Chapter Text
Bakugo was the top student in class 1A. He scored highly on all the schoolwork, performed excellently in the practical exams, and overall was shaping up to have incredible potential as a hero. The only negative thing any teachers had to say about him was in reference to his temper, but even that cruel streak had softened up since he started at UA. He was still full of fiery ambition and had frequent raging outbursts, but he was never excessively cruel.
He sat through his math class, absent-mindedly scribbling in the corner of the worksheet since he had already finished it. The majority of his class were still working away, scratching their heads and glaring at the paper. Sometimes he wondered how they had ever passed the paper exam to get into this school. Damn extras.
Everything should have been great - perfect, even - for Bakugo, but no matter how hard he worked, or how well he did, something always felt off . Like something was missing. And as much as he hated to admit it, he knew it was that damn nerd, Deku. He and Midoriya had been friends since childhood, Bakugo couldn’t even count how many afternoons he had spent at the boy's house when his mother had to work late. Something changed along the way, though, when Bakugo developed a promising quirk, and Midoriya ended up with none.
Quirkless might as well have become a slur these days, no one wanted to associate with someone so inferior. Kids acted like it might be contagious. Sometimes, Bakugo was ashamed of the way he acted about it, although he would never admit it. He’d made plenty of friends besides Midoriya, but Midoriya had only him. When he was diagnosed as quirkless, Bakugo distanced himself further and further, not wanting to taint his growing reputation as a ‘cool kid’ by hanging around Deku .
But for some reason, Midoriya wouldn’t take the hint. He still kept tagging along wherever they went. He still kept trying to talk at school. He still kept dreaming to become a hero. It was sad and awful, and not knowing how else to get rid of him, Bakugo bullied him relentlessly. He might have taken things too far. It seemed that Midoriya had grown quite the beast inside of him, and Bakugo didn’t realize it until it was too late.
He had been walking home from school the day after receiving his acceptance letter to UA, a large crowd of friends around him chattering excitedly about it when a police officer waved him over. Instantly on guard, he approached the detective who asked to walk home with him. “I don’t need your damn protection!” Not understanding the situation, Bakugo had shouted at him, but the officer was undeterred.
His mom let the man in and spoke with him at the kitchen table, sending her son off to his room. When he was finally called back his mom had red eyes and was clutching a tissue. All of his boiling anger faded away, and confusion and dread were left behind. The detective asked him some questions about where he was the night before, if he had heard from Izuku Midoriya, if he knew where he had been. Bakugo did a lot of shrugging. He hadn’t spoken to the nerd, he assumed he had gone home to cry after failing the UA entrance exam.
To his shock, the man informed him that his childhood friend had actually passed the exam with flying colors, much like himself. But while out celebrating with his mother, the pair encountered a villain who murdered Inko Midoriya, and Izuku used his quirk to retaliate, unfortunately resulting in the villain’s death.
Bakugo had stared at the man slack-jawed. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. There was no way Deku was capable of something like that, he didn’t even have a quirk! But he did, and he had been, and his childhood friend ended up being locked away and denied his right to attend UA high, all because he had tried to defend himself after witnessing his mother's brutal death.
With a start, Bakugo realized that he had accidentally let off a little explosion while he was lost in his memory, singeing the desk and spooking all of his classmates. The teacher reprimanded him, and he grunted in response, laying his head down on his arms.
He didn’t like how things had gone one bit. If Midoriya really had passed the exam, he should be here right now, whether Bakugo liked it or not. And if his quirk had manifested so late in a moment of panic, it wasn’t his fault things spun out of control and the villain ended up dead. Bakugo couldn’t understand why Midoriya had been punished for it. He hated it. It filled him with rage to think about the way the heroes had treated his old friend as a villain. And now it was too late, apparently. Shortly after his release, Midoriya had gone missing, and it had been so long that he was assumed dead now.
Bakugo sighed, sitting up as the teacher instructed them to pass their papers forward. He was finally where he wanted to be, but what did it matter if the system of heroes was so unjust? The class ended and everyone filed out to go to lunch. Bakugo scrolled through the news on his phone as he walked, Kirishima chattering annoyingly in his ear. One headline made him pause in his step.
Vigilante Deku, villain or hero?
Bakugo opened the article, skimming through it as he continued to walk. It must be just a coincidence, Deku was just a word, after all, it wasn’t exclusive to his nickname for Midoriya. Midway through the article there was an extremely grainy photo of this supposed vigilante and something about the silhouette tugged at Bakugo’s mind. He scowled, brushing it off and shoving his phone into his pocket.
