Chapter Text
In his dreams, Bakugo Katsuki was screaming. It echoed across the murky space of the vestige world, familiar and oddly reassuring.
Izuku opened his eyes and smiled, seeing Nana standing in front of him, hands on her hips, a big grin on her face.
“Welcome back, Ninth,” she greeted cheerfully, as if she couldn’t hear the screams coming from behind her cape-covered back.
“We are excited to see how things turned out,” the First materialized next to the only female holder and gave Izuku a genuine smile. “Your choice was truly outstanding and the outcome is… something else.”
“What do you mean?” Izuku blinked. He was blushing at the praise and the warm welcome. He hadn’t expected to see them again and he had already missed them, despite knowing them for a very short time. In a way he knew them since he inherited One For All from his mentor. They weren’t real people, sure, but they felt warm and kind, sharing advice and supporting him.
“Well…” Shimura started. “You might want to see the consequences of your heroic action for yourself.”
After that she stepped aside, her cape flowing behind her majestically. The First took a step to the side too, covering his mouth with a hand to hide his expression.
Izuku looked past them and froze.
He should have known. He should have predicted this.
There, wrapped tightly in tendrils of Black Whip, surrounded by Fourth, Fifth and Sixth, sat Bakugo, glaring daggers and scowling.
“Let me at him!”
“Calm down, Tenth,” The Fifth patted where Katsuki’s shoulder was under the tendrils of black. “He is here.”
“I fucking—” it was as if only now Katsuki noticed Izuku standing there. Midoriya offered him a smile, bewildered and confused about his presence. What was he supposed to do, having a vestige of Kac-chan in his head? Did this mean that he would be able to use his quirk? Would the real Kac-chan murder his face if he did? Could he ask for training from him?
“Deku,” Katsuki’s voice hissed like a piece of string lit on fire and connected to a big bomb.
Everyone present, Izuku included, tensed in expectation of more screaming.
“I am glad it’s you, you shitty nerd. You made this quirk your own and you better don’t hand it away like shitty candy or I’ll bloody blow up your ass.”
The vestiges seemed mostly amused, but the First cast an exasperated glance towards the Second, who still refused to face the Ninth. He would do it, in due time. And the First waited impatiently to see him interact - butt heads, really with the Tenth. As the current wielder of the quirk approached the still bound temporary wielder, the First looked over his shoulder towards the shadow of the Eight, who looked at the two teens with a fond smile more akin to proud father.
“I’m sorry I made your quirk go wild and hurt you, Kac-chan,” the boy with the green eyes said softly, reaching hand to grasp a tendril of the Black Whip. He tugged at it and it came loose.
“Fuck that, you shitty nerd,” the blonde pouted. “Now I’m here to make sure you don’t pull any sketchy shit on us.”
That made Izuku, up until now preoccupied by untangling the bindings, pause. Wide eyes flickered up and met the red which glared with dark mirth. A dangerous spark came to life in the green depths.
“I’m looking forward to exploding things,” he said and promptly stuffed all the wisps of Black Whip that he had collected across Bakugo’s lower part of the face before he could scream again.
“Good job, NInth,” the Fifth praised and slapped the boy on his shoulder, almost throwing him at the other teen.
For the first time in forever the shadowy, uncertain expanse of the vestige world, where ghosts of past users of One For All dwelled, filled with echoes of laughter.