Chapter Text
When Bakugou comes to, he is getting married. To the Emperor of the Hong Empire. While wearing a traditional wedding dress for female concubines. What the ever-loving fuck? Bakugou thinks. This is not the wedding he was looking forward to. However, in order to stay in character, Bakugou has to carry on with the wedding, all whilst trying to figure out what is going on. At the very least, Bakugou thinks, the wedding ceremony is almost over. He transmigrated after the actual getting married part, so he isn’t technically the one who got married. Bringing forth the foreign memories to understand which character he is, Bakugou realises something terrible. Most concubines didn’t have weddings with the Emperor. Only those who have strong family backgrounds tend to have weddings, especially if the Emperor really favoured the concubine. And as the Grand Chancellor’s daughter, Bakugou definitely deserved a proper wedding.
Realising that he is currently Su Mi, Bakugou wants to escape immediately. Isn’t Su Mi a woman? In order to fit the character, does that mean that Bakugou no longer has his… No, Bakugou refuses to think like this. There’s nothing wrong with being a woman, but Bakugou has a strong attachment to his dick. Worried, Bakugou tries to discretely check his crotch, but to no avail. When the wedding finally ends and Bakugou is sent to his chambers, he immediately strips, heaving a sigh of relief when he sees the familiar attachment at his crotch. Lying down on the bed with his arms apart, Bakugou finally has the mood to think about other things, such as the plot and Todoroki.
Recalling story Su Mi’s memories, Bakugou learns that Su Mi is actually a man, and the name Su Mi was merely an alias. His real name, of course, was also Bakugou Katsuki, automatically changing to match Bakugou’s own name. The Grand Chancellor was loyal to Su Mi’s parents, so when the current Emperor overthrew the previous Empire, he had smuggled Su Mi out of the palace. In order to kill the current Emperor, Su Mi acted as a woman, hoping to enter the palace as a concubine so that he could kill the Emperor in bed. The plan would have succeeded if only Rui did not poison the Emperor that night. After being poisoned, the Emperor had felt strange, calling the Imperial Doctor to do a check-up on his body. After all, the Emperor took pride in his ability in bed, so he did not want to sleep with Su Mi while feeling unwell. The Imperial Doctor had checked the Emperor’s pulse, only to find out that the Emperor had what was termed “Shenkui”, a deficiency of the kidney. This deficiency was believed to be due to loss of semen, and the associated flu-like symptoms and sexual dysfunction can last weeks to months. Naturally, the Emperor believed that he had this deficiency because he had too much sex, rather than thinking he was poisoned. As there was no real cure for this, the Emperor can only wait it out. And because the Emperor was unable to become erect anymore, he no longer slept with any of his concubines, causing Su Mi’s plans to kill him in bed to fall through.
And right now, as Bakugou lies in bed, he realises that the Emperor is probably getting poisoned now. However, he does not care. After all, he does not want to sleep with the Emperor, having already seen and checked that the Emperor isn’t Todoroki. Sitting up, Bakugou realises that he can sneak around the palace to look for Todoroki. After all, there won’t be anyone visiting his room tonight. Changing out to darker clothes, Bakugou starts to analyse the possible candidates. From the way the word “Hong” is written, Bakugou guesses that Todoroki must be one of the princes. After all, the Chinese character for “Hong” was the same Japanese kanji for “Todoroki”. And out of all the princes, Bakugou thinks that the twelfth prince might be the most likely candidate. And even if the twelfth prince isn’t Todoroki, Bakugou is still going to save that poor kid.
Sneaking out, Bakugou looks for the old rundown yard he saw during his tour of the palace. It seemed like the most likely place the twelfth prince is kept. And just as expected, Bakugou finds the small child curling in the corner of a small and filthy room. His clothes are rags, blood stains being the only embellishments. Bakugou finds anger bubbling in his blood as he sees just how poorly the twelfth prince was treated. As Bakugou approaches, the child immediately sits up, body tense as if ready to fight.
Bakugou raises his hands, palms out as if to show that he meant no harm. “Hey… It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”
The child only growls warningly in response, body ready to lash out if Bakugou took a step closer. From the moonlight, Bakugou can see that the child has black hair and is bald in some places, probably from when others had pulled his hair while bullying the child. But what is the most shockingly beautiful is the child’s electric blue eyes that seem to glow, reminding Bakugou of a wolf. Bakugou briefly wonders if the child is melanin-deficient, remembering the Korean variety show he was forced to watch with Todoroki.
Bakugou didn’t like children. Not really. They made him feel soft and weak, yet flustered and irritated. Kind of like how Todoroki makes him feel. But regardless of how he felt about children, at this time, Bakugou only wants to protect the poor child in front of him. But Bakugou isn’t sure about what to do. Thinking through his possible options, Bakugou decides to leave. Just for a while of course. Not an hour later, Bakugou is back with some fish he stole from the pond.
