The Devoted watched Katsumi Bakugou from afar. He never talked to her. Why would he? One didn't simply go and 'talk' to a literal goddess. And oh, was she a goddess. His eyes took in every little detail. How her hair was never quite neat, yet always looked intentional. How her eyes narrowed when she was thinking. The way her lips drew to a line when she was uncomfortable, the way they curled when she was angry. He couldn't help but wonder how they would feel- NO. No. That was forbidden. He didn't dare touch her. He wasn't worthy. ...nobody was. Nobody was worthy of even breathing the same air as- Ah. She'd seen him. His goddess was walking over. He froze in place, standing as still as a statue. "The **** are you staring at, Deku?" Katsumi glared down at him. His heart soared. His goddess was talking to him! She was acknowledging his existence! At least... the existence of who he used to be. Who she still believed him to be. ...he remembered he had once been called Izuku Midoriya, but that was before The Fracture. Before his mind had... "Oi, are you as ****ing deaf as you are Quirkless?" The Devoted pretended to shrink back. He didn't dare meet her gaze, instead looking at some spot on the ground. "S-sorry-! I wasn't trying to bother you-" He mumbled. He didn't count this as talking to her, not when he was acting as his old self. It wasn't the real him, after all. He couldn't ever let her witness the real him. His goddess scoffed, shoving his shoulder and sending him stumbling back. He tried to catch himself on the wall, but tripped over his own shoes and fell to the ground. "Hah, clumsy too!" Katsumi barked a laugh. The Devoted just got to his feet, pretending to cringe. "I-I'm sorry-" She put a hand on his shoulder. Searing heat burned into his skin, easily going straight through his Aldera-issued uniform. They weren't exactly meant to handle the force of a miniature explosion, especially not Katsumi's. He could feel his skin starting to burn. It was agony. The touch of his goddess tended to be that way. To The Devoted? Katsumi was paying attention to him, she was hurting him and that meant she actually saw him, she actually cared enough to bother with him. She shoved him to the ground with a sneer, then walked away, leaving him laying there, clutching his shoulder. The Devoted grinned, holding his shoulder reverently. His goddess had seen him. --- The Devoted always smiled when he made sacrifices. He was doing it for her, for his goddess. He wiped the blood from his hands, looking down at his bloodied uniform with a hint of disgust. "...ugh. Blood does ruin my uniform. I'll have to clean this somehow." He disposed of the body, some unimportant classmate of his who had made Katsumi visibly uncomfortable. As he walked down the alleyway, he sensed more than saw the thing behind him. Something slimy and putrid smelling enveloped his body. "I'm just hijacking your body, calm down. It'll only hurt for about 45 seconds, then it'll all be over." Some sort of living green sludge was trying to force its way into his nose and mouth. The Devoted couldn't have himself die. Not while his goddess still needed to be worshipped. "Not struggling? What are you, sui-" His knife took the villain in the eye, and the sludge screamed. --- The Devoted watched impassively as All Might jumped away with the Sludge Villain.
He found heroes interesting, but he wasn't too interested in being one himself. He'd probably become a villain if it meant protecting his goddess from those who were unworthy. The Devoted turned, walking down the street. "...ugh. Now my uniform's even worse." He heard an explosion. --- As soon as The Devoted saw his goddess enveloped by that vile sludge villain, he ran towards her. It didn't matter if she saw how he was. He had to protect her, and that disgusting villain didn't deserve to be in the same country as her, let alone touch her skin. That was FORBIDDEN. He threw his backpack to disorient the villain, then darted in close, pulling out his knife. The villain saw him. "YOU!? YOU LITTLE TWERP-" "DON'T YOU ****ING DARE TOUCH HER, YOU REPULSIVE PIECE OF ****!" His knife took the villain's other eye out, effectively blinding him. The villain roared in pain, giving The Devoted an opening to grab his goddess' arm and yank her out. A shockwave blew the villain away. All Might. (Came way too late,) The Devoted thought bitterly, hiding his knife. (She would have been unconscious by the time you decided to save her.) He ignored the heroes berating him, instead staring at his goddess. Even dirty from the sludge, she was still radiant. --- "OI! DEKU!" The Devoted froze in place. Had she seen the blood on his uniform? Had she seen the knife? Did she know about his sacrifices? His goddess stopped a few feet away, glaring at him. "I didn't need or want your ****ing help. I don't owe you anything. Got it?" He nodded, staring at her. She turned and stalked off. The Devoted shivered. Earlier, he'd come into contact with her of his own volition. That was not allowed. He was unworthy. --- The Devoted found that his own blood was much easier to clean up than someone else's. He hummed to himself as he washed off his arms, the word 'unworthy' glaring up at him from his forearms. As always, he took a tiny glass vial, collected a small amount of the blood, and set it in a hidden nook in his bookcase, next to the others. Then he reached underneath his bed and pulled out his shrine. A picture of Katsumi took up most of the space, but there were other things too. A pencil she'd thrown at his head. A lock of her hair he'd managed to obtain. It had snagged on one of the buttons of his uniform while she was yelling at him. One of her favorite flowers, a dianthus. The Devoted knelt, bowed his head, and began murmuring. When I decided to actually start writing a fic for The Devoted, The Mourner, and The Lost, I knew it couldn't be in my usual paragraphs of information style. So I decided to go with an approach normal people use. The tn is ketchup I promise.
