Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku stared at the scene before him. It was his fault, after all. He had to watch.

The sludge villain that had escaped from All Might because Izuku clung to his leg like an unwanted cancerous lump was in the middle of the alley, laughing maniacally as strangely familiar explosions set the world on fire around him. The villain's long, constantly shifting limbs arched through the air unimpeded as the heroes hung back.

Unconsciously, even as he stood there in shock with his hands clasped over his mouth to keep in his cries, his brain kicked in and started analyzing everything out of habit. The villain had been huge when it was attacking him and now, but it had fit in a water bottle All Might had stuffed him in and lived.. That meant that the core of him was something small, and the rest was superfluous even if he could control the bits or his molecules could withstand some serious compression.

He was hard and sticky when he wanted (when he was moving?) or was being attacked but was liquid when he needed to shift, some type of non-newtonian liquid? If that was the case the best bet would be to have Backdraft pour as much water as possible into him to dilute his ability to harden?

That or he was also much larger than he had been in the underpass, and as a result he looked less together, more strung out and stringy so there was likely a max size he could expand to, find a way to stretch him so that he lost the ability to form what shapes he wanted? If Kamui and Deathgoro could drag him to the side, get Mountain Lady to hold another part of him maybe?

While the heat from the flames wasn’t impacting him badly, he was also avoiding the fire by staying stationary in the center and not trying to run, so maybe he wasn’t completely immune? Have Kamui form a large, solid barrier and have Deathgoro there to help corral him towards the fire, while the others bought the kid time to breathe…

That or even just throwing a butane refill bottle from the nearby cigarette shop at the creature and letting the middle schooler’s quirk work to their advantage! They were in the middle of a shopping district!

Why weren’t these heroes using their surroundings?

There were so many options with the heroes here…

Why weren’t they doing anything?

Izuku shuddered as he remembered the blackness caused by the lack of air, the feeling of that guy climbing down his throat and wanted to scream at them to do something. The other middle schooler that he had…

The villain twisted, letting him get a better view of the middle schooler, and the dirty blonde hair highlighted by explosions… That was…

The eyes, all that was really visible of the boy’s face.

That was Kacchan!

And for the first time that Izuku could remember, Kacchan looked…

Afraid.

Like Izuku felt most of the time.

Like he was screaming help and no one was coming.

Izuku’s foot shifted, and his brain kicked into overdrive.

Everything that he had ever learned and calculated about heroes and villains and quirks and fights raced through his ideas, his plans, the shops and the rest of the situation, and Izuku moved.

He was useless, but Kacchan wasn’t. He just needed to buy Kacchan some air and some room, and Kacchan could take this guy.

He darted to the side of the crowd like Kacchan and his explosions were nipping at his heels and he briefly catalogued and ignored All Might slumped at the side clutching the lightpost. If he wasn’t going to help just because he was powerless (even though he was still better trained and could convince all the other heroes to actually do something), forget him.

Izuku slid to his knees near the small cigarette shop and reached in to snag a couple of the butane refills, shoving them in his pockets even as he scrambled back to his feet. He grabbed the heaviest looking shot glass on display right at the window and darted back through the hovering crowd, praying that he’d used that time well.

Kacchan didn’t have long left to breathe.

He burst through the line of heroes, through the flames and right at the creature. He ignored the shouts and the calls naming him an idiot and telling him to stop behind him. That wasn’t anything he didn’t already know.

He was useless, but this would work to give Kacchan time to move!

Please let this work!

With all his might Izuku braced and threw the shot glass right at Backdraft’s hand.

Izuku was weak and useless enough that it didn’t do any damage, but just like he calculated it had enough force and combined with the angle and surprise, Backdraft instinctively swung his arm right where Izuku needed, slamming the full force of his water spout into the villain.

The villain shrieked and their limbs practically melted towards the floor and that gave Izuku just the opportunity he needed.

He’d seen the villain move earlier, but the thing that was consistent now with Kacchan throwing explosions along with when Izuku had been scratching towards their face was that they squinted their eyes, and those had been floating in the bottle too. They were part of the core of the villain, and were hopefully a weak spot that he could exploit.

Izuku spun, twisting to use the extra momentum of the spin to give his bag an extra burst of power as he launched it right at the villain's face. The villain, already slow from the blast of water wasn’t able to block it at all, especially when the flap came loose and all of Izuku’s things poured out. Luckily something stabbed the guy right in the eye and he reared back, giving Izuku a perfect opening, even as the villain’s flinch was bad enough that they reared back, releasing Kacchan’s upper torso.

He almost cried with joy as Kacchan took a huge gulping breath of air, and he couldn’t help the half relieved half terrified shout of “Kacchan!” that escaped his lips.

Izuku leapt on the center mass, fingers ripping at the gunk right over Kacchan’s hand. The villain was weaker than he had been before given the water and shock.

“Why are you here?!” Kacchan screamed at him, and there were tears in Izuku’s eyes as he shouted: “You looked like you were asking for help!” and pulled the lighter fluid out of his pocket, grabbed Kacchan’s hand through the diluted sludge, and with all his strength, planted his foot on the sludge monster for leverage to push, and jammed them both right into the villain's mouth as it was coming back down.

“As hot as you can!” he yelled.

Kachan really was amazing, and he caught on quick. Right as Izuku popped the safety lid and jabbed the pressure seal to release the gas, the other boy let loose the biggest blast Izuku had ever seen him do. And it hurt, even as the resulting explosion threw Izuku back he could already feel pain spiking up his arm, worse than any burn Kachan had given him before, and the last thing that he heard before he hit the ground and everything was the villains pained, terrified shrieks, and Kachan’s bellow.

Now, all he could do was hope he wasn’t entirely…

Useless...

XxXxX

Toshinori stared horrified at the collapsed form of the small quirkless boy on the ground and felt a deep, horrible shame take over his very soul. That this child, this scared, trembling child had been willing to act...

To see the other boy, standing in the alley, screaming in rage and defiance at the monster that had just held him captive, quirk flashing in a powerful arc as he stood his ground where the professional heroes held back…

“I WON’T LET YOU BEAT ME! I’M GOING TO BE THE BEST HERO THERE EVER WAS! I’LL TURN YOU TO CINDERS! COME ON!” The blonde boy screamed.

He was so pathetic.

All Might felt a greater humiliation than he ever had in his life.

That civilians... that children were more willing to move, to stand and help than him. More willing to risk themselves the way Pros should be doing instead…

Pathetic...

Toshinori grit his teeth and transformed.

The burn that he felt when using One-for-All lately intensified about a thousand times given how far he had already pushed himself this morning.

It didn’t matter. Because those two boys needed help, and there was a fire to extinguish.

He rushed forward, grabbing the quirkless child and putting out the small smoking spots still on his clothing. He scooped up the other boy in the other hand and deposited them safely towards the mouth of the alley by the other heroes. Even if he had been going fast, it was very concerning that the first boy hadn’t even twitched when All Might had put out the smoldering spots on him, especially given the way that he hit his head in the backlash from the rather expansive explosion that had freed the second boy.

All Might didn’t have time to worry about that yet though as he slowed to stand before the sludge villain where the blonde boy had stood even seconds before. There were calls of his name and exclamations behind his back, and in response he threw back his head and laughed. “It is alright, for I am here!”

He faced the reprehensible villain who, despite shrieking in rage and pain, was still throwing his arms everywhere--still a threat. “ALL MIGHT!”

“DETROIT SMASH!” he cried in return, taking the villain out with a single punch that pushed the super-heated air of the area up into the sky.

He smiled as it caused a cloud burst that scattered rain over the fires, putting them out.

With a force of will he hadn’t felt in years, he pushed back the dizziness that had him tilting for a moment.

He could not show something as pathetic as falling.

Not here.

Not now.

He turned to the awestruck crowd, and widened his smile even more. The other heroes were just staring, shocked as well, when they should be checking for injuries related to the fire, so Toshinori paid them only the bare hint of attention before rushing to the boys, specifically the quirkless one. The blonde was awake and wide eyed, staring at him in awe.

There were burns up and down the green haired boy’s arms and along his face. They mottled his skin, a shiny level of white and red that was definitely a bad sign. And his head… Toshinori ran his hand lightly along the skull where it had impacted the ground and bit back a curse as they came away bloody.

He looked at the nearest hero, something Wood if he remembered correctly, which he might not… There were too many rookies these days. “How far out are the ambulances?”

“I’m not sure!”

Toshinori glanced down. “Not soon enough then, I am taking this boy for medical attention at Hoshu General! See if you can find his wallet or phone from his bag so we can notify his family! Make sure to check for other casualties!” Normally he wouldn’t think it had to be said, but he was feeling slightly uncharitable towards these Pros (and himself) right now.

“Sir!” Wood Boy and the rest snapped to attention, saluting him. They really shouldn’t, he was just another hero…. While it was customary to salute the police and public officials as symbols of actual authority, heroes didn’t salute each other. It set a bad precedent. He’d need to find out their Agency and have a few words…

All Might turned to the other boy and smiled his best, “There is nothing to worry about. Everything will be fine.”

With that he gathered the injured boy into his arms and leapt. He would prefer to get him to Recovery Girl, but the head injury was more than a little concerning, and the burns… Well, the faster those were treated the better as well if they wanted to avoid nerve damage...if that was even still possible.

And Hoshu General’s did have one of the better hero wards in the city outside of the main branch or the UA, so it wasn’t the worst option and should work for now, though he would definitely still ask Chiyo to check up on things.

It was with a heavy heart that he landed near the hospital ER Hero Entrance and burst in. “I need a Doctor, now!”

The duty nurse gaped at him a moment before rushing to his side, her hands already glowing with her quirk, likely some kind of diagnostic type as were often in hero wards where damage was so severe they didn’t have time to question if they wanted to save lives. Her eyes widened as she processed the extent of the injuries and quickly pressed the badge on her shirt and called out several instructions into it, guiding him to get the boy on one of the pre-prepped beds.

“This from the incident on 14th?” The Nurse asked as she quickly started attaching monitors to the boy. “How many others incoming?”

“Possibly a few burns, some smoke inhalation, I didn’t see any other major injuries but am not certain, I arrived on the scene at the end and this boy needed immediate assistance.”

“That’s an understatement,” she snapped. “Do we know his name or quirk? I didn’t see anything obvious.”

All Might paused, it seemed, wrong to state such a thing of the brave child. “No, I don’t know his name.” He paused. “He is quirkless, though.” Her eyes met his for a second, before she nodded, a shocked look on her face. “He is still a hero that saved the life of another boy who was about to suffocate,” he added quickly, but even to him it sounded weak, though he truly believed truly believed the sentiment.

Neither of them had the option to say anything else before a trauma team rushed into the room, and surrounded the bed, sweeping him away and leaving Toshinori standing in the entry hall feeling very small. Well, there wouldn’t be anything that he could do here in the meantime, and there was still clean up at the main battle site to attend to, along with the press.

That a child had been injured so publically….

There’d be questions.

He would be back to check on the boy later.

If nothing else, he had the type of attitude and a level of ingenuity that Toshinori could appreciate, along with a willingness to put his life on the line for another, though his recklessness was something to be frowned on.

He’d been meaning to find someone at UA to pass his power along to, and for the first time, he considered something he had never thought before.

Someone who had been quirkless, like him.

Still, All Might had been given his quirk when he was young, very young. And his body had had a chance to grow with it. And he’d still taken quite a bit of damage learning how to control it properly.

Now, the boy had potential, definitely. And he certainly had the right attitude, for All Might was familiar enough with his fellow heroes to recognize those that rushed to help without thinking of themselves, which was almost always a sign of a Top Hero. But there had been a level of desperation in his eyes…

He would most certainly do whatever he needed to in order to handle One-for-All.

Unfortunately, that was part of the problem, part of what made Toshinori question. He’d shown no regard for his own safety as he ran into the fight and unflinchingly told the other boy to use his quirk...

It was admirable that he’d helped when no one, not even All Might, did, but there had been a carelessness about his own life that was more than a little concerning. Toshinori… Toshinori wasn’t sure that if he did give the boy his quirk that the child wouldn’t shred his body to pieces, wouldn’t stop and heal if he was too desperate to prove himself.

Still, he thought as he landed back at the site and saw the other boy, a scowl on his face as he was being fawned on by most of the heroes not standing over the villain as he was being processed by the police, there was another possibility thanks to this as well.

XxXxX

Izuku woke gradually to a low background hum, punctuated by a slow, steady beating.

The ceiling was a plain white and the bed was slightly angled and harder than his own.

Then, what had happened came rushing back to him and he remembered the pain in his arms. He was in the hospital.

Huh…

He glanced around. His hands were bandaged, but much less than he would have imagined given how familiar he was with Kacchan’s explosions and how big that last one had been. His head felt fuzzy too, and not just because there was a dull throb at the back of his skull. His thoughts didn’t flow in a steady stream like normal, but meandered far more slowly across his mind…

Given his hands, he was likely on some painkillers… But weren’t head wounds and pain killers dangerous? He’d read something like that online back when he’d first started to teach himself first aide so his mother wouldn’t need to patch him up, but he wasn’t sure…. Ah, well, not like it mattered with someone as stupid and hard-headed as him anyway.

His Mother was curled asleep in a chair at his side, her head laid on the bed near his waist, her hair fuzzy and sprawling. Midoriya wanted to cry a little himself as he saw the tear tracks on her cheeks.

He was so useless. He was always making her worry because he couldn’t stand up for himself. Making her hate herself for how useless he turned out and the problems that caused.

She always… Always apologized to him. Sometimes she would even sneak into his room after she thought he went to sleep and would hover crying over his bed, whispering ‘I’m sorry’ over and over. Like he wanted to hear that? He wanted to hear he was worth something. That he could be a person that didn’t need to be apologized for!

He wasn’t sure he could he could hear her crying right now, when he was so raw from All Mi-

He bit his tongue to stop from crying.

Izuku needed to think of something else. Something practical.

He had to.

He eyed the call button, wondering if he should get someone’s attention as apparently they hadn’t noticed the change in his heartbeat or anything. They probably needed to look him over, but he didn’t really want to talk to anyone.

They’d probably be like everyone else, laughing at him or pitying him for being quirkless and stupid enough to get himself hurt like this. He knew himself well enough to know that he wasn’t strong enough to deal with that right now when he would need to re-evaluate… Well… Everything…. In the wake of today.

Speaking of, he wondered how it went?

Had he been helpful to Kacchan at all?

He did kind of want to know if Kacchan was okay, but in the end…

It wouldn’t matter.

To the other boy, even when Izuku was trying to help… He was still just useless. Still unable to do anything on his own. Izuku was not worth standing by Kacchan, even as support.

Weak.

He bit back a sob, and clasped his hands over his mouth, only to whimper as pain shot from his bandaged hands, overcoming the numbness and slowness of his thoughts.

He had to get out of here.

He knew the first words out of his Mother’s mouth would be. “I’m sorry.” It’s what she always said.

I’m sorry you’re weak.

I’m sorry you can’t follow your dream.

I’ll be here to comfort you when you inevitably fail.

Because you don’t have a quirk.

Because you are less.

He couldn’t be here and deal with his utter failure at being a hero today--couldn’t deal with the pity in more Doctor’s eyes as they mentioned the extra joint in his pinky toe, or their bad jokes that at least he made their jobs easy since they didn’t need to worry about a quirk complicating things.

Carefully he pulled the leads from is chest and the IV from his arm. He cautiously slid to the side of the bed not occupied by his Mother and took a deep breath before swinging his feet down. He stood up. While there was a little dizziness, and the throb momentarily got harder, it wasn’t too bad. It might be the drugs, but he’d had worse from Kacchan before.

Using the bed as a crutch, he staggered towards the door, and after bracing himself, pushed himself off to half fumble, half walk, half fall across the open area of the room to the door. After catching his breath while clutching the frame, he took a few tentative steps down the hall, only to freeze as he realized his current direction had taken him towards the nurses station.

Then he saw the news up on one of the computer monitors and that they were obviously taking a break with drinks and snacks being passed around. He scoffed a little that they would miss his waking up, but then again he was just a quirkless, useless nobody. Besides, based on how high tech and nice everything seemed this was obviously the Hero Ward, so they were most likely used to dealing with way more important people than him.

Turning around seemed like a lot of trouble, and maybe the small, petty part of him that normally came out when he was being bullied particularly badly wanted to startle them, so Izuku opened his mouth to call out to them. That’s when he noticed that the news was on a familiar looking alley from Tatooin Shopping District. His mouth closed with a clop as he strained to hear what the newscaster was saying.

He should have known better, than to do that. Because the snippets that he could make out…

“-quirkless boy was completely reckless!” Kamui Woods was saying to the camera.

“While the situation was resolved thanks to All Might, the quirkless boy who foolishly attacked the villain is currently in intensive care--”

“Severely hurt, which is only to be expected when you don’t have a quirk-”

“-better quirk.”

“If you don’t have the right quirk, stay out of the way.”

“Stay out of the way of real heroes.”

His hands flew to his mouth. It wasn’t enough.

It was never enough.

He was never enough.

He was useless.

No, worse than that.

He was a hindrance.

A problem.

He was a remnant of humanity past that had no place in this world of shining, amazing people.

He spun around. He had to get out.

His eyes locked on a glowing Exit sign and he rushed--staggered--through it, finding himself on the stairs. He took a few rough steps towards the stairs pointing down, but there were voices coming from below so he pushed and pushed himself up the stairs until he got to the top.

He had to get away from people.

