Katsuki was frozen in place on the couch. The text at the bottom of the screen, standing out against the blue line it was written on, seemed to glare at him. A hollow feeling settled in his stomach as he watched the screen blankly. The glowing screen shined brightly against the dark lights of the room. His eyes flicked away from the news reporter to the picture displayed next to her.

He already knew who the broadcast was about. That was the only reason he was watching so intensely. The picture shown just proved it that much more. Curly, and slightly unruly green hair, wide and shining emerald eyes, and freckled cheeks. In the picture, Katsuki's old childhood friend was grinning and an arm was wrapped around the boy's shoulders. It was obviously cropped to just show the green-haired boy, but that wasn't the thing going through Katsuki's head. The reporter droned on, voice nearly monotone despite the issue she was talking about.

Then, Katsuki started seeing posters. The same picture with the name, a phone number to call, and the word missing written in thick, red letters. He watched from across the street, standing near the front of his middle school. He frowned at the sight of his childhood friend's mother frantically showing every passerby the posters with a scared, frantic look on her face. It wasn't his usual scowl, but his other friends didn't even look at him as they waved at him, walking away. They knew that he probably wouldn't glance at them, anyways. Katsuki was kind of glad that they didn't notice anything at that point.

Ever since he first saw the news reporting it, he'd been in a state of... blankness. Whenever he was at home, he'd shut himself inside his room with a computer, or sit on the couch and watch the news intently. He looked for anything to fill the shallow feeling in his stomach caused by what he denied was worry. His father had tried to get him back to his usual self, and so did his mother. Neither of their attempts worked, but he could see that they were at least trying. At school, he had stopped picking as many fights, but did have the occasional outburst for a sense of normality. The two guys who followed him around probably had noticed his change in behavior, but didn't mention it—probably out of fear for him snapping at them.

Katsuki's head was pretty much always in a half hazy, foggy state. That was probably why he didn't really feel himself stepping off the sidewalk. He jogged across the street and walked up to the woman handing out posters. She looked up at him, face lighting up in recognition and relaxing slightly as she greeted him.

The woman continued asking people who were walking by on their way to jobs and other places after Katsuki muttered out a greeting in response. Katsuki stared down at his feet as he leaned against the wall behind him. He glanced up a few times before picking up some more of the posters from where the woman had a stack of more posters. He continued frowning, purposefully looking away from the woman as she looked at him in surprise. He ignored the feeling of her eyes on him as he held out the posters, stepping in front of a business man a little as he did so.

News reporters and studios had stopped mentioning Katsuki's missing friend a while ago, around the time the friend's mother started standing on the corner across the street from the school with a pile of papers. That was probably when it started really effecting the blonde. He had kept thinking about why the case had vanished from the media, or why the effort going into it slowly faded into nothing. The case was just called a lost cause, and no one really knew of the green-haired boy.

Somehow, though, they still knew Katsuki. From the story of the sludge monster, and when he was saved by the number one hero All Might. It wasn't old, but like his old friend, it faded into the background of the media. More modern stories of celebrities and heroes took that place in the limelight. But Katsuki couldn't shake the thoughts that kept haunting him every time he was reminded of that friend.

Because the truth was, Midoriya Izuku vanished a month after trying to save Bakugou Katsuki from a sludge monster who was ultimately defeated by All Might.

X

"We'll see you tomorrow," Kurogiri said.

"Don't die or anything," Shigaraki grumbled, glancing up from under his gray hair.

"Right back at you," Izuku snorted as he opened the door to exit the bar. "See you later."

Izuku strode through the door and closed it behind him. He pulled the hood of his gray sweater over his head. Doing a quick check that most of his green hair was tucked away and hidden, he strolled out through the alley. He followed his usual route down side streets until he reached the main road. He jammed his hands into his pockets and slouched down a little. After a couple months of being a member of the League of Villains, he learned how to not stand out without over doing it like others did.

As he came to the area near his old middle school. He came to a stop at the corner, and frowned up at the large building. Students were leaving for the day, from after school clubs and just from hanging around on campus. Parents came by in cars and the students climbed in before driving away. Izuku barely felt any sting about that part any more. He turned back to facing across the street as the walking sign turned on and the crowd surged forward.

The men in business suits and woman in pencil skirts all walked around him, each going somewhere determinedly. Izuku simply blended in like he did almost everyday now on his way back to the small, cheap, and admittedly dirty apartment he was living in. He kept his eyes forward, but the bright color of ash blonde hair caught his attention.

He stopped in his stride, a few feet away from the blonde and his mother. The two were near the corner of a building handing out the missing posters he kept seeing. The ones he normally saw were drenched on telephone poles, in garbage bins, and just lying on the streets. He watched them with a blank face, emerald eyes blinking slowly and watching Katsuki's movements as he stopped people and showed them the posters. His mother did the same, except less forceful and with more stuttering.

Katsuki nodded at a man in a suit as he excused himself and he looked around the crowd again. That's when Izuku's eyes met his. Izuku quickly looked back down at his feet and continued walking, red shoes moving quickly across the pavement. He slouched his shoulders and wished his hood to be lower on his head, but didn't want to adjust it at the risk of standing out even more.

"Hey!" he heard the familiar voice shout.

He knew it was directed at him, but he kept walking. It would be bad if Kacchan actually talked to him, or worse, his mother. Despite being around cold hearted villains, he wasn't sure if he could flat out deny his mother's requests for him to come home like he was supposed to.

Shigaraki had told him that soon, even the cutest or most innocent face wouldn't be able to effect him and his decisions. The gray haired male always claimed that eventually, Izuku would barely be effected by anything. That not even the most violent or drastic action would make him blink twice. He wasn't sure if it was true, or how exactly it would happen.

As he turned the corner down a side street, away from the heart of the city and towards the more bad part of town, he glanced back at Katsuki. The blonde was looking after him, having seemingly lost him in the crowd. They made eye contact one final time before Izuku strode down the other street and was able to shake off the feeling of searching red eyes.

Back at the corner, Katsuki frowned. Maybe he was hallucinating