Izuku Midoriya was dead and there was nothing he could do about it. It was all the hero's fault. Bakugo was determined to change things one day, so shit like this never happened again.
---
All Might sat in the teacher's lounge by himself, brooding over a hot cup of tea. A thin file rested on the table in front of him, a couple of loose papers sticking out from it. It was all the information they had on Deku and it amounted to nothing, more or less. All he knew for certain was that he was, in fact, Izuku Midoriya, thanks to the intel Aizawa had gathered.
Setting the cup down, All Might buried his face in his hands. What would his master think of him now? He had been too irrational and handed off One for All too quickly. At the time he had been more certain of the decision than anything else in his life, but now what else could it be besides a mistake. The only way he could think to fix this would be by asking the boy to return the power to him, but it was obvious that he’d never oblige given his current antics.
Beyond that, he’d have to try and save the boy from whatever torment he was living with, and if it came to that, All Might was even more at a loss of what to do. He felt like he was struggling every day to make meaningful connections with the students in the hero course as it was, constantly second-guessing himself and unwilling to really get to know them. Maybe it was a product of his failure with young Midoriya, but it meant that he was a subpar teacher at best. There was no way he’d be able to reconnect with the boy and get through to him at this stage.
His gloomy despair was interrupted by the sound of the door opening and he lifted his head wearily to see Aizawa. He raised a hand in greeting. “Aizawa. Good to see you.”
The other teacher simply grunted in response, taking a cup of tea for himself and sitting down across from All Might. He squinted at the folder on the table, then looked back up at All Might to assess the distraught expression on his face. He heaved out a sigh, leaning back and closing his eyes.
“He might as well hate us, y’know. Doesn’t trust anyone, either.”
All Might winced, knowing exactly who Aizawa was talking about. That was definitely the last thing he wanted to hear right now. “We need to find a way to help him. I have to... fix what I did.”
Aizawa snorted. “We? I broke several laws just to do you the favor of finding the boy and speaking to him. Who says I’m going to continue to put my career on the line for this insanity?” He cracked open one tired eye and pinned All Might down with a withering gaze.
“I... I guess you’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Look. I’m not even sure what you expect to accomplish here. The kid hardly even listened to me, and that’s only because he passed out in front of me and I was able to take him back to my place and patch him up. You’re the one he’s got history with, and you think he’d open up to you ? I doubt it.”
All Might grimaced. “You don’t have to be so blunt, Aizawa.”
Aizawa took a sip of his tea before opening both eyes and softening his expression. “I know you want to help him, but honestly I’m not even sure how to go about it right now. He clearly wants nothing to do with hero society and feels deeply wronged by it. If we tried to pin him down now it would only make things worse. We just need to wait it out, I think. He seemed to take in what I said to him - at least a little. It’s possible he’ll start coming around if we give him time and space.”
“Time and space in which he’ll continue putting his life on the line? Breaking laws and running rampant in the street?”
Aizawa shrugged nonchalantly. “I think he’s been doing a pretty good job. Beyond the whole ‘vigilantism’ thing, he doesn’t seem like a lawbreaker, and he certainly doesn’t go around killing people or anything so severe like the Hero Killer, Stain.”
“You told me he fell unconscious when you encountered him due to some serious blood loss and a festering stab wound on his side!” All Might admonished him. “It’s not safe for him to be out there, whether he’s doing good or not.”
“Well that’s not our choice, is it? Unless you want to get the police and Pros involved?” Aizawa asked sardonically, raising his brow
That shut All Might up very quickly.
Aizawa sighed again, looking down into his tea. “For now we wait, okay? I’m just as concerned as you are, although probably for different reasons.” His words were slightly weighted, he knew that All Might was stressed over the status of One for All in this situation, and if he was honest to himself, Aizawa hated that a little bit. Personal issues aside, the kid should be the primary concern. The number one hero had always struck him as a little egotistical and selfish, but this situation drove it home.
Looking away, All Might murmured his assent. He was filled unbearably with guilt and shame about this. Nothing in his life had ever made him feel so useless, like such a failure.
"For now you need to focus on teaching. I'll be taking the kids to a training camp soon, so you'll have plenty of time to organize lesson plans while we're gone. Make good use of your time. You need to work on your interactions with the students." Aizawa finished his tea and stood up, smoothing out his pants. "It doesn't matter if you're the number one hero or not. If you can't teach, you're no use to this school." With those parting words, he left the room.
All Might lowered his head back into his hands, overwhelmed and ashamed. Aizawa was right, and he knew it.