He couldn’t take them right then.

He couldn’t…

He had to get out.

He felt a small pause when he saw the sign that said roof. But then… It was almost like fate had lead him here…. Wasn’t it?

What had Kacchan, bright glowing, revered Kacchan said?

Jump off a roof.

And pray for a better quirk.

The world focused on that word, and for the life of him, he couldn’t seem to think of anything else.

It really was almost…

Fate.

He shoved open the door and stepped out onto the roof. Night had fallen and the sky was clear. He could even see a few stars, barely visible in the dark gaping maw caused by the light pollution. Stars whose light shone so brightly that they pushed through any barrier…

Lights like Kacchan.

Who was smart, and brave, and who everyone said was going to be something amazing. Someone who had been right, when they said that Izuku was useless.

Why else would everyone--absolutely everyone--agree with him?

There had never been anyone that defended or encouraged him once they found out he was quirkless.

Why else would all the other kids laugh?

They’d found it just as funny as Kacchan to shove him, to use their quirks on him for practice since he couldn’t fight back. To belittle even the smallest hopes he had for the future. To make him cry.

Why else would the teachers join in when they didn’t just roll their eyes?

If it was wrong, the teachers would have stopped it, like they were supposed to. But it wasn’t wrong to hurt Izuku because he was worthless. He was nothing.  

He took a few shaky steps to the edge, the cement of the roof cool under his bare feet. He didn’t want to die, but everything hurt so much. He was useless and couldn’t help anyone. Even the roles All Might had mentioned, he would be useless at those. He was nothing, a quirkless drain on society.

Almost as if in a trance, he stared at the edge of the roof, just a few meters away. It would be better… Better if he wasn’t here slowing them all down.

“That’s a bad feeling you’re giving off, child.”

Broken from his trance, Izuku spun at the sound of a voice behind him, only to stagger, barely keeping to his feet as the action caused the pain in his head to triple for one horrible moment. Still, his vision righted itself and he eyed the originator of the voice. The man was only half visible in the shadow of a dark helicopter in the middle of the roof. Even with the light playing funny tricks given the angles, Izuku could still tell that he had perfect posture in his wheelchair. He had on an expensive suit, well fitted and dark, and there was a metal contraption wrapped around his neck.

A young, nondescript man stood at his back in a sharp suit. Probably an aide or the pilot of the sleek black helicopter or both.

If Izuku had been even a little bit less numb right then, he would probably have acted differently. Instead he could only nod, before realizing how rude that was and speaking. “I don’t mean scare you or to be...a bother you, sir.”

The man tsked. “I never said you were scary, or bothersome.” He rolled forward a little, and Izuku blinked… The now visible, upper part of his face was covered in scar tissue, even where his eyes should be.

Why he was at a hospital suddenly made a lot of sense. The amount of scarring probably needed constant attention.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I’m blocking your path to the stairs,” he shuffled out of the route the chair would have to take to the… Oh wait. He probably wouldn’t need the stairs, due to the wheelchair. There was probably an elevator up here somewhere the man could use.

He hiccupped, and raised a hand to his face. It was just something else... “I am so utterly stupid and useless.” He rushed the last couple of steps to the edge. The guardrail at the side barely reached his chest.

He could most definitely climb it.

His behavior didn’t seem to confuse the man though, who merely called out to him in a slightly worried voice. “Now, that’s what I’m talking about when I say bad feeling, child. Whatever makes you think something like that?”

“I… I’m quirkless.” He turned and jutted his chin out at the man, resting against the guardrail. He used his own weakness as a weapon. Waiting for this man who actually seemed sympathetic rather than pitying to change his tune just like everybody else. After all, the man couldn’t care that much if he wasn’t having that shadow of his stop Izuku, he was just a too nice old man, taking pity on someone. He’d move on soon enough once he realized what Izuku was. Please… Don’t…

“Well, quirkless doesn’t immediately equate to useless, and certainly not stupid.” Please… Mean that…

Izuku blinked. No one had ever told him that before. “That’s just… part of it. I can’t help anybody, and I have dreams that are dumb and wer… I’m just… Deku…” Please… I can’t take it anymore…

He cried and spun, ignoring the pain from his hands as he climbed on top of the rail. Please... let me not be useless next time….

Please... Izuku thought as he stared at the ground. Honestly seeing nothing but the ground wasn’t an unusual thing for him. If there wasn’t a hero fight around or his Mother…. It was safer and drew less attention if he didn’t meet people's eyes. Please... What was unusual however, was the fact that the ground he was staring at was 14 stories below him.

There was another part of him, aside from the small voice begging, that was questioning what he was doing. He’d never… No matter how bad things got, he’d always made himself have faith in the world if not himself.

This… Was a “realistic” future so bad?  Please… I just want to help… I just want…

“Deku?” The man’s calm question froze him as he leaned over the edge.

“It’s… My name… It can be read that way. It means someone who is useless at everything.”

“Hmm… Such an odd, nasty word. I fancy myself a bit of a collector of knowledge, and try to keep up on all the new vernacular, and I’ve never seen that in a dictionary. Maybe I should research it more, see if I can track the etymology. If your parents named you that I am sure there is another meaning that doesn’t mean useless.”

Izuku blinked, staring out over the manicured landscaping and drive leading up to the hospital. Please… Just be like everyone else and leave me alone, if you’re not going to… help…

“I get in the way, constantly. Even the heroes said so.”

Help… He tried to calculate the angle that he would fall at, but his brain was such as a mess he couldn’t even do that right.

“The heroes?” The man replied with a quizzical tone, and even with his back to the man, Izuku could almost feel the other’s gaze ripping him apart to see what he meant. Maybe he could see even with the scar tissue? It certainly felt like he could already see the answers to his questions. Like he was just pitying Izuku like one would pity a kicked puppy. “Ah, I thought you seemed familiar. You were on the news, weren’t you? That nasty business in the shopping district.”

Izuku flinched. So even this nice man had heard about his stupidity. If he hit the sidewalk, they’d have to clean up the mess that his body would make but it would be easier than if he hit the grass.

Please... Help…Me… Let me help… Let me have worth…

“That was pretty smart, the way that you knocked that sludge villain back by going for the eyes. Also how you helped the other boy use his quirk to escape. It was very selfless of you.”

His tone was… Something...  Very bland, factual. But it was grasping at straws, and Izuku scoffed. “Stupid and reckless, more like it, according to everyone else there.” Kind of like now, and his view was punctuated by a man walking towards the ER entrance glancing up and shouting something as he saw Izuku. The man screamed something that he couldn’t make out, but it drew the attention of a few other people in the parking lot.

They should make Kacchan clean up his body, he thought a little meanly. Except the other boy would probably just step over his corpse after he lit it on fire. Izuku wasn’t quite sure why he found that so funny he laughed out loud, throwing off his balance so he almost tipped over the edge and barely caught himself instinctively.

“Ah, I did hear those idiots trying to dig themselves out of the hole they dug say something like that. It was quite entertaining watching them scramble.”

Izuku blinked as the man dragged him out of his thoughts again. “What?”

Please…

Why did he save himself if he was only going to jump?

“A civilian, a child no less, stepped in to help when they didn’t and got hurt in the process. They need to find some way to excuse their cowardice and are attacking the most vulnerable person available to do it. Rather pathetic if you ask me.” The man seemed rather amused by it all, and Izuku had never heard someone so contemptuous of heroes before. It made no sense.

And really, he thought again, the man seemed oddly unconcerned by what Izuku was about to do. He was talking to him directly, not just in his general direction, so it once more seemed as if he could see Izuku like earlier when he called him familiar? But that didn’t make sense either.

Still.. He was still here. Still talking.

And the people below… He might not be able to fully hear or understand what they were saying, but they seemed worried?

Why? It wasn’t like Izuku was worth anything.

Trying to find something that he could make sense of, Izuku scanned the ground underneath him, seeing only the trees, whose wood was the same pattern as Kamui, the warning bars near the ER entrance with the same pattern as Deathgoro… the sign with the same coloring as All Might’s uniform. Heroes were everywhere, the best of society. “But they’re heroes! They have strong quirks and are the best!” It almost sounded like he was trying to convince himself… And that hurt. Was even the core of his world - that heroes were good and true and strong and kind…. Was that wrong too?

The man scoffed. “They call themselves that, but I’ve met true heroes. They move to help people without thinking, like you did. They don’t hang back because it might be difficult. They should have at least tried to save you.”

They would have if he had any type of worth.

Izuku had always told himself that he had worth… That he wasn’t useless even though his mother constantly apologized to him, worried for him because he was the equivalent of a child’s pop gun in a nuclear arms race. Even though his teachers scoffed at his dreams, berated him in front of his classes… Used him as a punching bag to bring together the rest of the class that was actually worth something. Even though Kacchan would hurt him, was cruel and twisted as he beat Deku into the mold he saw for him, and everyone cheered him as a future hero for it.

It only meant one thing, no matter what this guy said.

Please…

“I’m not worth saving,” Izuku replied… He was stupid and reckless and made heroes put themselves in danger for no reason. There were more people down below now, all staring at him. Even from this distance, he could see horror on their faces.

Horror at seeing something so pathetic maybe?

Please… Let me be wrong.

“I disagree. You’re human, that is worth saving. And if that’s not enough for you, I think that you displayed incredible bravery and a good grasp of tactics.”

Izuku laughed bitterly. “Thank you for your words--your lies. It’s nice, that someone would for once.” Usually people just laughed like his teachers, called him worthless like Kacchan, or pitied him like his Mother. “But I’m Deku. I’m… useless.”

No. I know I’m not... wrong…

The man shook his head. “I disagree.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree,” Izuku snapped back. This man was muddying everything in his head even more than the pain killers.

“Well, either way you can’t stay poised on this ledge forever.” Well, that confirmed something, even if the man couldn’t see he could tell where Izuku was. There was a sound that was probably the wheelchair moving forward. “The way I figure it, if you have reached this point, you only have so many choices.”

Izuku couldn’t argue with that.

“You can step back.”

Below, someone in a security uniform that had run out of the building was talking hurriedly into his walkie-talkie. Several other people in the quickly forming crowd had pulled out cell phones and had them pointed at him.

“That leads to accepting what society has laid out for you, well, what little is left after the fools trying to make themselves feel better write you off for this. You will have to keep trying to fight an uphill battle against a stacked world where no one believes in you, never to be taken seriously.”

The culmination of Izuku’s useless life in front of the world thanks to those stupid cameras… Just like the ones that had recorded how utterly useless he had been earlier. Couldn’t they just let him die in peace?

“Or, you can jump.”

Die…

“That would mean the end of who you think you are, even if you lived.”

Was he really willing to die?

“You’ll die.”

Did he have something to live for?

Some ‘realistic’ future, where he would continue to be looked down on and made fun of and considered useless?

“So make your choice, my boy,” the man said, and there was something oddly hypnotic about his words.

“Someone will be here soon, and they will take that choice away from you like they have done your entire life.”

Izuku clenched his jaw. The man was right.

“So make your choice. Back over the ledge to claim what you can of the life that society deems you fit for.”

It was his choice.

“Or jump, and face the great unknown and forge what comes out the other side.”

Izuku leapt into the nothingness.

Chapter Text

Katsuki kicked back in his chair with his feet on the desk. His clenched fists let off small sparks in defiance of school rules as clear warning to anyone that tried to talk to him about yesterday. Or at all.

Some part of him wanted to crow that he’d stood against a villain and hadn’t given in…

But…

The image of Deku crumpled on the ground from the force of the butane assisted explosion flashed in front of him. The heroes standing there stupidly past him.

Whether he was willing to admit it or not, there was the smallest, most infinitesimal chance that Deku may have actually helped Katsuki get loose. While the heroes had praised his toughness and quirk, all he could do was stare at the spot Deku had laid before All Might rushed off with him.

Useless Deku, who had been more useful than the idiots trying to get him… HIM! As their sidekick. He’d be better than any of those idiots and they’d been trying to get him under their pathetic, useless wings.

None of them--none of them--had done anything when Katsuki was maybe, just possibly… getting a little short on air.

He definitely hadn’t called for help, even with his eyes, no matter what Deku had said, but the extra boost to his awesome powers had been… timely.

It just made him glance at Deku’s empty seat and want to punch something again. Preferably the useless idiot who had done something so stupid that they’d been too injured to come into school so they could be a little less useless and function as a red herring that Katsuki could shove bigger idiots asking questions on.

It didn’t help that the homeroom teacher was late. Yamagi was a pushover who tried too hard to be his students’ ‘friend’, but he had at least been useful for recommendations to get into several of the prep courses and training classes that Katsuki had needed for his UA application.

Right now he would be far more useful actually here and taking the attention off of Katsuki by actually trying to teach something (which was 50/50 depending on the day.)

It was about 20 minutes after the bell that the man came in, a heavy look on his face. Katsuki couldn’t help but notice the way Yamagi’s eyes flew to Deku’s empty seat and then grit his teeth. There was something…. Almost angry about the way he looked.

The Principal, whose name he’d never really bothered to remember, a normally happy woman with pink scales, followed him with a somber look on her face. Two people he vaguely recognized as some of the school counselors, along with five other adults in suits, trailed after them. Aside from one horribly skinny guy with sunken eyes and crazy, blonde hair (whose suit was ridiculously oversized) that just looked defeated, they all had that super-bland, professional look mixed with the type of condescending ‘niceness’ that grated on his nerves.

Katsuki slid his feet down and stood up. This seemed…

Off.

Wrong.

Yet again, his gaze flicked to Deku’s empty seat, the only difference to a normal day, and his scowl slipped into a frown.

The class rep called everyone to perform the normal bows, and the class did, though in a rather more subdued fashion than normal.

Katsuki didn’t bother as he stared at the unknown adults one by one, trying to make one flinch. Only two really met his eyes. The blandest of the lot, a man with a plain suit and trench coat, and the weirdo in the baggy suit.

Adults that didn’t meet your gaze were trying to hide things they felt bad or guilty about.

The only thing different today was that Deku was still out.

But he was fine.

The heroes at the scene had said Deku would be fine despite his own incompetence. Katsuki’s Mother and Father, who had taken Deku’s Mom some dinner last night at the hospital, had said that Deku received a bump on the head along with his burns but was expected to recover completely, if with some new scarring. Even the news last night had said that thanks to All Might getting Deku to the hospital as fast as he did, that Deku would be fine despite how pathetic he was since he was quirkless and a reckless idiot.

So it couldn’t be him.

It couldn’t…

“Students, I have some unfortunate news,” the Principal stated solemnly. “Izuku Midoriya...” the woman swallowed. “Izuku Midoriya passed away last night.”

Katsuki blinked.

No...

His heart stopped for a moment, and his brain emptied of all other thought as he tried to make sense of that.

He was fine!

The room was equally quiet for a moment before Matsuda, the idiot extra that could only change his hair color, jumped to his feet. “No way!” He cried. Katsuki couldn’t help but detachedly notice that the boy looked upset, almost… devastated?

But that was wrong, because even though Deku – tiny useless Deku – had stood up and defended the crybaby on more than one occasion, even he’d accepted his own place eventually and recognized how pathetic the quirkless boy was. He’d even started telling Deku the truth, just like everyone else.

Still, his words broke the silence, and a bunch more students followed Matsuda’s example, shouting and jumping to their feet. They all seemed so horrified for some reason. Katsuki didn’t understand why. couldn’t feel much at all. Huh.

“What happened?”

“No!”

“Why?”

And various other cries filled the air. They sounded distant to Katsuki, like they were shouting through water. He was sitting down again. When everyone else had stood up, he’d sat down. When had that happened?

The principal stood calmly at the front of the room, her hands held out, making soft shushing gestures as she rode the ebb of the classes’ shocked pandemonium.

Her condescending actions, more than anything, broke through that strange blanket of numb. This was stupid! Katsuki threw himself to his feet, pissed off, slamming an explosion into his desk and cracking it in half. The rest of the class rightly shut up and let him talk like the extras they were. He glared the principal down, willing her to not say something so stupid. “Freaking Deku was fine after that monster! He was fine and all the heroes, even All Might said he was fine!”

The rest of the class gaped at him, and Yamagi gaped at him while the principal gave him that flinch he wanted earlier. It wasn’t as satisfying as he’d thought it would be, especially when she settled into just looking sad. One of the super bland suits, the guy in the trench coat who’d been one of the only two able to meet his eyes, stepped forward and gave a half bow to the whole class.

“Yes, you are correct,” he said calmly, directing his words to the disruptive student.

Katsuki stared at him through the wisps of smoke from his desk and willed him to keep talking. When the man did, he had the nagging feeling it wasn’t because of him.

And nothing could have prepared him for what came out of the man’s mouth next.

“It is our sad duty to say that Izuku Midoriya killed himself last night while he was in the hospital recovering from his injuries that were incurred during a fight between several heroes and a villain yesterday.”

Katsuki blinked.

Katsuki re-ran that sentence through his head.

It still made no sense.

“Wha-” he managed to get out before the full meaning slammed into him like a sledge hammer and Katsuki staggered back, tripping to fall into his seat.

Deku was… dead?

That… That just didn’t compute.

The rest of the class apparently felt the same, as they all kind of dropped and slumped into their seats with shocked looks, still quiet.

“Last night, Izuku climbed to the roof of the hospital he was in and jumped off.” The man finished, and Katsuki felt his chest clench.

