed in Katsuki’s stomach. He gasped, loosening his grip on Deku long enough for Deku to squirm free of his hold and get to his feet.
Katsuki tried to lunge after him again but was halted by the pain getting sharper and more insistent. He gritted his teeth, refusing to show he was in pain, but unable to move because of it. “What did you do?”
“Your coffee from earlier.” Deku said, “I just added a little something, just in case this is how the conversation went.”
“A little something?!”
“It wouldn’t have done anything if I hadn’t pushed the button! It was just in case!”
“Are you freaking insane?!” Katsuki didn’t really feel like there was a question to that anymore.
“I’m sorry,” Deku looked down, “It was the only way. Please believe me on this.”
The pain spiked again, and Katsuki had to fight everything in himself not to scream, but the pained whine that escaped from his throat despite his efforts told him he didn’t succeed.
“I-- I’m going to make sure you get medical treatment for this. You aren’t going to die, Kacchan. I just need you out of the way for a little while, okay?” Deku started out of the room.
“Don’t do this!” Katsuki tried to move but found the pain got exponentially worse when he did, but he managed to get onto his knees, “Deku, please!”
Katsuki knew he was just begging now, and he hated it, but he didn’t think there was anything else he could do.
Deku stopped, and for a second, it seemed like he was going to listen. To come back. To be Deku again.
“I’m sorry, Kacchan.” Then he was gone.
Katsuki just watched the doorway for a moment. Black crept into the corners of his vision.
Maybe this entire situation had been nothing but a nightmare. The Deku he’d known his entire life would never have done any of this.
But even if the pain he was in hadn’t alerted him to the fact that he was wide awake, then it was the fact that it actually did make sense. The little things really built it up and created a sinister picture.
As much as Katsuki wanted to say that he’d never believe that Deku would do any of this, he could believe it. Not only that, but he’d caused a good chunk of it too.
He had to go after him. He had to stop him.
He pulled himself to his feet, inch by inch. His breathing was ragged at this point, but he couldn’t let this stop him. He was a hero.
He went to take a step, but the pain spiked again, tearing a scream from his throat and causing his vision to go black.
_________________
When he next woke up, it was a week later, and in the hospital.
He was too late.
Deku was a full-fledged villain with a kill count. Katsuki hadn’t been able to stop him.
Katsuki knew he couldn't let Deku get away with it.
Deku/Breakpoint. Whatever he was planning on calling himself. He was going down. And Dynamight was going to be the one to do it.