Cleaning out a small area in the room, Bakugou begins to start a fire, preparing to cook the fish over the fire. Quickly, the smell spreads through the room and Bakugou hears the child’s stomach growl in hunger. As expected, Bakugou thinks as he smirks. No one has ever rejected his cooking before, no matter how simple the meal. Bakugou senses as the child slowly approaches, caution clear in his electric blue eyes. The child stops just an arm's length away as if to ensure that Bakugou cannot suddenly hit him. With just the cackling of the flames being the only sound in the room, Bakugou appears to have forgotten the child, eyes focused on only the fish. However, the child does not let down on his vigilance. Once Bakugou is done with the first fish, he slowly puts it down before starting on another fish.
After making sure that Bakugou’s hands are both focused on the other fish, the child quickly snatches the cooked fish before running back to his corner in the room. Bakugou grins at his actions, proud that his plan is working. The child quickly swallows the fish and is soon back an arm’s length away from Bakugou.
This time, however, Bakugou does not give the fish to the child, instead biting into the fish himself. In all honesty, Bakugou was going to give the fish to the child. However, his own stomach is grumbling, and Bakugou realises that this body had yet to have dinner.
Seeing the fish he was eyeing get eaten by someone else, the child immediately whines, sad and pitiful. Bakugou feels his heart melt, shredding some of the meat off and offering it to the child. Their eyes meet as the child seems to assess if he could trust Bakugou. After what seems like forever, the child seats next to Bakugou, taking the offered meat. Bakugou smiles, giving the rest of the fish to the child. He can wait and eat the next fish.
“This is the last fish, alright? You shouldn’t eat too much at once.” Bakugou says softly. The child makes a sound of displeasure, making Bakugou laugh. “Don’t worry, kid. I’ll give you more tomorrow.”
The child answers with a grunt. Looking at the child, Bakugou wants to immediately adopt him. However, the protagonist, Rui, has probably just been reborn. This meant that he couldn’t deviate too much from what the protagonist knows as his previous life. He needed to wait until Rui does something different enough such that any changes from his previous life appear to be butterfly effects from his own actions.
But waiting for that to happen and letting the child suffer in this cold and dirty room until then is too cruel, Bakugou thinks. At the same time, Bakugou isn’t sure if the child will follow him either. To come up with a plan to be able to bring the child back to his imperial quarters, Bakugou starts to recall whatever he could from both the story given to him by The Writer and from the memories of the original Su Mi.
Apparently, due to the lack of care by the Emperor and the fear the servants have due to his blue eyes, the twelfth prince was uncared for almost all of his life. When the twelfth prince was still a baby, there was a palace maid that was very close to his mother. Hence, she had fed the child and cared for him minimally for his mother’s sake. However, once the child was able to walk on his own, she stopped caring, deciding that the child can already fend for himself. As the child is still of royal blood, the servants could not directly kill the child despite their fear, instead choosing to beat and neglect the child. This empty yard had belonged to a concubine that offended the Emperor. After the concubine was sentenced to death by poison, the yard became abandoned. Hence, the twelfth prince escaped the servant quarters to come to live here. Here, the servants would not come and hit him. However, he could not hide here forever. Now and then, he would sneak out to steal food from the kitchen. But more often than not, he would be caught by the servants and concubines who would beat him. Learning the child’s situation, Bakugou becomes furious, anger emanating so much it scares the twelfth prince who scatters away to his corner in the room.
Noticing the child’s reactions, Bakugou quickly forces himself to calm down, giving the child a rare apology. However, the child remains wary. Sighing, Bakugou realises that he probably couldn’t smuggle the child into his imperial quarters as he won’t cooperate. Instead, Bakugou decides that he could at least clean this place up so that the child can have a proper place to rest. And so, Bakugou spends the rest of the night cleaning and smuggling blankets into the room. By daybreak, the child seems to have deemed Bakugou as safe, not rejecting when Bakugou cautiously steps forward to carry the child. Frowning at the bones he could feel, Bakugou gently lays the child into the makeshift bed made of blankets and tucks the child in.
“Go sleep,” Bakugou says as he pats the child’s head. “I’ll come back later.”
With that, Bakugou quickly sneaks back to his own room. Despite how much he wants to just sleep, Bakugou has to quickly get clean and get dressed. After all, he still has to go give the Empress Dowager a morning greeting. When Bakugou gets to the Empress Dowager’s imperial quarters, there are already many other imperial consorts waiting outside for the Empress Dowager to allow them inside.
Seeing his late arrival, the other imperial consorts start to mock him.
“First day and she’s already late.”
“So disrespectful.”
“Indeed. Just because she’s the Grand Chancellor’s daughter, she thinks she’s so superior!”