That…

Deku…

Why would Deku…

‘There is an effective method if you want to become a hero so much. Making a leap of faith from the roof, believing with all your might that you will have a ‘quirk’ in your next life.’ He flashed on his own words and the world spun a little. He could have sworn that the floor dropped out from under him and the numbness was back.

Deku… Had he really…? Deku had almost always done exactly what Katsuki told him, except when he’d been particularly stubborn, usually when it came to something about being a hero or standing up for some extra that had delusions of grandeur and got in his way.

Had he done it because Katsuki had told… Had told him to?

“Now, everyone, I realize that this is a shock,” the principal interjected into the silence quietly, having recovered from her hesitation and now back to pathetic, fake-supportive lies. “I want you to know that we are here for you. We have notified all of your parents of this sad happenstance, and the rest of the school will be officially notified shortly. You will each have an appointment today to talk to someone, either Mr. Toshiko, Mrs. Kobayashi or one of the other grief counselors that have been brought in for you,” the two school counselors and three of the strange adults bowed, “and they will all be available for the rest of the week, along with your teachers if you need to talk.”

Her face got a bit more serious, and even in his shock, Katsuki knew what was coming next.

“Also, Detective Tsukauchi,” trench coat guy bowed a bit, “will be interviewing each of you as well, as we try to figure out what caused Izuku to do this. Your parents will either be meeting you here for the interview, or with their permission, a teacher will accompany you during the questioning before you will be sent home for the day.”

Katsuki was smart enough to know that a few people were probably looking at him. While everyone, including the teacher, got their kicks out of making fun of Deku…. Well, he and Katsuki were always setting each other off.

Had always set each other off…

Past tense.

Past tense because stupid, useless Deku had done what he’d almost always done and complied with Katsuki’s demands.

He felt nauseous.

So he told his stomach to freaking stop it.

“We do understand that this is a trying time, and encourage you to be as honest as possible and work with the Detectives, so that hopefully we might give Izuku’s family peace.”

Katsuki barely heard them…

Because it was all his fault.

XxXxX

Toshinori sipped his tea as he watched Bakugou Katsuki step into the room. The boy with the powerhouse presence had gone pale back in the classroom, more so than the others. He was still pale… And his eyes were… There was something there. He glanced over at Naomasa, who raised an eyebrow in return.

They’d talked to seven students so far, along with the teacher, and each of them had been, well not necessarily jumpy, but defensive, perhaps.

The teacher had a particular kind of air to him that made All Might want to have a few words with him privately, and he’d picked up matching vibes from Naomasa, though they’d had to leave it temporarily to inform the rest of the students when class began.

All the students they’d questioned had been hesitant when answering, but when asked if there was anyone that Izuku had particular problems with, they’d all eventually named Bakugou Katsuki. He didn’t even particularly blame them for their hesitancy given the explosive temper young Bakugou had displayed to go along with his equally explosive quirk.

The boy’s mother seemed to know that her son had a temper, and was keeping a tight grip on his arm, though she did appear slightly consternated underneath the sympathetic looks she kept giving her son. All Might could guess well enough that the boy had reacted negatively to the sympathy.

As they sat at the table, Bakugou took a deep breath, and before they could even ask a question, the boy stated clearly and concisely, “It was my fault.”

He could feel the air around Naomasa change, and he’d accompanied his friend through enough interrogations to know that he froze that way when someone told a truth that was as unexpected as what Bakugou had just said.

Because if it was one thing that Toshinori knew, people who were responsible for another’s death were rarely so willing to admit it that calmly -- that rationally -- unless there was something more broken and troubled than either one of them had picked up before. Unless there was something wrong with this child...

“Katsuki?” The boy’s mother asked, a blank look taking over her face. And there was something wrong with this child, but it wasn’t that he was a cold blooded killer, a psychopath or a sociopath. There was something twisted, but All Might couldn’t place it.

Bakugou finally looked up and met Naomasa’s eyes. “It’s just… he’s so…. He kept wanting to be a hero, even though he was quirkless and weak and too damn timid and he just kept smiling about it like he didn’t get how dumb he was about it when he was so much weaker than me. He…. Yesterday, right before he…” He bit his lip. “Right before he…” Suddenly the calm about the boy evaporated and the table they were sitting across was thrown against the wall and Bakugou was screaming, his sparking hands caught up in his hair. Toshinori yanked Naomasa up to his feet and shoved him back, stepping in front of his friend, more than prepared to transform if the boy lost control. His Mother was staring at her son with wide eyes, but otherwise did not seem surprised by the violence. Toshinori had a bad feeling in his gut.

The boy finally spat out. “Deku, that freaking idiot! He was just so… I hated it! I hated seeing that look on his face! So I told him that if he really wanted to be a hero, he should jump of the roof and pray for a quirk in the next life! It’s all my fault!” The room was dead silent at his admission, and that only seemed to make the boy madder. “Say something you stupid scumbag dicks!”

Toshinori opened his mouth, trying to find the words he wanted to say, but truthfully he had no idea what utterance had even the slimmest chance of possibly making this even remotely better, for once. He could face down murderers, monsters, all sorts of villains, and Gran Torino and know exactly what to say to make them crack (or at least back down and not beat him over the head in Torino’s case), but this boy… There was something at his core that was good. Otherwise he wouldn’t have spoken, or acted the way he did the day before when facing that sludge villain – but his behavior, his attitude… The fact that he was quite probably a prolific young bully and had said something like that to Izuku…

Bakugou Katsuki was a walking contradiction and Toshinori had no idea what to say to calm the situation down and not cause more problems or property damage.

Finally Bakugou just scoffed at them. “It was just… It was just… He was always, always…” Bakugou finally collapsed down to his knees as if he was a puppet that had his strings cut. “He was always weaker than everyone else but was so stupid about it. He kept… He kept… There is no way he could be a hero.”

His voice lowered to a whisper as he stared ahead. “He wasn’t supposed to die.”

Toshinori sighed.

For all his rather obvious anger issues, the kid had possibly been protecting his friend in his own twisted and very wrong way. Toshinori eyed the mother who just stared at her son in blatant horror and shock. He wondered if young Bakugou had known any other way given what little he had seen of this particular family dynamic.

“It isn’t your fault,” Toshinori heard himself say quietly, turning back to the boy. “Not all of it, in any case. I know for a fact that he ran into All Might shortly before your run in with the Sludge Villain, and that All Might himself told him to stop trying to be a hero as well.”

And that quickly, the kid was back on his feet, hands and eyes sparking again. He really had a volatile temper.

“What?! And that stupid Deku didn’t listen to him either?!”

“That’s the problem,” Naomasa cut in, his voice calm but lined with steel. “He listened to both of you.”

Toshinori flinched, as did young Bakugou. The boy would figure the policeman had just been speaking to him, but the hero in the room knew who he’d really been speaking to.

“How dare you?!” Bakugou’s mother suddenly burst in with just about as much gusto as her son. “Just because the idiot brat here said something—”

She cut off, her own eyes going wide as if catching her own behavior and that theory of Toshinori’s gained more support.

“No, it’s… it’s my fault. I never taught you better. It’s my-” she stopped again and then glanced down at young Bakugou, who was looking at his mother with a sort of puzzled denial.

“How could it be your fault, you hag?” he asked.

“Show some respect, you lousy boy!” She reacted instinctively.

“Why should I? Hag! Hag, hag, hag!”

She ground her teeth, but Naomasa stepped in by clearing his throat. “That is quite enough for today.” Everyone looked at him. “I believe that this day has been fairly emotional, and while we’ll definitely need to continue this discussion, I believe it can take place over the next few days.” Bakugou actually looked a little scared. Somehow, Toshinori go the impression that young Bakugou Katsuki never showed fear. He still couldn’t think of anything to say to the child. Cases involving goading someone to suicide could go in many different directions, but there would likely be consequences for him.

Naomasa waved an officer in and instructed them to make sure they had the family’s contact info before he turned back to the blonde mother and son. “Thank you both.” With that, the interview was over, and Toshinori couldn’t help but sigh, both in relief and sadness.

As the boy’s mother lead him out of the room after the officer, young Bakugou turned around and looked at Naomasa, examining him for a moment before he, perhaps on instinct, turned to Toshinori. “Will this… Will this stop me from being a Hero?”

All Toshinori could do was meet the boy’s eyes and repay his honesty with equal honesty in return, “I don’t know.”

Something like pain or grief passed through those red eyes. Then the boy squared his jaw and nodded, finally letting his mother pull him out of the room.

The two men stared after them in silence.

“I hate these ones. I really do,” Naomasa sighed as he went over to pull the table up. Toshinori found he couldn’t help but agree as he walked over to get a napkin to wipe up the spilled tea from his and Naomasa’s cups. Only he had to stop as he looked at the dark green cabinets, which were almost the same shade as the boy’s hair.

“You know I wasn’t lying. If it’s that boy’s words are at fault, so are mine,” he finally said.

“Toshi-”

“No. It is. I could see how desperate – how scared – the boy was. And I should have been the hero he needed me to be. I should have told him to work hard.” He leaned against the counter and glared at the face he found reflected in the mirror that hung there, his own, scrunched face. “And when he ran into that fight… Even I could see how reckless he was, how little he cared for his own life. But he didn’t think twice, Naomasa. He moved just like all the best heroes. He saw someone in need of help and moved when even I didn’t do anything because I was at my three hour limit. I kept thinking ‘someone with a strong quirk will come along, someone else will help.’ I let myself become a bystander, and I forgot all the ways that I could still help. I as good as injured him myse-”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Naomasa snapped, and Toshinori met the reflection of his eyes in the shiny surface in front of him. “The kid-”

“Izuku,” Toshinori corrected.

The other man nodded. “Izuku had a lot on his plate. I think that what Bakugou mentioned is only part of it, and that teacher… That worm was lying through his teeth when he said that Izuku was a happy, well-adjusted kid. His own mother was-”

Toshinori spun to glare at Naomasa, “I still broke his heart.”

“You were being realistic,” his oldest friend hissed at him, even as he righted the table and chairs from Katsuki’s temper tantrum with a slam. “It wasn’t your fault the kid was bullied and you inadvertently hit a sore spot.”

The blond laughed bitterly, “No. I was being an ass. I always wanted to protect people’s smiles, as much as I did their lives. But I… I’ve been so depressed, because of everything. It’s been so hard to be positive, to constantly lie. I forgot how much damage words can do. All I saw was this kid who would end up dead if he kept going down that path. I didn’t even consider giving him a chance.” He punched his (thin, weak, sad) leg lightly. “He had stars in his eyes, and I watched as my words put them out. But I thought it was okay since at least he would be alive.”

“Toshi-”

He rubbed his hands over his face, “We need to finish these interviews.” After all, it was he who had insisted on them. Suicides, while much more uncommon then they used to be, didn’t normally involve this level of in depth investigation unless there were possible signs of foul play. There were some basic questions with the family, maybe speaking to some teachers or friends… Follow up with the grief counselors to see if they spotted anything... But he’d been hoping, praying, that there was something there other than his words that had caused the boy to… Well, there had been. There had been enough reasons that Young Midoriya had needed a hero more than many other people he had met, and Toshinori had been right there and failed.

He ignored the knowing look on his best friend’s face as he turned back to the counter, swiping some napkins to wipe up the spilled tea before calling in the next kid and parent.

XxXxX

The Bakugous left the school after confirming all their contact information with the police. Katsuki knew that he was in trouble and wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that fact. Definitely not good, though. Mainly because his screaming harpy of a mother, who usually never shut up, was quiet. She had a dark, pinched look on her face that Katsuki hadn’t ever seen before. Not even when he’d screamed that he’d hated her at the top of his lungs.

In those cases she’d always laughed.

Now though, now she just steered him firmly to the train with a tight hold on his shoulder. They stayed quiet the entire way home. It was the most uncomfortable ride the boy thought he’d ever taken. He was used to talking, well, arguing, but that was normal. This silence… wasn’t.

Nothing about today was normal though.

It hadn’t been normal since Deku didn’t show up to school.

Deku who one day came to school cringing and shaking when he had walking pneumonia, and Katsuki… Katsuki had kicked him back out of the room, not wanting to risk punching him like normal in case he caught what the idiot had (even though he wouldn’t have been allowed to school if it was contagious). The loser, weaker than usual, had collapsed in the hall and had had to be carted away in an ambulance.

Katsuki couldn’t remember if he’d felt guilty then.

Did he feel guilty now?

No, he just felt… numb.

When they got to their stop, the hag kept a firm grip on his shoulder as she pulled him to their apartment complex. Normally Katsuki would take the long way around the building and use the side stairs up to their 5th floor apartment to help work out rather than the central elevator or the easier, more stretched out pretty staircase, but he felt tired. Drained… For once he wouldn’t mind the elevator even if it meant being trapped in a small space with his un-normal mother when he was too off balance to tell what she would do next.

He was so off balance, in fact, that when she steered him to the right rather than the left, it took him until they were almost at Building 2 rather than Building 1 before he realized what was going on.

“Wait, what the…! NO! You old hag! Let me go!” he screeched, his hands flying out to lock his hands on the door jam to the small enclosed foyer that contained the B2 elevator and the main stairs, unlike the rest of the outward facing walkways and halls which were open air.

Back when they were little, Katsuki had liked to jump down the side directly, hands catching on each railing as he went to keep him from actually falling. Deku had panicked the few times he’d seen him do it, like he thought Katsuki didn’t know what he was doing (which was dumb because he pulled wilder stuff when he free ran through the city all the time).

“Yes,” his mother replied in a tone he’d never heard from her before. He didn’t know how to respond as she looked at him, and raised a single eyebrow, her eyes dark.

Katsuki heaved a breath. He ignored the fact that if he’d heard the same thing from Deku, he would have called it a sob. When his voice came out, it sounded far weaker than he wanted it to. “Mom… I can’t, Mom… I just… can’t, please.”

His mother, for the first time since this entire nightmare began, deflated, and he finally recognized that dark expression he’d noticed. Disappointment.

Katsuki’s resistance quietly broke. This would be probably the hardest thing he had ever, or would ever do.

“It is our fault that my best friend lost her son. We will apologize.” Her language was clean, calm, professional. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard her speak like that. When she had, it hadn’t been to him.

Katsuki nodded. He had to do this, no matter how much he didn’t want to.

“We will beg her forgiveness.”

Numbly, his hands dropped, and he walked along with her pull.

“And we will spend the rest of our lives making this up to her.”

Katsuki nodded again, his eyes staying fixed on the floor as she pulled him to the elevator.

He deserved this, but it still felt… He didn’t know. This whole thing made him feel weird in ways he couldn’t name. It was all so dumb. If only Deku hadn’t been so stupid. If only Katsuki hadn’t been so careless with his words...

The elevator in this building was just as slow as the one next door in theirs, but the time it took the elevator to go up each level felt long enough that Katsuki wanted to blast the damn control panel. He was sweating enough to do it. He could feel his palms, sticky and damp, as he clenched and unclenched them in an effort to not have his Mom get that look of disappointment in her eyes again.

This was so stupid.

He wanted to go home and curl up in bed until the odd churning in his gut (was his breakfast bad?) went away. ‘Til the pounding behind his eyes from clenching his teeth to not yell at the Detectives and his Mom and his own stupid reflection stopped hurting so much.

He didn’t want to look at Inko and know that he’d lied to her every time he didn’t tell her that despite Deku’s stupid, pathetic clinginess… Despite Deku’s stupid, pathetic insistence they were still friends and how he… He should have told her they weren’t friends anymore.

That she shouldn’t be kind to him any more.

Inko had been basically like an Aunt to him, given how close she was to his Mother. Even when things between him and Deku had gone south, she’d still said hello and smiled at him when they crossed paths. Grinned at him with a wink and an eye roll when she’d had tea with his mother and the hag had said that she’d rather have Inko’s well mannered, adorable Izuku than her loud-mouthed brat.

Katsuki wanted to go home and scream (and cry, oh crap, he wanted to actually cry and how stupid was that) rather than see the look his Mother had given him on Inko’s face.

When the elevator doors opened Katsuki hesitated just a moment before somehow finding the will to square his shoulders. He brushed his Mother’s hand from his arm before striding down the hall to stand before the Midoriyas’ door. Except now it would be just Inko’s and not Inko’s and Izuku’s and it was his fault.

He pressed the buzzer. There was shuffling from the inside, and Inko’s voice called out, “Just a minute!” Her voice was strained, though, in a way he didn’t remember it ever being. Tired and hurting and scratchy (from tears, he realized, and he had to bite back a scream as he flashed back to all the times that Deku had sounded like that).

The heat from the sun was hot on his back, and Katsuki couldn’t help but remember when he and Izuku were 6. They’d barely spent any time together anymore, but they were still young enough that their Mom’s dragged them to each others houses whenever they wanted to gossip and laugh, and they’d escape to play in the open air hallway and they’d run up and down it shrieking while Katsuki played as All Might and he’d made Izuku be the villain he got to beat up so many times the neighbor had leaned out and given them popsicles to shut them up and they’d broken the sticks into pieces and made a game out of trying to drop them into the trashcan 5 stories below and their Moms had caught them and made the go hunt down each piece that had missed and he was going to be sick right here.

Katsuki couldn’t stop falling back a little against his Mother, who ran a comforting hand against his shoulder, before pushing him back to his feet as Inko opened her door.

“Mitsuki,” Inko said, her (tired worn, red, damp) eyes lighting up just a little. “I take it you heard abou-” Inko’s hand flew to her mouth and she choked a little, as tears burst from her eyes and her plump form (her clothes were messy… They were never messy) crumpled and she fell to her knees sobbing.

