BNHA: Shattered Dreams

Deku glanced down at the small piece of card in his hand as he twirled it around idly.

His face a was a mask of normality, betraying none of the turmoil that plagued him as his many thoughts raced and danced around in his head.

By now he had already practically memorized the entire contents of the card, having long since noticed that it was just a regular looking business card for some high end cafe.

Still, he'd been twiddling the card through his fingers for the last 30 minutes or so as he replayed the encounter that he had had over and over again. Simply contemplating on whether or not he really wanted to go through with this.

The two men had left him alone after saying their piece, letting him know that all he had to do was show up at the address on the card by 10pm tonight if he was interested in joining their cause.

The fact that they hadn't forced him to join them and threatened to kill him out right for refusing, was a small blessing in and of it self, though they might have simply left him alive so as to not alert the police and other authorities to his sudden disappearance.

Deku scoffed at himself for even thinking that his disappearance would be considered important enough to have impacted the plans of the two men in any way. 

Even if he disappeared, the authorities were more likely to assume that he was running away from home and would definitly burry his case under the hundreds of other more important ones that they would have had to deal with.

In fact, even if he chose to go right now and report the two shady men to the police, would they even need to worry about him choosing to speaking out about the encounter in anyway?

He was the quirkless kid who couldn't let go of his dreams and kept relentlessly chasing after unrealistic goals.

He was already known for haveing messed up the work of the pro hero's once before, so why would the authorities waste time on a baseless claim that he had been cornered by some shady men with one of them having a teleportation quirk of all things?

No the men had nothing to truly worry about and that fact annoyed Deku for reasons that he just couldn't understand.

The most frustrating part about the whole ordeal was the fact that he was honestly thinking about and contemplating whether or not to he should actually join them.

There was a part of him, a very small part, that resonated with those tempting words that had been whispered into his ears.

Since no one wanted to acknowledge him or respect his drive for wanting to be a true hero, why couldn't he chose to instead become a villain?

Every hero that he would go on to defeat would be a slap in the face of All Might's condemnation of his ability, and every time that he would manage to escape from the Pro Hero's grasp would be further proof that they couldn't be compared to him.

He would be able to show them all just how silly it was to believe that a hero's strength and worth was determined solely by their quirk and not by the amount of hardwork and dedication that a person chose to dedicate to making thier dream a relaity.

He would be able to drive a stake of regret right into the beating heart of the wider Hero society. He'd have shown everyone just how dangerous he was as a Villian and make them wish he had been a hero insteal, all while still leaving leave his mark on the world just like he always wanted to!

But was he really ready to commit to something like that?

Commit to truly turning his back on his principles and morality all to become a villain, just so that he could have his revenge on a society that treated and viewed him as nothing more than an eyesore?

With a sigh Deku stood to his feet and made his way off of the roof. By now the sky had been dyed an inky black as the stars sprinkled across the void were shining down on the world below.

Deku wasted no time after reaching the ground floor and began heading in the direction of home, as he was certain that if he continued to straggling along that his mom would be worried sick about him yet again. 

He had been trying his best not to let her know about the bullying and the torment that he had been enduring, but it was getting harder and harder to pretend like everything was fine.

In a way the only thing keeping him sane was his mothers gentle smile that greeted him every day once he managed to get home.

Deku had been so preoccupied by the thoughts of what his mother had most likely prepared for dinner that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, something that had become rather important for him if he wanted to avoid trouble.

He hadn't even managed to make it a couple feet away from the front gate of the school, before falling to the ground for no apparent reason.

In confusion he looked at his feet only to notice that at some point in time his shoe laces had seemingly tied themselves together.

his confusion at the situation didn't last long though as he was soon pelted with bits of trash, allowing him to figure out that he had fallen prey to yet another lynching.

"Did you really think that hiding out at the school till it was late would be enough to avoid us?"

Deku didn't even bother to respond, already aware that things would only get worse if he gave them the reactions that they were looking for.

He heard the sound of snickering and he glanced to the side, finally noticing the six or seven other students who had been loitering in the alleyway just out of sight.