“Ha! She doesn’t realise that she’s only an adopted one. Being so stuck-up, we’ll see the Empress Dowager teach her what is her place!”
“Now, now. She must have been tired. It was her wedding night after all.” A gentle voice says. Although the words appear to be trying to calm the other imperial consorts, the words only seem to further enrage them. After all, it reminded them that they had a new competitor and that they were losing favour. Usually, the Emperor took in concubines without a wedding, several at a time too. However, for Bakugou, the Emperor had held a wedding and she is the only one entering this time too. This meant that the Emperor is biased towards Bakugou, making the other imperial consorts anxious and jealous. The more the Emperor favoured Bakugou, the less favour the other concubines will get. For an Emperor with over a thousand women in his harem, many of these concubines have not slept with the Emperor in years. If they couldn’t sleep with the Emperor, they cannot conceive a son, and their chances of being Empress or Empress Dowager will be diminished. Hence, they saw Bakugou as a huge threat to themselves. So before Bakugou became too powerful for them to compete against, they took the opportunity to beat him down now while they can.
But despite their increased unhappiness at the words, the other concubines kept quiet, instead turning to praise the woman who appeared to speak up for Bakugou. From their words of flattery, Bakugou identifies the woman as Imperial Consort Fu. Compared to the other concubines, Imperial Consort Fu has the greatest position and power, especially since she came is the Empress Dowager’s relative, making the Empress Dowager her strongest pillar of support in the harem.
Soon, the eunuch invites them into the Empress Dowager’s imperial quarters, Imperial Consort Fu leading all the concubines.
“Greetings to the Empress Dowager,” the concubines chorus as they bow to the Empress Dowager.
“You may rise,” the Empress Dowager replies. “Come here, Fu Yao. Come and have breakfast with me.”
Imperial Consort Fu smiles and bows respectfully, “Yes, Empress Dowager.”
And for the whole meal, the Empress Dowager only speaks to Imperial Consort Fu while the other concubines stand and watch. Bakugou knows that this is a show meant for him. While he also has a strong family background, he is nothing in the harem. And even if the Emperor gave him a proper wedding, he should not covet the place as Empress because the Empress Dowager supports Imperial Consort Fu.
In his mind, Bakugou rolls his eyes at the Empress Dowager. The Emperor is already erectile dysfunctional, so there is no way he can fight with the other concubines here. Besides, he had no interest in becoming the Empress either.
When their meal is finally finished, Bakugou had thought that he was finally free. Except, surprisingly, the Empress Dowager addresses him.
“Su Mi. You are new here, so there are many rules in the harem you may not understand. If you have any queries, ask Fu Yao.” The Empress Dowager says, a final reminder that she favoured Imperial Consort Fu, before they are all allowed to leave.
Bakugou wants to immediately dash off, but he remembers that Rui had waited for him in his previous life. Then, Rui had wanted to ensure that the woman he loves was still “pure, stopping Su Mi to have a talk. After he was reborn, it was not stated if Rui came to check again, so Bakugou has to act accordingly. Walking down the designated path back to his imperial quarters, Bakugou sees Rui. But this time, Rui does not stop him. Instead, after seeing Bakugou, Rui had to hide his anger, turning and pretending that he did not see Bakugou. And so, Bakugou continues walking. However, as gets closer to his own imperial quarters, Bakugou hears somebody cussing loudly. A thought flashes in Bakugou’s mind, and he quickly moves towards the source of the sound.
As expected, Bakugou sees a palace maid kicking the twelfth prince while the child clutches tightly onto a piece of bun wordlessly. In the past life, as Su Mi had been stopped by Rui, this situation had gone unnoticed. But this time, as Rui did not stop Bakugou, Bakugou comes by in time to stop the beating.
Seeing Bakugou approach, the palace maid quickly escapes, worried that Bakugou will punish her. After all, Bakugou is new here, and the palace maid isn’t sure how Bakugou will react. Ignoring the palace maid, Bakugou instead goes to the child who only holds on to his bun tighter.
“I’m not going to steal your bun, kid,” Bakugou says as he carries the child who does not move. This is enough butterfly effect, Bakugou thinks as he decides to bring the child back to the imperial quarters. From now on, Bakugou is going to adopt this child.
“What name should I give you?” Bakugou wonders as he looks at the child in his arms. He needs a name that sounded Chinese so that it will not be too strange, but Bakugou also wanted to give the child a Japanese name. In the end, Bakugou decides on the name ‘緱’. It stood for the cord binding the hilt of a sword. Not only did the kanji read similarly as Gou in both Japanese and Chinese, but the meaning also suited the child. Furthermore, the pronounciation resembled Bakugou’s own surname, making a tangible connection between them. “From now on, you’re called Gou, okay?”
Hearing the name, the child looks up to meet Bakugou’s eyes as if to acknowledge the name.