His Mother dropped to her own knees by her friend without a thought and wrapped her arms around Inko, uncaring that they knelt in the entrance hall, and that anyone could walk by (Katsuki would make them regret it if they said anything or so much as looked at them funny).

Inko had always thanked him for being friends with Izuku, same with his own Mother, and he’d never really been able to do anything but nod. While he was sure she’d suspected how bad things were getting, she’d always seemed to hold out some type of hope that they’d emulate their Mothers and become best friends. Especially because, knowing Deku, he wouldn’t have talked to his Mother about anything that was bugging him, not wanting to worry her even more. Izuku, even when he’d been a kid tinier than him, had always tried to smile and make his Mom happy, especially after Izuku’s Dad had…

It was why he and Deku had always been encouraged to play together as kids so often. They’d trusted that Katsuki would look out for Izuku. Izuku who’d had that same fragile air as Inko, who was so wide and open and loving just like his Mother.

Izuku had been Inko’s world.

And Katsuki had taken that away.

He’d hated that Izuku had thought he needed to help him.

Katsuki was the strong one that would be a hero -- that Izuku should look up to.

Who should have been offering him a hand up, rather than the other way around.

He should have been strong enough on his own for both himself and Izuku.

Izuku should write his notebooks about him.

Not ‘has beens’ and ‘would bes’ and pathetic losers that couldn’t handle a single damn Sludge Villain.

He didn’t know how long he stood there, watching as his Mother comforted her best friend.

He lost track of how long it took them to make it into the apartment. For his Mother to get Inko settled on the couch, curled in a blanket while Katsuki made them tea.

They sat there until Inko finally stopped crying again.

He didn’t know why.

Inko cried just as much as Izuku.

She’d be crying again by the time they were done.

Maybe they shouldn’t tell her? He thought for a moment, and then he caught that thought, and he hated himself even more.

With a scowl he slapped his cheeks, startling both his Mother and Inko, and he jumped up from where he’d been slouching in the chair to the side of the couch where his Mother was holding Inko’s hand. He moved the coffee table to the side of the room, to give him enough room to do this properly, because damn it Inko deserved this at least. With that he… He dropped to his knees in a seiza, took a deep breath and for the first time in his life that wasn’t learning how to do this, placed his hands on the floor, and lowered his head so it was hovering right above it.

“Katsuki?” Inko asked hesitantly.

“I’m sorry, Auntie Inko,” he finally said. He rarely called his Mother anything but Mom or Hag to her face, and he’d chaffed even when he was little at calling Inko Auntie, but she’d gotten so disappointed when he didn’t. She was more of an Aunt then the biological ones that he had on his Dad’s side. He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to call her Auntie again after this.

“For a long time, Izuku and my friendship… we haven’t been as close as we used to be.”

“Kacchan-”

“I don’t-” he interrupted her. “I don’t deserve to be called that by you.” He took a deep breath. You’d think this would be easier given that he didn’t have to look at her while he was bowed over. It wasn’t. “Yesterday, we got in another fight after school.” He bit his tongue. “No, it wasn’t a fight. I was rude and- and I destroyed one of his hero notebooks…”

There was a thump, and he felt a soft, gentle hand comb through his hair. Not even his Mother was ever that gentle. “Oh Kacchan, friends fight sometim-”

“No!” he interrupted her. “Not… I told him-” his eyes were burning and he blinked, and he shuddered as tears fell from his stupid weak eyes to soak his hands. Oh. “I told him that… To be a hero… To be hero he should jump of the roof and pray for a quirk in his next life.” The hands running through his hair stilled. There it was out. He braced himself for those hands to yank at his hair. To hurt him even a little to make up for the damage that he had done to her.

“It’s my fault, Inko-chan, I am so sorry,” he heard his Mother say, “I… I’m caustic and explosive and all those other things you always forgave my for and I passed those on to Katsuki but I never taught him when to stop because I always figured Izuku would be his voice of reason like you and Masaru were for me and I… I should have taught him better. I knew something was up from how shifty his damn teachers always were and how he acted and I should have been a better parent. It’s not an excuse, but it’s the closest I have to an explanation for what he did. You have every right to hate us, and I won’t blame you if you do.”

Katsuki blinked, frozen. This as the first time his Mom had ever admitted that she was wrong and that maybe he was messed up? That he could be wrong too?

Suddenly the hand in his hair started to move carefully again. It was still soft and gentle and Katsuki couldn’t- what was-

“Kacchan, Izuku…” Inko choked a little, and Katsuki tentatively slid a hand forward to place it on her leg comfortingly. He half expected to see it get slapped away, but instead he felt Inko pat it gently even as she composed herself. “My son never told me everything going on in his life, but I still suspected. And… I know that he still considered you friends, even if he said you were showcasing your faults a bit too often rather than your best qualities. He’d tell me how he admired your confidence, your strength, your brilliance…” Those didn’t matter though. Not- not when- “He always said you’d be an amazing hero that he couldn’t wait to see.” No… No he wasn’t. Deku had- “It’s why… It’s why no matter how many times… He… He came home crying… Or hurt… Or…”

There were drops of water falling on his head, and realized that Inko was crying again, hunched over him. She was crying on him.

“No matter how many times I wanted to confront the two of you, I didn’t. Maybe I should have. Maybe… But I chose to have the faith in you that my son had. And still has, I’m sure.” Katsuki made a keening noise and hunched even more into Inko. “So I want you to know- know that I forgive you, not for the you that you are now, but the you that was my son’s friend. For the friend that he never gave up hope on, for the friend that you can be. And I want you to be the hero that he knew you could be, so that when you next see someone hurting as much as Izuku was, that you can be that hero for them.”

Katsuki’s tears broke down into full blown sobbing. This… He… Inko moved to fully wrap her arms around him in a hug and he… He shifted, lifted up enough that he could move to try and hug her back. It was weird and awkward and horrible and what were you supposed to do with you hands?

Still it didn’t matter, because Inko wanted to freaking hug and damn it, he’d taken her son away. The least Katsuki could do was hug her in his place. Because Inko was just like Izuku, and she forgave him when she should be hitting him. Should be smacking him into the ground.

He… he didn’t… He didn’t know what to do, so he just sat there, holding Inko as they both cried while his Mother watched over them both from nearby, tears in her own eyes.

It’s much later, when they’re getting ready to leave after Katsuki’s Mother has made sure that Inko ate something and really was just going to go straight to sleep, that Inko stopped them for a moment and disappeared back into the house. Katsuki didn’t know what it meant that he was willing to wait patiently for whatever she wanted to get, but he’d figure it out later.

Then Inko came back with a stack of notebooks and Katsuki stopped breathing.

“Izuku would,” she swallowed. “Izuku would have wanted you to have these. He was always so smart when it came to breaking quirks and fights down. I’m sure they’ll be useful to you when it comes to studying for the U.A. entrance exams, and hopefully when you’re a hero too.”

Katsuki merely nodded and murmured a thank you as he took them.

Later that night after a silent dinner, Katsuki hid in his room and hesitatingly opened up the first one. Maybe it would hurt less if it was just-

His hand flew to his mouth and he bit into his palm so hard he tasted blood to stop from screaming. The very first hero listed was HIM. Not All Might, not Endeavor, not any of the others.

It was Katsuki.

And Katsuki took up the first 10 pages, immaculately filled out over time with the latest entry being just last week.

And there were still dozens of empty pages after it before the next hero, All Might, was listed.

If he cried himself to sleep, well, no one needed to know.

Chapter Text

All Might stared down at Katsuki Bakugou in pure, unadulterated shock. The blonde spitfire of a teenager was standing in front of him, somehow well past the police cordon at the bank robbery he had just assisted in stopping. He really wished that he would stop overhearing things like this during the times that he’d spend with Naomasa when the Detective was on break. The other man made the best tea, and it really deserved to be savored.

The hero also wished his best friend was here now, but he’d been pulled away on another call at the same time. While All Might could deal with children and teens, seeing Bakugou felt a little raw on his nerves at the moment. Still he was about to try and figure out how to ask the boy what he wanted, when Bakugou beat him to it.

“You’re showing up to my friend’s funeral, you jerk,” the boy snapped. Well, All Might thought as he heard several of the other heroes and cops nearby choke, spit take, or otherwise react to a kid calling the number one hero a jerk to his face.

“If you mean Young Midoriya-”

“Of course I do, unless you’ve crushed the dreams of any other kids lately. You know, like that cop guy said you crushed Izuku’s,” Bakugou paused, looked considering for a moment and then glared at him, “and if you did, you’re going to theirs too.”

“Speak with a bit more resp-” Fourth Kind snapped, but All Might raised his hand, cutting off the other hero.

“I was already planning to attend, Young Bakugou,” All Might informed him. The boy eyed him suspiciously for a few moments before he nodded.

“Good,” Bakugou stepped back to leave, before he paused and glared right at him again. “You were his favorite hero and when he needed you, you failed even worse than I did. If you don’t turn up, or if you’re late again like you were the other day, or you do anything stupid, I’ll hunt you down and make you regret it.”

Well, he certainly had guts and gumption. All Might nodded seriously at the boy. “I have no doubt that you would, Young Bakugou.”

Bakugou snapped a nod and stormed off, leaving a trail of startled heroes in his wake, and All Might could only stare after him pensively.

XxXxX

“This is Ryuzaki Chiba.”

“And I am Michiko Kuneda, for OPM TV.”

“Thank you, everyone, for tuning in. Tonight’s top story involves further developments in the incident of the Sludge Villain in Musutafu.”

“Yes, given the injuries sustained by one of the children involved, an inquiry has been laun-”

He flipped the channel.

“...Dr. Chiba’s Torch Serum! Guaranteed to help those whose fire Quirks need more spar-”

He flipped the channel again.

“...Yet more reports of the so called “Hero Killer”, as the hero Nocturn is still missing after a routine patrol. Anyone with leads is-”

Again.

“Tsume!” A man in a ridiculously over the top, altered just enough they won’t get sued version of All Might’s costume emotes dramatically at a teary eyed beauty. “We can’t be together, for there are too many villains that woul-”

Again.

“500 channels, and nothing on…” Shigaraki Tomura muttered.

A middle aged, generic funny man was sitting behind his desk. “...--ow what they say folks, never meet your Heroes. I mean, in this kid’s case it took him less than a week to go from being rescued by All Might himself to calling him a jerk. I don’t know where that kid got those brass balls, but I have the feeling we’ll be seeing-”

Tomura paused the TV on the picture of Katsuki Bakugou yelling at All Might outside a bank. “Interesting.”

XxXxX

Katsuki hit the heavy bag so hard it swung back and he had to drop his stance so he could catch it on the rebound. He wanted to hit it again, this time with an explosion, but his court mandated anger management shadow was watching from the bench along the wall of the gym Katsuki went to, Mighty Mick’s, leaning back against a large piece of graffiti art with a circled arrow, the number 2, and a J that had appeared on the wall about the same time as the guy was assigned to him a month ago. He had no clue why they’d gotten the strange, stretched out, skeletal blond guy that had come with the police and detectives to tell them that that Izuku was gone to tag along after him, but Katsuki couldn’t wait for him to be gone.

Katsuki had tried to figure him out to find some way to make him leave faster without a ton of luck. He wasn’t a detective, or a therapist (he’d actually laughed when Katsuki had asked), plus he had a ridiculously flexible schedule, so there was no way that he was some type of case worker or anything. Katsuki’s whole situation had been strange and handled in ways that raised eyebrows by more or less everyone that heard about it. His actual therapist and the guy that ran his mandated anger management classes were shocked that the court had provided  some type of life coach/public behavior monitor.

All together it made him curious about the guy.  But not enough to stop Katsuki from wanting him go just go away .

Not that he could freaking learn anything as the guy pretty much refused to talk about his life, and Katsuki had failed utterly at being able to tail him to some type of office. He scoffed and went to punch the bag again. His inability to figure out his stupid shadow and get him to just sign off on him or whatever was just one more frustration added onto the pile that had him working off as much steam as he could in as many anger management and therapist approved ways as possible.

The sooner this crap was over and he could lose his current useless barnacle, the better.

The idiot’d even offered to spot Katsuki again today, but given that the weak ass guy could barely keep up with him when he was power running, Katsuki had just scoffed and stormed over to finish his normal workout.

Well, normal for these days. In the 4 months since Izuku, Katsuki had doubled his standard runs and spent an extra 30 minutes a day at the heavy bags on top of his strength training, core exercises, and yoga (shut up it was for the flexibility). He would also normally hit the parkour court near the park to practice tumbling and jumps, but he’d been cutting back since the extras there had been getting on his nerves something fierce lately, especially after Katsuki had told the two worthless suck ups that had abandoned him to the sludge monster to shove their useless quirks up their asses, so he’d been hitting the court solo (not like those idiots had ever done anything useful at the courts, just hung out to leech off the ticks that flocked around Katsuki when he really started pushing himself and people got all awestruck).

Not having to deal with their stupidity seemed like a good way to be able to tell his actual anger management counselor (a weirdo with neon red hair and a grin that wouldn’t die) that he’d taken some of his advice and “removed himself from a trigger for his anger.”

He pictured the asshat’s face on the heavy bag and swung a kick at it.

The cheerful annoyance was just so condescending and annoying. Bastard.

He caught the bag again, dropping his head on it for a moment.

Anger freaking management classes…

How stupid was that?

Weren’t you supposed to be honest and who you are and say what you think and all that crap? How was him telling people they were idiots his problem? How was it his fault that people were dumb?

He’d rather tell them the truth then bother with lying, and biting his tongue to not correct someone obviously wrong was even more dumb.

And seriously, when had it become a rule that he needed to humor the stupid random extras that bugged him on the street, or the zeroes at his current school that he’d leave behind when he got into UA.

Because he was going to leave them all behind.

This was a roadblock, and not a very big one, in the end.

He’d make the entrance exams with no problem and his origin story would be complete.

The only one from his pathetic ass school to make it into U.A.

Because none of the other idiots there were like Deku. They’d never even try to reach so high. The idiots whined and bitched and moaned at having to put in the extra two hours for the mind-numbingly, pathetic sensitivity and bullying awareness class they’d all had to sit through a week after... there’s no way that they’d be able to put in the time and effort it would take to actually reach a top school like U.A., much less dare to actually apply there like Deku and Katsuki had.

Not like U.A. felt that awesome anymore, given that half the useless idiots dealing with the Sludge villain had been freaking alums.

Katsuki shoved away from the bag, spinning around and round-kicking the thing as it swung back from his shove, and he couldn’t quite stop the explosion that detonated from his bare foot, ripping the bag from it’s hinges and slamming it into the wall. Too bad such a kick was too slow to use in real life… When they were backed by explosions, well, the shredded bag spoke for itself.  

Luckily this was an old school gym, so all the regulars barely glanced up when the owner, an American ex-military walking mountain called John that wasn’t afraid to teach people to fight dirty in order to win, looked away from the fighters he was coaching in the ring and yelled, “Bakugou! You’re cleaning that up and hanging another one and it’s on your tab! Stat!”

Still, the blonde skeleton was eyeing him something fierce, so Katsuki bit back the smart remark he wanted to give and stalked over to grab a trash can. At least this bag was one of the ones made mostly of leather and not one of the sand filled ones. Those were a complete pain to clean up.

Katsuki quickly gathered all the big pieces, making a few trips out back to the dumpster, merely grunting at the weirdo when he handed him a broom and dustpan when it was time for all the tiny pieces. Unfortunately, the shards were enough to fill up the trash can again, so Katsuki sighed and yanked the bag out.

He grit his teeth when the weirdo followed him out back to get rid of the bag.

“Want to talk about what had you so angry that you broke your rather excellent streak?” The man asked, sounding way too casual. Katsuki tossed the bag into the dumpster, and took a great amount of pleasure at slamming the lid. As much as he didn’t want to answer the guy, and could probably get away with not doing it, he still felt…

“I’m pissed, okay?”

“Okay,” the man said, sitting down on the crumbling, cinder-block half wall that ran between the graffiti covered back of the gym and the equally colorful tattoo parlor it shared the back alley with (currently the gym was sporting a stylized grim reaper with a sword, and the tattoo parlor was covered in.. well, he thought it was probably a scale but it was covered in too many bodies and flames and stuff to tell for sure.) The wall was stupid as it didn’t do anything but block off the alley to make it impossible for delivery trucks and stuff to back all the way in, and because of that both businesses had to drag their dumpsters to the end of the alley on garbage day, but it apparently solved some type of territory dispute that was a generational hand me down stupidity, so meh.

It felt sadly symbolic of all this anger management crap to him. Kinda useful for something maybe that was completely non-tangible but ultimately kinda stupid and dumb and troublesome for everyone involved.

“Deku’s worth more than most of the idiots that graduated from U.A., and he’s dead.” The man sighed. “I mean, he was a quirkless, shivering, weakling… But you know, he actually tried to help people, even if he got hurt.”

“And they don’t?”

“What news have you been watching?” Katsuki growled at him. Because none of the heroes had gotten more than a slap on the wrist. After all, they’d followed procedure, or “taken appropriate risks for their quirks”, or they’d been “waiting for backup”, or 50 million other things that were basically excuses to have watched Katsuki die rather than actually run into danger like they were trained to do.

Because he would have died if Izuku hadn’t been there and intervened.