Resigned to his fate, Deku simply lay there as a few of the students took turns punching and kicking at him, some even went so far as to use their quirks on him, and while none of them were dangerous in nature, some of them would definitely leave a bruise or two.

Thankfully it seemed that they weren't too interesting in tormenting him today as once he didn't cry out and whimper like they expected, they quickly moved on to frisking him, making sure to empty his wallet of all its money before tossing the now empty wallet to the ground.

In the end they left him laying there, beaten and battered as they went their merry way.

Deku simply lay there on the ground surrounded by the filth of the alley way as he was forced to lick his own wounds.

There was a time when tears would have been streaming down his face, but things were different now and the times had changed.

Deku stood to his feet, making sure to untie his knotted shoelaces so that he wouldn't end up flat on his back once again, and put his now empty wallet back into his back pocket.

As he was brushing off the dust from his school uniform, he noticed a small piece of paper that had fallen out of his pocket while he had been getting frisked.

It was the same piece of paper that had been given to him by the weird duo.

it sat thier almost taunting him for being so pathetic, but he simply pushed it into his pocket before continuing to true on home.

soon he was able to see his apartment building off in the distance, though he was confused as to why there seemed to be a crowd of people congregating near his home in particular.

His question was quickly answered as he crept closer and closer until he could just bearly make out what was happening from a distance.

He watched as his mother was on her hands and knees, scrubbing furiously at the mess that now covered the front of thier home.

The wall had been covered in spraypaint that spelled out some truly disgusting words and hurtful phrases. The words had been written so largely that it would have been harder not to notice them.

As if that wasn't enough, the perpetrators had most definitely tossed cans of trash against the wall as well given the awful swell and disgusting stains that also covered the walls.

The neighbors were all huddled around, whispering amongst themselves as they watched on quietly with pious gazes, as his mother attempted to clean the mess on her own.

Deku stumbled as he sudden found it difficult to breathe. He struggled for a moment but ultimately decided that he couldn't continue to watch.

He turned away and ran as fast as he could not caring as to where his legs took him as long as it was as far away as possible from what he had just witnessed.

Was this something that had been happening recently?

Why hadn't his mother called the authorities?

Why was she trying so hard to clean up that mess, and why hadn't she seemed bothered by it in the slightest?

Deku may not have been the brightest of students, but even he could tell that this most likly hadn't been the first time something like this had happened. His mothers movemts had been to familiar and the way that the neighbors simple watched on without saying anything was telling enough.

He had thought that he was lessening his mothers worries by not having her worry about how much bullying he'd been forced to endure at school, but just how much had she been protecting him from that he had never noticed before?

He finally came to a secluded park and sat in the swings as he tried to catch his breath. He wasn't sure how long he sat there but eventually he pulled out his phone in order to pass the time.

As he pulled out his phone, a small piece of card also came with it.

Deku stared at the piece of card for quite some time before he chuckled softly to himself.

That soft chuckle grew in volume and his restrained chuckled quickly turned into full blown hysterical laughter.

Once he was finished laughing, Deku's face broken out into a terrifying smile and his eyes gleamed dangerously as a hint of madness hidden deep within them started to flicker.

Maybe this had been the final tipping point, maybe he had already long been past the breaking point and was only now coming to grips with that fact.

But whatever the case, all Deku knew was that something in him had finally snapped.

Deku placed his hand over his mouth to stifle the laughter that threatened to overtake him once more as he bent down to pick up the small rectangular piece of card from the ground.

With the card in hand, he soon excited the dark dirty alleyway and with a pep in his step, began to walk down the street once more.

Though this time he wasn't heading in the direction of home and was instead heading heading to a rather secluded part of the city filled with high end stores and a surprisingly thriving night life scene.

In the back of his mind, Deku wondered if he should call his mother to let her know he'd be coming home late tonight, but the guilt of seeing her suffer all becuase of him stopped him.

He would simply have to apologize to his mother later.

Afterall, if things went down the way he hoped then she wouldnt ever have to embaresse herself like she had that evening that ever again.