And that wasn’t even just his reliving that moment over and over again in his nightmares and daydreams both. Katsuki had watched all the footage of the incident he could get his hands on, listened to the heroes on all the clips, gone through enough what-ifs and roll play scenarios with his stupid therapist to acknowledge the fundamental fact that he had legit thought he was going to die. And he’d watched the heroes either run or do nothing before Deku got there.

Even All Might had been late.

And he hated them for that.

He’d deserved better.

Hell, Deku had deserved better, because he’d been better than all those worthless losers that had bad mouthed him after.

At least Deku had had the guts to do something where they’d just whined like the cowardly little fakes they were.

But no, they got praised, got paid and got recognition, while Deku got dragged through the mud.

It disgusted him a little, to think that U.A. had deemed morons like that heroes, when someone like Deku would have never made their cut. Because they would have dismissed him just like Katsuki had.

Katsuki wasn’t the only one to think so too, as there were online petitions and stuff to add Deku to the U.A. roster posthumously, once it had gotten out that he’d still applied, and had been going through the selection process for the open enrollment test even though he was quirkless.

There were forums that pointed out the contradictions in the original footage released and the cleaned up versions shown on mainstream media, breakdowns on how the quirks there could have been used to contain the situation, just like Deku had done.

Rather than the normal cut and dry hero vs villain story with maybe the occasional crackpot conspiracy theorist, public opinion was actually pretty split for once on if the heroes had done the right thing.

And each of the heroes’ popularity had taken a hit respectively, even the newcomers, though they weren’t in the gutter where Katsuki really thought they should be. He knew enough to keep his mouth quiet in person to not hurt his future career, but if a chance came up in any of the forums that Katsuki watched, or the comment section of a news article, well, he wasn’t shy about making his opinion known.

Katsuki was shaken from his thoughts when the blonde skeleton mused some of his thoughts out loud. “They’re getting quite a bit of flack from their superiors and the media, and word has it All Might wasn’t too big of a fan of their behavior either.”

Katsuki snorted. In the end it was a small comfort that All Might was vocal about support for Izuku’s memory and his bravery. Katsuki considered it the least All Might owed Deku to shoot down every negative question or comment about him. The fact that he did it with a viciousness that was uncharacteristic enough that it just drew more questions and kept the spotlight on the incident was just icing for Katsuki. He hated being portrayed as the victim, but if it meant those losers kept having to get dragged down to have to answer for their words the way Katsuki was…

Well, he’d be more than ready to stack his actions against theirs and come out on top. He’d fought back and been more use than anyone save All Might and Deku against the Sludge villain. His crimes against Izuku were many, and varied, and he was paying for them. Hell, All Might was willingly paying where the rest of the heroes kept trying to dodge the topic. The number one hero now spoke out for many of the programs Auntie Inko had started supporting like anti-bullying initiatives, anti-suicide and teen help programs, and self-defense classes for people’s whose quirks weren’t offensive.

None of it was enough though. “Yeah, but you don’t see anything changing, do you?” He snapped back.

The weirdo looked at him pensively for a moment. “Hmm.”

“What?” Katsuki growled dangerously.

“You know, right now I see someone who wants to be a hero, who knows the pain of loss, but who is continuing to strive towards the goal of being the number one hero. To make it so that when someone is in need, they can stand tall and state 'I am here'.”

Katsuki scowled, lightly kicking the dumpster. Why did people always use freaking All Might as an example... Katsuki, he would be better than All Might. Because he would be there, and he'd be there on freaking time too.

“And I think that he will make a difference, if only because he is too stubborn not to.”

Katsuki glared at him. “Damn straight.”

The man threw his head back and laughed. “Excellent. Now, why don’t you go hang a replacement bag, then meet me out front? I think it’ll do you some good to practice with your explosions to better gauge the strength you put into them, and I have an idea for it.”

Katsuki blinked. “It’s illegal to use a quirk in public without proper supervision around.” He knew this well, as the teacher that had replaced Yamagi was quick to crack down on any quirk use at all, though he had a feeling that would last about as long as the extra counselor at the school (it would be gone within another month or two, at the most.)

The man smiled, “good thing I have a hero mentoring license, then. And as this should help you with the whole helping the community part of being a hero, I think this qualifies for its use.”

Katsuki’s scowl deepened. Yet one more freaking mystery added to the pile.

XxXxX

If anyone ever mentioned junk, or garbage, or trash, or if anyone so much as littered in front of him (seriously, even a damn paper wrapper), Katsuki was going to blow them to smithereens.

He yelled in frustration and kicked a damn old box style TV off of him. Somehow it had been ricocheted backwards by his explosion.

This beach was a damn joke and people were dumb asses and he was going to murder whoever caused this much junk and so help him if the weirdo didn’t stop laughing the man was going to join all the littering bastards in their smoking graves! Screw signing off on not needing someone to follow him around anymore if he finished clearing the damn beach! This sucked!

With a scream, Katsuki launched himself at a refrigerator and he nailed it with a hard enough explosion that it flew backwards and toppled one of the leaning towers of trash, causing half of it to fall into the water.

“You’re collecting all of that before it drifts away or gets buried in the sand by the tide!” The weirdo called out, and Katsuki screamed again.  

XxXxX

Mitsuki walked quickly after her errant child. Katsuki had never really been a latchkey kid, but she and her husband had given the boy probably a bit too much free reign in retrospect. They’d ignored his comings and goings at all hours, him returning home dirty and scraped,  his seeming inability to check in with them, not that they’d checked in with him either, but still..

There was teaching personal responsibility and giving him room to grow, and then being a just plain irresponsible parent.

Given that Katsuki’d always had perfect grades, had carefully chosen, perfect extracurriculars, that teachers praised his Quirk and his chances at actually attending U.A., which lined up with his goal of becoming the number one hero…

She and her husband had always felt that they’d landed on the former side of the scale, rather than the later.

Well, she was much more engaged now, which was why she did not miss him sneaking out of his room at midnight the night before his U.A. Entrance Exams. No matter how much she wanted to have the same trust in him that she would have had 10 months ago before everything went wrong -- that no matter what he was doing it wasn’t too stupid and blissfully go back to sleep before her 7AM meeting -- she had sighed then gotten up to follow him.

She shadowed Katsuki as he walked down the street, taking in his hunched shoulders, the hands shoved in his pockets, how he kicked random rocks in all directions…

She trailed him out of the apartment complex, along the small river that ran along theirs and several other neighboring ones until they reached the large public park near them that bordered some undeveloped conservation lands that all the local children played in.

It was the park that Katsuki and Izuku used to play at when they were little.

Katsuki wandered through the park for a while, being an absolute punk and sliding on the grass, walking on the rails… jumping the benches… doing handstands and balance tricks on the art installations… Generally doing all the things that would get people frowning at him during the day. Mitsuki had just about decided to make her presence known, maybe turn this into some type of bonding moment, when Katsuki, who was currently wandering through the playground, paused in the middle of the sandbox to look down at one corner like it held the answers to the universe.

She wondered what he was seeing?

Maybe he’d talk for once if she asked? MAybe if she agreed to tell an embarrassing story of when she’d been a teenager? There were certainly plenty of them.

Then Katsuki said something that got caught in the wind, and she didn’t quite catch it. She tiptoed closer behind the hedge, hoping to pick out if he said anything else.

“You…” She focused closely, barely able to make out his whispered words. “YOU COMPLETE DEKU!” Never mind… Hopefully the cops wouldn’t be called with the damn racket that her brat was making.

“I’LL PROTECT EVERYONE! I’LL BE THE BEST DAMN HERO EVER!”

Katsuki spun around, glaring up at the sky.

“THE BEST YOU HEAR ME DEKU? BETTER THAN ALL MIGHT EVEN!”

He gestured wildly at the corner.

“I’LL BE THE ONE SAVING PEOPLE AND BEATING THE VILLAINS BOTH SINCE YOU’RE TOO USELESS TO DO THE SAVING WHERE YOU’RE AT! JUST YOU WATCH!”

He spun back around to the corner, and his mouth opened and closed a few times, before Katsuki dropped to his knees in the sand, staring again. “I’ll be the type of hero you were, standing in front of people to protect them. And I’ll crush the exams tomorrow, just like you would’ve too.”

Mitsuki knew that Katsuki probably needed more sleep than he was going to get staying out here when he had the exams in the morning, but she had the feeling he needed whatever cathartic release this was more. With that, Mitsuki turned around and headed home, making a note put one of the energy drinks that her husband hid in his sock drawer thinking she didn’t know about them in her purse. She’d need it given her early morning.

XxXxX

Katsuki casually stretched his arms above his head, twisting to check his full range of motion. He hadn’t been able to get as much parkour and freerunning in lately what with cleaning the stupid beach (he was almost done! No more blonde skeleton if the jerk kept his damn word which he better or Katsuki would blow his freaking skeleton face off!) Ultimately though he wasn’t freaking worried about passing this stupid test. It would have been a breeze way back before he’d kicked up his training game, but now?

He grinned. Now he was going to dominate!

Searching for weak spots to blow up scrap metal? This was practically tailor made for him!

“Hey.” It took Katsuki a minute to realize that the voice was talking to him, but once he did he did he turned and looked. It was a kid that looked like he needed about five solid days of sleep after sticking his finger in an electrical socket. He raised an eyebrow. “You're that kid that messed up with the sludge villain, right?" Katsuki sneered at the fool, biting back his instinctual desire to call the idiot 20 types of idiot. He'd reached 17 on his 10 count before replying to Socket Hair when the moron continued. "You don’t look nervous at all, do you have a plan or is it just more overconfidence and arrogance?”

If this had been 6 months, heck, even 2 months ago, Katsuki would have exploded the idiot into space. Now though, now he managed to keep it to snapping his teeth and rolling his eyes before forcing himself to turn away. He hadn’t made it all the way here to the entrance exams just to lose his place because some pathetic moron wanted to copy his strategy. He’d just have to be blown away with no warning like everyone else.

“What, too scared that your plans sucks to even chat about it with your fellow examinees?”

Oh this jackass did not quit! Katsuki spun around, fists sparking, getting ready to yell at the idiot when he noticed the smirk on the guys face. It was too… Superior... self satisfied. This wasn’t an annoying pain in the ass happy he got a good dig in, this was someone who’d just had a plan come to fruition…

Katsuki dropped his hands and took a step back, and sure enough, the guys smug look faded. “Aww, aren’t you going to stand up for yourself?” Socket hair tried to dig more.

He’d always been smart, had been able to spot patterns and take advantage of them. It was what made him such a good fighter on an instinctive level according to John and the skeleton (since he did have an actual mentor license Katsuki was willing to accept his input on his fighting style.) Plus he had spent hours in the last 10 months pouring over Izuku’s notebooks and internalizing the way he broke quirks down and ID’d weakness…

The kid was asking questions. Pointed, insulting questions right out of the blue. He was trying to provoke a reaction from him. No, not just a reaction. Get him to talk back maybe? Did his quirk require someone to reply verbally to a question of his? What would happen if he did? Maybe control him or steal his quirk or something?

Like hell he’d fall for that.

Katsuki just smirked at him and turned his back on him, facing the doors again. The guy finally sighed and moved on, which definitely was not the reaction of someone trying to pick a fight, so most likely Katsuki had been correct.

If anything it just made him even more confident, he and his quirk had been in the news and online a lot after the sludge villain, and were still brought up occasionally. Everyone here knew he was strong, having someone like Socket Hair try to whatever him was just more proof that these extras all just wanted to either use his strength or sabotage him to better their chances.

He bared his teeth, he’d show them. Show them all, he thought right on time as the doors cracked open.

The moment the doors were wide enough for a single body, Katsuki took off with a blast. He heard curses and shouts from behind him, but ignored  them to use an explosion to give him a boost to absolutely shatter a 3-pointer that had been hovering in the entrance way.

Ha! Did these extras think that villains would give them clear signals on when a fight would start?

After that he boosted himself up into the air with another blast to get a better overview of the situation. The extras were all rushing in after him now, and a few were making use of their quirks, but most were just.. sad… The scrambled around and either they all had non-combat type quirks, or he’d gotten a really stupid batch in with him.

That were country bumpkins or something too, because none of them were using the terrain to their advantage.

The place was huge, like a mini-city, complete with nonsensical gibberish spray painted on the walls (‘Be Judged’, seriously? What were they trying to do, freak them out or pull some other psychological BS?)

Katsuki grinned and quickly dropped onto another 3-pointer, blasting it to smithereens before he immediately leap frogged two 2-point robots off of that. A terrified shout caused him to deviate from the next 3-pointer he’d been aiming at to take out a 1-pointer that had come up behind two of the extras and startled them. “Watch your surroundings, you extras!” He yelled at them, before turning back just in time to see the 3-pointer he'd been targeting stuck to a wall by a bunch of... purple balls?

He screamed and ran forward, moving even faster. No way would another kill be stolen from him!

By the time the ground shook as the huge 0-pointer made its presence known (simple obstacle his fiery ass!), Katsuki was at 46 points. As he looked up at the giant robot, Katsuki flashed back to falling towers of crap and had a brilliant idea on how to get that total even higher. He glanced around, it would work, especially if the way it was keeping to the main streets was any indication of its movement capabilities. There were only a few of the roads he'd seen in his quick canvas that would be able to fit the thing easily.

Still, given how useless so many of these extras were, they'd probably be just like the skeleton and not be able to move in time…

“Yo, Socket Hair!” He screamed at the kid that had questioned him outside the gate, even as he ran up to him and spun him around. The kid snapped his eyes around of the robot to stare at Katsuki incredulously.

“Did you just call me Socket Hair?”

“Use your quirk to get everyone out of the left four upper blocks!”

“What?” The guy asked, blinking at him.

“Are you crazy?” Came a high pitched whiny voice their left, and Katsuki turned to see a tiny little pimple of a kid with purple balls on his head where he should have hair. Katsuki resisted the urge to drop kick the kill-stealer into the things path, he pointed at him.

“Help him! Stick anyone that disagrees to a wall out of the way!”

“Say what?”

“Do it!” he screamed at them, before he raced across the street to a series of balconies that were perfect for reaching the roofs.

“You ARE crazy!” he heard Grape Boy scream, but when Katsuki glanced back as he hit the roof, socket boy was dragging him in the right direction with a determined look on his face.

Katsuki turned back to the 0-pointer and laughed.

This would be a blast!

XxXxX

Katsuki glared at the envelope that had come from U.A. with the mail. His Mother had handed him the envelope and then dragged his Dad into the back.

This was it. The envelope that would tell him if he had really made it one step closer to being the number 1 hero. (Not that a denial would stop him… He’d just have to alter his origin story...)

He scowled at the thing… How pretentious was the stupid wax seal? So dumb, it… It was probably practical… given that there was something inside the letter heavier than a paper... It was circular, a disk maybe?

He swallowed, they wouldn’t send a disk if he was denied, right? No matter how pissed off he’d made tons of Heroes lately, what with being part of the sludge villain debacle and telling off All Might (the jerk deserved it and he was not sorry!) they wouldn’t send him a video denial just to taunt him, right?

With that, Katsuki bit his lip and ripped the envelope open. A folded piece of paper fell out, along with a small sliver device that he barely managed to catch. He looked it over, and swallowing, put it on the kitchen table, with the side that looked like the glass on a projector facing up.

After a horrendously long moment it activated and a gigantic projection of All Might’s face appeared right in front of him. Katsuki blinked. The hell?

“I am here as a projection!” Boomed All Might’s voice.

“No shit…” Katsuki growled at it. What did they think people were, stupid?

“You may be wondering,” the projection continued. “why I am here!” Katsuki blinked again. “I am actually here in town to teach at U.A.!”

Katsuki blinked again. “WHAT!?” He screamed at the thing. The actual orchestral music in the background of the projection stopped, and All Might’s face transitioned to something slightly more serious.

“Katsuki Bakugou, you passed the written exam, and received 89 villain points on your practical exam,” Katsuki couldn’t help but smirk as he pictured that giant 0-pointer toppling over onto a bunch of smaller robots that he’d lured in. It was beautiful!

“Still,” Katsuki met the projections eyes, just a little worried. He could just imagine it, he’d be denied because All Might hated him… “That is not everything we factor into your score. Take a look at this video!” All Might poised grandly and pointed a remote at a screen on the wall behind him. Was the wall red and pink… WITH GOLD SPARKLES?

Then the video clicked on, and it showed him saving the two at the beginning, then sticking together to watch each other’s back and they actually managed to take out a few robots, saving a few others as they went. It then flashed to Socket Hair and Grape Boy running through the testing area. Socket hair was yelling at people, getting them to do what he said as he directed them into groups that took down machines and dodged the 0-pointer together in a manner that was astonishing given how badly they’d all been doing when they’d first gotten into the testing area while Grape Boy took out any machines that got near him. It showed them canvasing the section he’d called out, with Socket Hair pissing people off into cursing at him, and then just doing what he said when he directed them to different quadrants, Grape Boy still covering him. (Katsuki knew he’d crow to himself later at getting Socket Hair’s quirk figured out all on his own.)

“Your actions spurred others to act.” All Might turned to face him again. “The practical exam was not just graded on villain points!”

Katsuki wanted to scream. Of course it wasn’t…

“U.A. strives to train heroes that save others and do the right thing. U.A. is not an institution that just pays lip service to the ideals of being a hero! Bring it on! This is a job that requires risking one’s life to put that lip service into practice!”

Katsuki jumped to his feet, staring at the projection in shock, barely registering the chair falling behind him.

“Rescue points!”

“Katsuki Bakugou, 50 rescue points!” His eyes widened, glazing over as he tallied his score up trying desperately to figure out if it was enough, ignoring as All Might explained the others got rescue points as well for their actions.

“With 139 points, you pass!” All Might finished with, and Katsuki felt something start to build up inside of him. “Come, young Bakugou, to your hero academia.” Katsuki clenched his fists, slamming them on the table, a wild grin taking over his face as All Might continued. “I am sure that when you are done with your time here, you will be able to stand tall as a hero Young Izuku would be glad to call friend.” With that, the projection went dark, and Katsuki couldn’t help yelling in joy and letting off small explosions into the air.

He’d made it!

Chapter Text

Toshinori Yagi took a deep breath and opened the door to class 1-A, only to step into a bright, sunlit day. He blinked.

“So you did show up,” he spun around to face the voice, and saw Young Bakugou standing there in the dark suit he had worn to… He looked around and found himself standing in the outdoor garden of the funeral home where they had paid their last respects to Young Midoriya. “Good, Deku deserves you to be the hero he imagined you as.” His face was twisted in smirk at the end, making it clear that Young Bakugou thought he failed at being a hero.

He looked down and found himself in the dark costume he had worn to the funeral. It had only felt right to wear the costume rather than a suit. After all, as far as he was concerned, Young Midoriya was a hero and deserved to be honored in colors like all fallen heroes. This poor boy who had saved someone when no one else did. And it was not just Young Bakugou that he saved, but Toshinori too.

That he moved even when he was so relatively powerless, had reminded him that he could still do something; had forced him to stop wallowing and had given him strength to keep fighting the pain burning through his chest. He’d been fighting it all day, every day, for so long that he hadn’t realized he’d begun to give into it, begun to let it drag him down. There were still bad days, but he was able to claw back from the darkness eating at his spirit just that little bit easier. He had remembered what PLUS ULTRA ment, and started living by it again.

A woman sobbed, and he spun to stare wide eyed at Inko Midoriya, standing alone apart from a large, faceless crowd hunched over an open coffin. He blinked. Young Midoriya had had a closed coffin tsuya and kokubetsu-shiki given the extent of the injuries he had received in the battle against the sludge monster and his dea- his later actions.

“You should go see him,” Young Bakugo’s voice had turned harsh again. Judging. Accusing. Daring. He looked down at the boy’s disdainful glare.

“I-”

“You should see the results of how pathetic you are now,” another familiar voice came, and he spun to see Gran Torino in his own funeral colors standing beside Inko. His old features focused on Toshinori. “How you’ve wasted her gift since you let your fight with him hurt your feelings.”

His chest seized. “I didn-”

“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?” Naomasa said from beside him, and Toshi looked at him. His friend shrugged. “You know I’m always there to help you when things get tough, but that starts with you admitting your failures.”

“I thought you said it wasn’t my fault,” he replied.

Naomasa gave a sad smile, “I saw the truth in your words.”

“Move it, loser,” Young Bakugou snapped as he stalked past him towards the funeral party. He knelt next to Inko and bowed towards the coffin. Toshinori hesitantly took a few halting steps forward, this just seemed…

“Move, brat!” A kick unexpectedly landed solidly in the center of his back, throwing him forward to the coffin, which he clutched at until he could regain his balance, only for his eyes to widen and he spun around in shock to gape at Nana where she stood, glaring at him in the harsh light of the cemetery. “Look at what you did,” she told him as she pointed at him.

No. At the coffin.

Toshinori grit his teeth and turned back to look into the open casket. Young Midoriya was there, looking exactly as he had when Toshinori had laid him out on the gurney at the hospital.

Suddenly the boys bright green eyes snapped open and Toshinori scrambled backwards. “You were my hero,” his voice drifted from the coffin, and he felt his heart seize harder.

“I know I was,” he whispered back.

“Do you? I had nothing and no one stood up for me. Helped me. But I still had faith in you.”

“I know,” he replied.

“I was right in front of you, All Might, and you crushed me.”

“I know,” he replied. He wasn’t sure the words had come out of his mouth, but Midoriya heard him.

“You’re not a real hero anymore,” the boy bit out, and that one, more than the others, hit Toshinori like an arrow straight through the heart. From all accounts, the boy had truly been in the running for his biggest fan. He’d practically worshiped the ground he walked on with a fervent hope to be saved from, well, probably from everything. And the way Toshinori had acted, the way he’d forgotten how to surpass his limits and make himself a better person each day than he was the last, how he’d failed to act when someone was in trouble right in front of him…

He hadn’t been a hero anymore when he’d met Midoriya.

Not in any sense of the word.

And that had lead to the boy’s death.

“No, and you deserved better,” he finally managed to reply, his voice cracked.

“And if you failed me, someone who needed you the absolute most. How badly will you fail them?” Midoriya asked, and Toshinori blinked.

“Wh-”

“Because that’s what you do, isn’t it?” Nana spoke from behind him, “You fail when it really matters.” He turned to face her, trying not to show how her words stung. “You’ll fail them just like you did us.” She spread her hands and suddenly, laid out before him, were more rows of coffins. Dozens of them… Hundreds...

Their lids stood open, and in each one lay a student; one of the new heroics class that he would be responsible for teaching at UA.

“You’ll definitely fail us, because you’re just pathetic like that,” Young Bakugou taunted as he passed him to stand by an empty coffin. “After all, you already stood by and watched once as I was nearly killed. The next time won’t be any different.”

“No I-” he reached his hand out desperately, hoping to grab the boy, only for him to vanish in an instant and reappear in the coffin.

“All you’ll do is leave children’s bodies in your wake,” Nana’s voice hissed out, and Toshinori woke with a scream.

XxXxX

Katsuki stalked through the Halls of U.A. with a scowl on his face. He’d tried to keep a calm demeanor on his way in, only to be met by stares and whispers. After the long train ride from his apartment with people side-eyeing him for his U.A. uniform and mutters about that damn sludge villain and Izuku, Katsuki’s patience was gone.

Well, screw all of these damn extras.

He belonged here more than any of them. He’d worked harder than most of these losers to get here, been through more. He had the highest entrance score not just for his year, but since All Might himself (damnit, if he’d gotten just 2 more points!)

He had more of a reason now to want to be a hero than ever. And that reason mattered .

They’d just have to get used to being around his damned awesome greatness and deal, because like hell would he run now that he was finally here.

With a savage grin he stalked into his classroom and glared at the startled looks on the faces of the few people already in there. Suck it losers , he thought, whether you want to or not you have to deal with me !

He quickly scanned the few other students already in the room, aside from a kid with a bird head and completely pink girl, they all appeared fairly average in looks, which meant that they likely had emitter type quirks. Well, Socket Hair was here, and he looked more like a ghost than anything else.

His eyes finally landed on the last student in one of the rows and he scowled. Of course he’d end up in the same class as the kid of the number 2 hero. Well, he’d just have to beat the crap out of him too.

He marched forward and threw his bag into his desk, dropping into his seat and kicking his feet up on the desk to wait for everyone else to get here. At least he had a good view of the door so he could scope out the rest of the competition.

“Excuse me, but would you put your feet down please?” Came a loud, arrogant sounding voice. Katsuki leaned back, and glared at the tall guy that spoke. He looked so buttoned up and pissy that he was definitely a private school jackass. Had probably never met a rule he didn’t bend over for. With a smirk he deliberately crossed his legs and made sure his foot hit the desk with a thunk.

The other kid bristled, but before he could say anything, their line of sight was broken. Katsuki looked up to see Socket Hair standing in front of him, glaring over his shoulder at the walking rule book. He narrowed his eyes, like hell he needed to be protected from whatever sad argument that moron would be able to dredge up! He’d bet 20,000 yen that it would involve something about the student handbook with a good dose of respect sprinkled in.

“What are y-”

“I wanted to say thanks,” the guy interrupted him as he turned his head back to face Katsuki and met his eyes. “For what you did in the test.”

Katsuki blinked. “What?”

“I had managed to disable a few 1-pointers, but I don’t think that I would have been here without the rescue points from helping everyone get out of the way of your crazy stunt. So, thanks.”

Which meant that basically he was a loser that got lucky, and not competition.

“Psst. Whatever, Socket Hair,” he growled out.

“It’s Hitoshi Shinso,” the guy said.

“Whatever,” Katsuki glared back.

“You really are a number, aren’t you?”

“What?” Katsuki snapped back, getting ready to blast this sidekick through a window, when the world went all black and soft around him. He blinked back to reality to find himself sitting properly at his desk, his feet planted firmly on the floor. “The hell!” Katsuki snapped, jumping to his feet and getting right in Socket Hair’s face.

The other boy just smirked at him, “it figures you would be an arrogant, spoile-”

“No fighting!” Rule Book jammed himself in between the two of them, “it is explici-”

“Back off!” “Shut up!” He and Socket Hair spat out at the same time, and Rule Book glared at them both and promptly ignored them both to launch into a the same blah blah blah lecture that Katsuki had had pegged from the beginning, all rule book this, and respect that, and heroes in training now and he’d had enough of his mindless sheep behavior. At least Socket Hair wasn’t boring. “It’s not like most heroes aren’t even more pathetic assholes than you, so take your rulebook and shove it up your ass! I’ll be the damn best anyway!” Katsuki snapped at him.

There was a small snort of laughter from behind him, and he spun to glare at Endeavor’s perfect little prince, who was eyeing them amusedly. “And you can shove it up your half-and-half ass too!”

“Dude, you have like, no chill.” Katsuki spun and gaped at a red-head with the weirdest hairdo he’d seen since grape boy that was staring at him with a grin. The rest of the class, who had now filed in (it also included grape boy, he thought with a sneer), was staring at him too, and Katsuki felt his hackles start to rise.

“Alright fine, all of-”

“Shut up and sit down, all of you!” a tired, scratchy voice from the front of the room boomed out, and as one they all turned to stare. The only thing there was a yellow caterpillar type thing in the doorway. No wait, was that a sleeping bag?

“Did I stutter?” The voice came from the bag, and like some dark, demony figure emerging from the depths of hell, a guy in all black, with bandages piled around his neck, crazy hair, and deeper, darker bags under his eyes than Socket Hair, unfurled from the bag.

Crap, the teacher.

This was such a great first impression.

XxXxX

It was barely an hour later, and Katsuki was re-thinking his own first opinion of the teacher.

“It looks fun… You say?” The sleepy eyed, cantankerous slob asked in response to the loud, happy exclamations his classmates had let out at the idea they could use their quirks. Yeah, the opinion was steadily decreasing and he didn’t see whatever came next making it better, screw what his therapist said about thinking positive.

Katsuki squared his shoulders and shifted on the balls of his feet, the hairs on the back of his neck raising. This guy’s tone was just…

It was dismissive.

Apathetic.

It would have already gotten on his nerves before, but now it reminded him of his old teachers and every time Katsuki himself had used that tone in the past. And this guy was another supposed hero. He was supposed to be different. If Katsuki’s opinion got any lower, he’d have to hand the guy a jackhammer to start digging back up through the bedrock soon.

“So you were planning to spend your three years here,” the man followed up with a sarcastic taunt as he held his hand out to them. There was a feeling growing from the others behind him that reminded him way, way to much of Izuku right before… The way the tension and fear was palpable all around him made him want to shiver. “Having a good ol’ time? What happened to becoming heroes?” Though really, this guy made him mad enough to shove down the feeling.

“All right then. In that case, new rule: the student who ranks last in total points will be judged ‘hopeless’ and instantly expelled.”

“SCREW THAT!” Katsuki screamed on pure impulse. Hopeless! Based on a damn quirk before they’d gotten any training?

Izuku…

Izuku would have failed based on those measures, and that was stupid. He could see that now, how biased and pathetic and wrong that was. How wrong he’d been...

Izuku’d been more of a hero than anyone and he hadn’t needed a stupid quirk.

“What was that?” His teacher growled at him, his eyes narrowed. Thanks to months of hard work with the skeleton and his anger management teacher, Katsuki managed not to launch himself at the man, but it was close.

Wasn’t U.A. supposed to teach them to save people? To use what they had to get better?

To become heroes?

Well, they also turned out half the useless extras that wouldn’t do anything to save him simply because their quirks weren’t ‘advantageous’ for the scenario.

Of course they’d judge people just based on their quirks, just like…

Just like he used to. And if Katsuki was better than that now… The person responsible for his hero training should be too.

“IT’S STUPID! IT ISN’T A QUIRK THAT MAKES A HERO!”

Well, okay, he wasn’t better to the point he could completely hold back his temper when stupid idiots didn’t check their damn selves.

He also couldn’t quite stop the explosions from sparking at his fingers, only for them to stop suddenly, and without his willing it. Before he could blink, the bandages wrapped around the teacher’s neck were wrapping Katsuki up like a damn mummy.

“Katsuki Bakugou, detention. If you don’t get expelled, that is.”

Katsuki’s curses were muffled by the stupid bandages. Screw this! They could give him all the detention they wanted. That didn’t stop him from being right. And if he had to beat it into their dumb heads as he stepped over them to become the number 1 hero, well, all the more fun for him.

XxXxX

If Katsuki hadn’t already had up close experience with All Might, he’d probably be just as awe struck as the rest of the class as they headed out of the changing rooms to meet the top hero for their first battle trial. Even more than yesterday’s quirk assessment, this would be his chance to finally, finally showcase exactly how far above these extras he was.

XxXxX

Katsuki wanted to hit something. Rather than a glorious battle that would put him firmly at the top of the class hierarchy, he’d faced Socket Hair and a round faced girl. Round Face had some potential, sure, with the way she managed to send them both into the ceiling to try and knock him out…

But both of them needed gym time with actual fighting instructors.

Socket Hair especially. He was so focused on using his quirk to stop a fight, he had no clue what to do when someone ignored his verbal taunts and moved in to beat the crap out of him.

It had been way too easy to power through the both of them.

It felt like a stupidly cheap win.

Especially as he listened to Miss Pony Tail break the fight down. Then to have that pathetic failure All Might agreeing with her that Rule Book had been the VIP due to Katsuki letting off explosions too close to what was supposed to be a nuclear weapon...

The feeling only intensified as he watched the rest of the fights, especially with that damn half-and-half just icing the whole building. He’d done it in a quarter of the time Katsuki had taken and none of the property damage so long as the thing was aired out properly.

By the time class was done he found himself in the type of mood that he now recognized as dangerous. It wasn’t made better by the skeleton’s calling him almost the very second the moment the final bell rang. The last thing he needed right now was to be spoken down to. With a growl he swiped his screen to ignore the skeleton’s call and stormed out of the classroom to go somewhere he new would cheer him up until he had to meet his stupid parents for a get together to discuss his first few days at school. Which would be just a perfect way to end this day.

Maybe he could blow himself up and spend the night with Recovery Girl after he was done at his first stop.

XxXxX

Katsuki took a deep breath as he stood outside Inko Midoriya’s apartment, ignoring the small shrine to the right of the door. After Izuku left them, there had been more than a few people that would leave little things in memory of him, both here and at the hospital. Since he’d last visited it had grown a few more flowers, candles, and another All Might figure. There were even stickers around the picture of Izuku now, most were of All Might, but then there were super girls hearts, and a few circle stickers with 2s and Js in them, that roughly matched the symbol on his gym wall. (Maybe it was a band logo or something that he wasn’t up on?)

He half thought it was stupid that people who had never met the damn ball of stuttering fluff were so invested in him now. If they really cared, they would have done it while he was still alive, but Katsuki wasn’t really one to talk. If anything, well… Forget it.

Katsuki knocked on the door.

“Coming! Just a second!” Auntie Inko called out, and he smiled as he heard something inside the apartment fall. Probably a huge stack of flyers or pamphlets he’d need to help her pick up. In spite of his Mother’s best efforts, Inko’s apartment had been mostly taken over by all of her volunteer efforts.

The door swung open, and Inko peered out, “Kacchan! Oh, my gosh, you look so handsome in your uniform! How were your first few days at U.A.? What was it like? Did you make any new friends?”

He couldn’t help but give a little laugh and Inko suddenly flushed. “Oh, what a space case I am! You should come in!” She scuttled back and leaned over to pull out some house slippers for him before turning to rush towards the kitchen, barely dodging a large stack of booklets, calling over her shoulder as she went. “Let me get you some water, and would you like a snack?” He kicked off his shoes and pulled the slippers on before trailing after her.

“Just water is fine, Auntie Inko.”

He picked up one of the booklets and flipped through it. It was a workbook for training teachers on how to identify bullying and basic steps to take, along with additional resources. He set it back down, and glanced around until he saw the stack - well, stacks actually - of pamphlets that had been knocked over earlier.

He knelt by them and started gathering them up. Once he’d finished, he snagged the top one. On the front was a picture of All Might, with the words “How to Be an Everyday Hero!” emblazoned on the front.

He snorted and opened the glossy paper. It was a bunch of cutesy crap about heroes helping others even without thanks, with being respectful of the people around you, of working hard. Being creative with everything that you had and not leaving anyone out.

“Those are for grade schools,” he looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. She smiled as she handed him the glass of water. “They might not have that large of an impact, but every little bit helps, you know?”

He couldn’t say anything, so he just nodded.

“Now, tell me all about U.A.!”

Somehow, the only thing that really came to mind was, “Izuku would have had a blast, and maybe yelled at the teacher if he wasn’t too terrified of him.”

She giggled. “I take it that means that you yelled at your teacher? I hope you didn’t get in too much trouble!”

He launched into a (slightly edited) story about how the last two days went, leaving out that he’d be in detention for a while later this week. She tutted over the “logical ruse” that the teacher employed, and made grateful noises that no one in the class had been expelled.

He took more than a small bit of pride in the fact that he had her practically rolling on the floor in laughter with his nicknames for his classmates, and if he maybe changed several of them to be slightly nicer than what he originally thought up, well, no one needed to know.

By the time he was done, it was fairly late, and Katsuki realized that if he didn’t take off soon he’d be late for dinner with his parents to celebrate starting U.A. He didn’t even hesitate before asking Auntie Inko if she’d like to come along, and the woman agreed with a bright smile.

They had just enough time that they took a meandering route, and ended up walking along the beach that Katsuki mostly had cleared at this point. He had like 50 meters more to go, but a lot of that was shoved against the wall of the beach, so you could see the horizon stretching on for what seemed like forever (especially if you’d sweated and fought that damn junk over every millimeter of it).

Not that he would tell anyone, but it felt a little, heartwarming, maybe, to see Inko’s joyful grin at the view, and the way she pulled off her shoes to dance a little on the sand. There were also some kids down by the pavilion building sandcastles, something they wouldn’t have been able to do even a few weeks ago.

It put him in enough of a good mood that he didn’t mind texting his parents to meet them here rather than at the restaurant so they could all walk over together. Then he pulled off his own shoes to join Inko in the sand and help keep her from falling over in her enthusiasm.

Izuku would have loved seeing his mother so happy. He’d always worried, especially since his Dad… Even when he’d been freaking 3 years old he’d done everything that he could to make his mother smile.

Inko became winded fairly soon, and after putting their shoes back on, they moved to sit on the steps of one of the staircases leading up to the street while they waited for Katsuki’s parents to come. They sat in a peaceful silence, Inko watching the waves while Katsuki was eyeing the graffiti someone had scrawled on the wall, trying to figure out what the super stylized crap said (some random words and names? Something about a stain? And was that turn?) and wondering if the skeleton would make him clean it off, until, “Aww…. How cute? Are you on a date with your sugar momma, sludge boy?” came a slimy, disgusting voice from above him.

Katsuki looked up and blinked. hovering above them, draped all over the railing, were several annoying teenage thug wannabes. They all had died hair, and were wearing, well, super basic school uniforms that didn’t really pinpoint a school. Every single jacket hung open to reveal t-shirts with English swear words on them, and they all had that haphazard over-accumulation of super-obvious chains and piercings and shit that meant they were trying way too hard to look tough without an actual idea of what ‘tough’ really meant.

Which was dumb, because any halfway decent fighter knew that things like nose chains were basically just targets.

If you were doing it for aesthetics or fashion or whatever, fine, do whatever the hell you wanted, but if you were going to instigate a fight, at least pretend to be serious!

He was just getting ready to snap back, when a soft, slightly shaking hand touched his. “Let’s just head over to the shop over there and wait, Kacchan,” Inko said softly. He risked a glance at her and saw how wide and nervous her eyes were.

He almost snapped that he would protect her, but a quick flash of Izuku standing before him, shaking, made him stop. He didn’t want to see Inko get that bad.

“Tch, fine,” he said. Standing up and reaching a hand down to help Inko to her feet, managing to mostly ignore the jeers the idiots were throwing their way, words like ‘kiss up’, ‘whiny baby’, and ‘fake’, making their way through the loud mental voice counting to 100 in his head.

They’d reached the top of the steps, only to be halted by one of the wannabes stepping in front of them. “And here I thought you’d be tough, what with the U.A. uniform and having the stupid gall to tell off All Might! Instead you’re just a pussy!” The guy practically sang, and his brown eyes started glowing the same pink as his hair. Katsuki didn’t hesitate. clutching Inko and dragging her down out of the way, just in time to avoid being hit by the beams of whatever it was that those eyes emitted. He planted his foot and jumped up and away from Inko, launching straight into clotheslining the waste of a quirk. He easily slipped that into a choke hold, dragging the idiot’s head back so that the beams from his eyes were well under Katsuki’s guided control. He forced them away from Inko and towards the bulk of the other thugs, and they all at least managed to scatter to avoid being hurt. Luckily, they were placed in a way that Katsuki was able to keep the guy’s head mostly pointed at the water to avoid any collateral damage.

“Let him go you damn loser!” One of the other thugs shouted, a guy with long white hair just begging to be used as a hand hold to slam his stupid face into the ground, and Katsuki just sneered at him.

“Oh, shove it you damn extra!” The guy scowled and raised a hand that, was he growing some type of bone knife out of his palm? The guy switched his grip on it in a way that meant he probably actually knew how to use the thing, and Katsuki shifted to be able to throw the fool he was holding head first at him, only for the knife to be yanked out of his hand by an invisible force. Katsuki’s eyes went wide as he saw it fly through the air to land smack dab into Inko’s hand.

“Don’t you dare touch him!” Inko shouted, and Katsuki gaped at her in shock. Luckily he recovered quickly enough that he was able to dodge the metal pipe one of the other thugs aimed at his head, swinging the head of the beam guy at the purple-haired moron. Didn’t he know that head injuries weren’t like in the damn movies? You only did that shit if you actually wanted to kill someone, and these idiots didn’t seem like the damn type to want that level of heat.

The purple-haired guy wasn’t quite able to dodge in time, and Katsuki was half worried for a second, until his eyes turned pink, and he dropped to his knees, with proverbial hearts floating around him. “Haru, I never noticed how hot you were! Would you go on a date with me?”

“The heck?” Katsuki blinked. “Love me beams? Are you serious? You tried to hit Inko with those!”

“Turn them off man!” One of the other thugs shouted.

“You know it takes five minutes!” The guy managed to ground out through Katsuki’s choke hold.

“Then at least close your eyes!” Another shouted, and Katsuki almost wanted to facepalm. These idiots seriously thought that they could take him?

Some people…

Fortunately the idiot did close his eyes, finally, but before Katsuki could do anything, he was interrupted again.

“Well, what’s going on here?” Katsuki scowled up at the three heroes that were now posing oh so heroically for the crowds that had started to gather on the boardwalk, watching them.

And none of those damn extras had thought to, he didn’t know, help? Somehow he had the feeling that half his anger management issues would be solved if people weren’t people.

“Haru is amazing is what is going on!” The love beam struck idiot called out, and the audience had the freaking chops to laugh, while the heroes (who were sad enough he didn’t even know their names), just smirked.

“They tried to attack us, Katsuki protected me,” Inko cried, turning on waterworks that were - okay if he didn’t know better he’d think that they were strong enough to dent the ground.

The heroes took a step forward, and the rest of the thugs finally realized what type of position they were in and bolted. Katsuki sighed as two of the heroes took off after them while one stayed to deal with the guy Katsuki had in his clutches and the lovestruck idiot too out of it on his buddy’s quirk to run.

“That was quite impressive young man! Heroics department, I take it?”

Katsuki scowled. “Can you restrain this guy first, you-”

“Brat!” Came a snapped voice, and Katsuki turned his head to glare at his Mother, who had fought her way to the front, his Father apologizing behind her to the people she had steam rolled. “What mess did you drag Inko into?”

Katsuki hit his head against the idiot he had in a choke hold. He just couldn’t win today.

XxXxX

A video feed played in the darkened bar that served as the defacto headquarters of the League of Villains, showing one Katsuki Bakugou yelling at his Mother in front of a crowd while a hero in an orange suit tried hopelessly to mediate. Two of the fools that wanted to join the league they had sent to harass Bakugou as a test were wrapped up like mummies at the group’s feet.

While he’d known how this was going to turn out, he’d still entertained the farce to indulge his so called council which was scattered about the bar currently watching the live feed with him, if only to stop their bickering on the matter.

“Hmm, he’d be a decent pawn for our cause,” Shigaraki Tomura mused, from where he lounged at the bar itself, idly tapping his latest portable game system against it. He gave it less than five minutes before the man-child disintegrated it accidentally in his distraction over the video and threw a fit.

“More like a hopeless brat,” another snapped. This one was a very interesting new addition to the ranks, his presence a testament to the persuasive power of his latest apprentice. Perhaps he’d been the catalyst for Shigaraki to insist on Bakugou? Perhaps he was feeling jealous of his younger, well, perhaps he should call the boys siblings? It would go so well with the image he was now presenting. “He’s more interested in fighting and being right than anything else. He’d be trouble, and not worth it, given the rumors of the interest All Might has taken in him.”

“Even more reason to pick him,” another new voice to their group hissed. At his heart, this one was more of a follower, but he did have to admit the man and the little minion at his feet did know how to manipulate the audience they were currently targeting. “All Might is the only hero worth anything, if he thinks the kid has value even with how disrespectful and brattish the boy is, that says something.”

Another figure shrugged, before stepping into the dull light by the bar to snag another drink from Kurogiri, revealing himself to be the villain, and more importantly broker, Giran. “It rarely hurts to ask, as long as we do it properly. I can put some feelers out?”

“You already have enough on your plate,” the hissing voice replied, “what with sorting all the riff-raff like that,” he waved at the fools on the screen, “from the gems.”

“Ahh, but for the right price stretching myself is always worth it.” Now that was a mind that he appreciated, one that knew when to pry and when not to, utterly devoid of ethics, with an eye for spotting talent and a loyalty only to himself and the call of money.

“Tch, mercenary,” the one that had disagreed with Tomura bit out.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing?”

The smallest figure in the room mostly ignored them all, staring at the plump figure sitting crying on the steps being consoled by Bakugou’s father.

He frowned.

“Come away from there, Little Rabbit,” he called from the darkest corner, his voice silencing the room. He stretched his hand out from his shadowed seat. The boy didn’t hesitate before rushing to him. He rubbed his hand lightly over the boy’s hooded head, before pushing the concealing fabric off to better view his face. Currently the child sported a black eye and a nick on his cheek from the combat training that their interesting new recruit had insisted on, but the damage did little to detract from how… Fluffy… the boy looked.

He truly appeared so innocent in comparison to the dangerous, diamond-like mind he possessed.

There was nothing about the boy that really gave away how truly formidable he was, which could definitely be used to his distinct advantage now that the boy was truly broken to his will and how he proved it with the glorious new generals currently at his beck and call. This child that broke down heroes and villains alike as if they were mere toys, found trends, picked at weaknesses, found openings he wouldn’t have imagined and manipulated everything just so.

He’d had no idea how lucky he’d been when he’d plucked this boy from the hospital right under All Might’s stupid smug nose on a whim.

Izuku Midoriya was worth far more than just another fighter like Katsuki Bakugou, no matter how skilled or polarizing the blonde was.

While he’d indulged Shigaraki in this little test, cementing Izuku’s loyalty even further by giving him the crumpled body of his tormenter and then letting him choose what to do with it would provide him with far more value.

Chapter Text

“He’s not just an angry brat, you know,” Shota Aizawa turned and looked and one of the latest annoying idiot that was making his life more difficult. Toshinori Yagi was propped against the wall in the corridor leading to the first year classrooms, his arms crossed over his stick-thin chest.

On an intellectual level he understood why the man was at U.A., could even applaud it.

A power like his shouldn’t be allowed to die if it didn’t have to, and there was only so long that Yagi would be able to keep fighting.

A small part, however, was pissed because of all the extra security they were having to implement around the school due to his presence, not to mention the mob of reporters that were now practically glued to the front gates.

Worst of all, his presence in the city had thrown the normally clock-work machinations of the local villain populations into chaos, making it so that he got even less sleep than normal. And Aizawa knew it would only get worse as classes ramped up, especially as they’d need to start prepping for the Sports Festival soon and his current class would need quite a bit of work.

“Hmm?” He replied to the man’s statement.

“Bakugou. He’s not just a hot headed kid.” Aizawa raised an eyebrow in response to the almost reproachful tone. “He has some issues that he’s working through. You should adapt your teaching style.”

Oh no. The blonde did not go there. “You’re telling me how to be a teacher?” He asked. All Might was many things, but an expert on children and the teaching of children he was not. The man had had exactly one side kick, and Sir Nighteye pretty much took care of All Might back when they were a team, not just himself.

Aside from that, he could calm down and help traumatized kids until professionals arrived, but that was about it.

From what he’d heard in the staff room, the man had even been given a teaching certificate based on ‘real world experience’ and hadn’t needed to go through even one of the many courses the rest of them had needed to. Plus, he’d only be here until he found his successor. In conclusion, he didn’t have any room to talk at all, whatsoever, and Aizawa pitied the teachers who would have to pick up the slack (one of them, undoubtedly, being him). In all honesty, there were few things more dangerous than an idiot in charge of a bunch of hormonal, influenceable, starstruck, teenagers. Especially teenagers with top of the range quirks.

“No, no, no, definitely not!” the man backpedalled a bit, waving his arms. “Just that I’ve spent quite a bit of time working with him these past 10 months, and he’s grown leaps and bounds, but there are still deep seated issues he needs to deal with. I’m not sure that tying him up and throwing him in detention is going to help.”

Aizawa narrowed his eyes. “If he disrupts class like he did, talks back like he did, and is generally as disruptive as he was, he will get punished. I don’t care who he knows, he’s not getting special treatment or a free pass.” He paused, considering the man in front of him, who seemed a bit torn, and decided to toss him a bone. A small one. “My detentions are individualized though, and I’ll keep your opinion in mind as I evaluate him.”

The man nodded in return, “Thank you.”

“Now, if you’re done, I am actually late to deal with the brats,” he practically growled as he stalked past All Might.

“If you don’t appreciate them, why are you a teacher?” Came the question from behind him, and from the sound of it, it was something that he wasn’t meant to hear.

He rolled his eyes over his shoulder at the number one hero. “Rookie.”

XxXxX

Katsuki blinked as he stared at the tally for who was going to be the class representative. That blinked again.

There was really only one response to it. “YOU ARE ALL FREAKING OUT OF YOUR DAMN MINDS!”

He hadn’t even voted for himself, but somehow he had gotten 3 freaking votes . Ponytail chick was in second place with 2 votes, which was fine. But who would be so damn stupid as to think he wanted to deal with all the wannabe hero crap that came along with being class rep, especially with a dick like Aizawa as their teacher! He did not want to do this! (Okay, so he had been toying with trying to be class rep no matter how frustrating he knew it would be until he actually met Aizawa. Well, at least his Anger Management guy would be able to positively mark him down as avoiding his triggers.)

It was a good shot at more visibility with the heroes that worked with the school, but ultimately Katsuki probably had enough already. Besides, if the soul searching he’d done this summer had taught him anything, it was that while he could buckle down and handle book work or junk like that if he needed to, he wasn’t a fan of it otherwise. Plus he got way too impatient with the type of stupid stuff a class rep had to do, and like heck was he going to responsible for herding this particular bunch of cats when it came to things like school trips or actually telling them to bow to idiots he didn’t respect.

Not worth his time.

Hell, he’d voted for Rule Book... All that crap seemed right up his alley.

Katsuki glared around the room, trying to figure out who had given him, of all people, this stupid-ass job. Unfortunately pretty much everyone had the same type of dumbfounded, BS look on their faces as he’d had before he blew up.

He growled.

These idiots were pretty damn useless anyway you looked at it.

He scowled, and pointed at Rule Book, “my votes go to the walking Rule Book.”

“What?” the Rule Book practically screeched, drowning out the shock from the rest of the classroom.

“SHUT UP!” Katsuki bellowed, making pretty much all of them eep and shut up.

Katsuki took a deep breath to yell at them again, only for an eraser to hit him on the back of his head. “Choose more quietly.”

Katsuki clenched his fists… 100. 99. 98. 97. 96. 95. 94. 93...

He got to 58 before Rule Book tentatively raised his hand. Katsuki sighed and pointed at him. “While I am immensely honored I-”

The bell rang for lunch and Katsuki rolled his eyes and stormed out.

XxXxX

Katsuki couldn’t quite manage a scowl as he poked at the bento Auntie Inko had dropped off for him that morning. It had freaking hot dog octopuses. Octopi. Whatever.

And the rice was shaped like a panda with seaweed for the dark spots.

Izuku would have freaking sparkled over how damn cute it was.

Well, at least having a packed lunch meant he could eat outside and not have to deal with all the idiots in the lunchroom. Normally he just bought his lunch at school, but maybe he should look into bringing one more often? He’d never really minded eating in crowded lunchrooms before, but the quiet out here was kind of nice.

He’d managed to find an empty, waist high, cement planting box against the side of the building that he could eat (hide) in. He sighed, dropping his head back against the corner of the wall he was leaning against. The way he was placed he wouldn’t be able to be seen from the walkways or most of the windows, but if someone happened to be in the right spot in what appeared to be a hall leading to a storage room, they’d be able to spot him from the window on the right. That was it, though. Basically he doubted anyone would find him.

Which was fine.

He was too tired to deal with all the idiots at this stupid school and th-

REET! REET! REET! REET!

Katsuki looked up at the alarms filling the air. Was it a fire alarm?

Should he go to his evac point?

What was his evac point?

His handbook had said som-

Suddenly, through the hallway window he was facing, there was a swirl of black something, and a tiny figure in a dark, hooded peacoat stepped out of it. Behind him followed a tall figure that was made out of that same black something, with a long metal neck piece and a fitted vest over a white collared shirt.

The blond blinked. Somehow he doubted these guys were part of the school staff. So, what were they doing?

The tiny figure removed a device from his pocket, and pulling a wire from it, attached it to the lock on the storage-room door.

Katsuki’s eyes widened, his first instinct to break through the window and blast those thieving little shits to pieces, but…

But…

He didn’t…

He didn’t know their powers.

Know anything.

Were they actually villains?

If they were, they were good enough to get through the defenses on the school which were not inconsiderable.

And Katsuki…

sludge filling his throat couldn’t breathe no one helping don’t want to die please someone

Tiny explosions played over his clenched fist as he hit his head lightly against the wall over and over again.

“Bakugou! He’s bigger than you! Step back and reassess!” John’s voice echoed in his head. Katsuki’d always had great natural instincts in a fight, which meant he’d probably ignored more of the man’s advice than he probably should’ve considering he was paying for the right to use the gym and get his advice, but he’d begun to realize, recently, that the man’s words echoed not just his therapist’s in many ways, but the skeleton’s as well.

And like last night, with those assholes... yeah he’d needed to fight eventually, but he’d made Auntie Inko… Happy. And she’d helped. Just like Izuku.

And, for some stupid reason, he didn’t want to upset her.

He didn’t know why, but he wanted to make her proud.

And she was always telling him… To be careful. To not hurt her by making her lose anyone else.

“Even heroes work in teams for a reason my boy. It isn’t because they’re afraid, but because they stand a better chance of coming home alive,” the skeleton told him as he pulled the broken tube tv that had just fallen on Katsuki off.

“It’s so the weak idiots have an excuse not to fight,” he snapped back at the skeleton as he spit sand out, glaring at the rest of the piles of crap.

“Even All Might fights with a team, because the objective -- the win -- isn’t to just defeat the enemies, though that is a large part. It’s to save people.” Katsuki scoffed, and promptly hit a busted-up couch with an explosion.

Despite himself, the man’s words rang through his head.

If he died fighting, no one would be able to tell the teachers what he’d seen. Why did he have to realize that now of all times?

Despite everything in his body screaming at him to do otherwise, he deliberately, slowly unclenched his fists, took a deep breath and quietly moved himself to the opposite side of the planter’s box so he was directly under the window and they wouldn’t be able to see him, making sure to take everything of his that they might spot with him.

He strained to hear something, anything, that they might give away, but the soundproofing on the school was too good, especially with the warning sirens ringing in his ears.

One would think that the stupid teachers would have a way to pinpoint the damn area a break in happened without wailing alarms that made it impossible think.

Or at least turn the damn things off after a while, they had to be causing a panic.

Stupid, useless idiots.

Who he would need to tell about this.

Ugh, he really didn’t want to talk to that asshole.

But the blonde loud speaker from the entrance exam would deafen him more than these alarms, so he really didn’t want to talk to the guy, and he hadn’t really paid attention to any of the others.

Maybe… Maybe All Might?

That… That…

At least he had proven he wasn’t too big of an idiot.

Maybe.

He’d gone to Izuku’s funeral, even though Katsuki had needed to yell at him first.

Maybe…

Katsuki clenched his fists again.

Were the intruders still there?

Was it stupid to check?

…

…

Screw it. He shifted just a little, carefully setting the bento down well away from the window, then flexed his fingers a few times to loosen them up.

He twisted around and slowly slid up the wall so that he was to the side of the window. He took a deep breath and carefully turned his head to the side, before he slid up just a little more so that he could see through the window while still remaining mostly hidden.

The tall, shadow guy was standing in front of the cracked door, probably as a guard or lookout, while the tiny figure was most likely inside. Through the crack he could see a few beeping lights. That was… Was it a server room or something like that instead of a storage room?

Why would something like that be in an insecure zone?

Unless they thought that the school itself was secure?

Maybe?

The tiny figure slipped from the room and shut the door behind them, turning to the taller figure that nodded something, before raising a hand to rub over the smaller one’s hooded head. Suddenly the alarms cut off, and it took Katsuki a moment to realize that he could hear again. The lack of noise also caused both figures to glance up, and then nod to each other.

As they turned to head out, the taller one’s hand dragged the hood off the smaller one just a little, enough to get a glimpse of a pale, freckled cheek and--

“Tsk,” a voice came from nowhere, “what are you looking at?”

Katsuki’s head snapped around and he cursed. Another weird guy was in front of him, this one tall and gaunt, with dry skin and cracked lips haloed by some truly awful tangled white hair poking out from a black hoodie.

Katsuki cursed, and he dropped to grab his bento before he slammed an explosion onto the wall and slightly beneath him, blasting him away from the probable villain. He arched through the air and hit the ground at a roll before he burst into a run, skidding around a corner. That shadow guy could do portals.

He needed to get away from where he was a single solitary target.

He jumped down a flight of stairs from the side walkway onto the main thoroughfare, darting towards the main building hoping to hit someplace crowded. With the alarms, there’d be teachers there right? Or 3rd years with their provisional licenses.

Shit but there’d be a bunch of useless extras too!

“Damnnit!” he cursed, but before he could make a decision, a few people staggered in his direction from out of nowhere and he slammed right into one. Katsuki cursed as a microphone nailed him right in the nose as he ended up taking the whole group to the ground. He was just about to curse them out when he realized who, or more accurately, what, they were.

“Hey, you’re a student here, right?” The woman right next to him, a dark-haired lady with a business suit on, stuck the microphone that had just hit him into his freaking face before any of them had even gotten up.

“Outta my way!” he growled at her.

“Can you tell us about All Might?!” Another man, this one part of the crowd that wasn’t sprawled on the ground, and Katsuki scowled as he was now practically in the middle of the mob of reporters that were being herded back to the entrance by a bunch of disgruntled teachers and a few police officers.

“Are you freaking deaf?” Katsuki shouted, scrambling to his feet.

“Hey, aren’t you the kid from the sludge villain incident?” Someone else asked, crowding in and pushing another microphone in his space.

Katsuki froze, clenching his teeth. 100. 99. 98--

Even more of the stupid idiots started shoving microphones at him and jostling him, and a bunch of cameras turned to focus on him, several of which had lights attached or flashbulbs and they were all blinding him.

Katsuki tried to get away from them, but they just kept grasping at him and blocking his exits and yelling things and-

After a particularly powerful shove, he noticed that his hand was empty.

In the mess, one of the reporters knocked Auntie Inko’s bento out of his grasp.

He scowled and tried to dive down for it, but the crowd was too thick and he could only watch in horror as another person planted a foot right on top of it it hard enough that he heard the wooden box break even over the sheer noise of these stupid mouth pieces.

Desperately, Katsuki lunged forward, using enough force and sharply placed elbows to give him some room. He grabbed the foot on the box and barely managed not to back it up with an explosion when he threw it the heck off.

He snatched up the box and glared at the crowd of useless, pathetic, reporters staring at him. Some were shocked, others were mad, looking disgusted like he’d slighted them…

He could feel a deep crack along the side of the bento and these… These stupid idiots had broken something of Auntie Inko’s.

Katsuki exploded at these… These pawns that were too damn stupid to know that they were pawns of the even dumber heroes and disgusting villains.

“GET OUT OF MY WAY YOU DAMN PATHETIC EXTRAS!”

At the very least it made everyone shut up as they were gaping at him like stunned fish.

“Well, you certainly won’t be a popular hero with that attitude,” came a voice from the crowd.

Katsuki glared at the mob of extras, trying to pick out the walking corpse that had had the balls to say that as an explosion lit up his empty hand. “SAY THAT AGA-”

The explosion went out and the caterpillar bastard’s capture tape mummified him again, causing him to drop the bento to the ground for the second time. Katsuki screamed as it was too much for the thing, and the crack caused by the pawn of the reporter widened, breaking the bento in half.

That… That…

Katsuki’s muffled curses could probably be heard from inside the school building as the man dragged him away. At least the bastard scooped up the broken halves of Auntie Inko’s bento.

Had that one been the same one she used for Izuku?

Katsuki was dragged like garbage through the hallways and past crowds of students and teachers and a bunch of other damn extras.

This was…

He strained and fought against the stupid tape, trying to get out of it, but the damn stuff was too tight and somehow blast proof. That didn’t stop him from trying though, and he fought against the bastard until they came to a stop.

“Idiot kid! You’re just making it worse -- especially for me.”

Katsuki blinked up at the bastard that finally said something and realized that they were in front of the infirmary. The bastard pulled him through the door, and deposited him, still wrapped up, on one of the beds.

Katsuki cursed him out again, only for it to be muffled by the tape.

“I’m going to do you a favor, and take that as a very nice and polite, ‘What are we doing in the infirmary?’” The man glared with his stupid bloodshot eyes, and Katsuki wanted to snarl, but took a deep breath, bit his lip and nodded.

“Count up to 10 or something, kid.” Katsuki glared at him, but did start counting down from 100. Again. By the time he hit 80, his heartbeat had slowed a little, and the bastard looked him over once before giving him a sharp nod and releasing his quirk so his hair fell around his face. With a scowl, the man gave a yank at a spot on the capture tape and the strips released him. Katsuki glared and started shoving the stupid things off of him and as far away from him as he could get them.

When he finished he glared up at the bastard, who was pretty calmly ignoring him, as he put eye drops in his bloodshot eyes with one hand and coiled the tape with the other.

After the man was done there were a few moments of silence where they just stared at each other, before his teacher finally sighed. “You have a habit of inappropriate outbursts,” the man said.

“I think they’re plenty appropriate. They’re also the right thing to do,” Katsuki snapped back.

The bastard sighed again, “No, they’re not. Your heart might be in the right place for some of them, but you’re alienating the people you need to hold a hand out to.”

“What? A bunch of stupid extras? They’re all idiots! Just like the ones that left me to die and the pawns that praised them. Yeah, I really want to hold a hand out to them.”

The second-rate hero didn’t answer for several seconds, his face blank. “Your goal is to be number one, right?”

“Damn straight.”

“Then you need them.”

Katsuki snorted. “Like hell I do.”

“How do you expect to get anywhere without public support?”

“By winning every damn fight I get into!”

The dark-haired man sighed. “Winning has various definitions. And let me tell you, All Might may have won against the Sludge Villain,” Katsuki stiffened and he bared his teeth, but the jerk went on before Katsuki could say anything, “but that wasn’t a victory.”

The brash teen blinked. “Huh?” That was the first time anyone had said anything of the like to him.

The teacher sat down on the bed across from him. “There were a lot of negatives that came out of that fiasco. The end goal that would have made it a true victory would have been if everyone had come out of it unharmed. Also, do you think that the heroes who watched the fallout -- who saw those heroes at the scene stand by and let you get hurt -- will trust them to watch their backs? And then what happened with your friend? They blamed him to save face, and you know the result.”

Katsuki looked down at his clenched hands as he went over that. Nothing the jerk had said was false… and he was the first person to paint the picture like it had really happened. He didn’t know what to say to that.

The hero sighed again. “Technically, the heroes won that day. So I think the question you need to ask yourself is, ‘is winning a fight worth sacrificing people’s lives?’ Because if it is, I will expel you right now. That isn’t what being a hero is, and, despite your attitude, I think you know that. Being a hero means protecting everyone, even those ‘extras’ that you seem to hate so much. If you can’t do that, then you don’t have the potential I thought I saw in you.”

Katsuki’s mind was swimming. “Potential?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

The man didn’t smile, but his face did seem to relax a bit. “To be one of the best.”

Katsuki started, eyes widening to stare at his teacher, who just sighed (again) and headed out. “Recovery Girl is monitoring the 3rd years’ combat practice, so take your time, then go back to the classroom,” the man tossed over his shoulder.  

“You’re wrong,” Katsuki finally managed to get out.

“Hmm?” The bastard said as he turned to look at him.

“I’m not going to be one of the best,” he said. The man raised an eyebrow. “I’m going to be THE best.”

The hero smirked. “That’ll be something to see.” With that the man walked out of the infirmary. Katsuki scowled and dropped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling for a second to drop his head to the side to stare at the broken bento box that the bastard had set on the small table near the head of the bed.

So stupid.

And he didn’t need any damn time.

Not even 5 minutes to will away the pressure at the back of his eyeballs.

XxXxX

The entire class went silent when Katsuki stalked into the classroom. He couldn’t see a teacher there so Katsuki figured they were still dealing with the mess from earlier. He dropped into his seat with a huff and shoved the broken bento into his bag, more than prepared to put his fist into the first person that-

Shinsou stood up, “So I second Bakugou giving all his votes to Iida. All in favor?”

Everyone threw their hands in the air, and Rule Book turned neon red.

Katsuki just smirked. Idiots should have just listened to him in the first place.

He was about to say something along those lines when a wrapped pork bun landed on his desk. He blinked. What th-

“Figured you might not have gotten a chance to eat!” Came the way too cheerful voice of hedgehog hair. Katsuki blinked at him. “Figured you’d have even less chill if you were hungry, and I didn’t want to end up like those stupid ass reporters!”

Katsuki honestly didn’t know what to say.

And then it hit him over the head.

“Shit!” he exclaimed, more than a little pissed at himself. He’d gotten so distracted by those damn reporters he hadn’t told the bastard about those damn weirdos.

“Uh, sorry?” Hedgehog hair said hesitantly.

That just pissed him off more. “Don’t be stupid!” he snapped at the idiot. “Don’t apologize for shit that isn’t your damn fault!” With that he grabbed the bun as he stormed out, ignoring the Rule Book as he stuttered after him.

So damn stupid.

XxXxX

“This is definitely odd,” Principal Nedzu hmmed in his direction, and Toshinori fought the urge to slouch a little in shame. One, he was the number one hero, not a school boy. Two, it was unprofessional. Three, it would hurt like heck.

“I am sorry that my presence caused this.”

“Nonsense, my boy,” the principal assured. “You couldn’t help it any more than we could.”

“Still,” Toshinori muttered, but cut off at the principal’s genial stare. Somehow, that was scarier than his scowl.

“Well, I don’t know what else can be done right now,” Nedzu finally said with a sigh, slumping a little. “Until we get information back from the teachers searching the school in any case. So let’s talk about something else.

“Other than the incident today, how have your first days been? Have you found a successor yet?”

Toshinori couldn’t hide a wince.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’. What about the boy that Nighteye suggested? Mirio Togata?”

The number one hero took a deep breath. “I… haven’t decided yet.”

“I assume Nighteye didn’t much care for you telling him that.”

“No. He didn’t.”

The white-furred head cocked at him in curiosity. “It’s unlike you to be so indecisive. Is it because you’ve found someone else?”

Toshinori bit his lip. “Well, there are some really good kids in the school, and a lot of them would do great things with One for All. But, in all honesty, I’m thinking it will be between Nighteye’s kid and Katsuki Bakugou.”

The principal’s eyes widened. “Well, he certainly does have a presence, though it is a tad explosive.”

The hero bit his lip and looked away. “You haven’t seen him grow like I have.” He looked up and met the principal’s eyes with his steely gaze. “He’s learned the hard way what not using your power wisely means and has a good enough heart to grow from that. I know he’s rough around the edges -- really rough -- but he is constantly growing and becoming a better person because of it.

“While it’s hard to see past his brash exterior, he’s a good kid, and--”

A sudden shout from outside the office had both men standing to face the office, Toshinori barely having time to shift forms just in case before the door slammed open to reveal the very subject of their conversation... Katsuki Bakugou struggled to walk forward, even as he glared at the irate secretary trying to hold him back.

“Let go of me you hag!”

“I told you to wait!”

“I SAID I NEED TO TALK TO ALL MIGHT!”

“Young Bakugou?” Toshinori asked, wondering why the young spitfire would seek him out given the teen’s well-known opinion of him.

Both the boy and the secretary froze, their eyes fixing on All Might for a few moments before Bakugou screwed up his face in a sort of determined scowl.

“The reporters were a cover. There were these weird guys breaking into the school.”

Everyone blinked.

“What?”

XxXxX 

Aizawa sighed as he stared at the dust of the gate. There were only so many ways that it could have happened, and realistically it was most likely a quirk.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a quirk like that on the quirk registry. At least, not in Japan.

And they couldn’t even get a solid description to go off of to check any of the others.

While they had technicians going over the server room that Bakugou had seen the villains near, the cameras around the room and for over half the school had been tampered with, put on some type of loop so they didn’t show anything useful. Luckily that particular price had a silver lining though, as watching Bakugou walk from one camera to another and disappear when they viewed the footage gave them a rough idea of when the tampering started, though they were still trying to figure out how their systems had been compromised.

Because of that, they’d also gotten some better (though not great) footage of the tall villain in the black hoodie that had slipped away from the crowd of reporters to calmly stroll from the area by the front gates to the camera dead-zone.

Reviewing the front gate footage showed that the man had been right by it when it had disintegrated to let the reporters in.

He hated to admit it, but it likely would have been ignored if they weren’t looking for it specifically.

Well, not ignored, but… The press really had been just a diversion, and they’d all been so annoyed that they hadn’t digged into it too seriously yet, though they were all suspicious bastards and probably would have eventually anyway, but it definitely would have taken them longer.  

And if that had been the case…

They would have had no idea as to the extent of the break in.

Especially if Katsuki Bakugou hadn’t been throwing a hissy fit and hiding from his classmates.

Frankly they couldn’t be sure that the room Bakugou had spotted them near was the only one really compromised.

Even if it had just been a test, they had truly wasted their element of surprise. Not counting what Bakugou had seen, the staff still would have upped U.A.’s security and taken steps to reduce opportunities that would allow it to happen again…

Going for that was such a dumb one to waste an advantage like they had for this one chance too.

The servers stored in that room didn’t even run anything that important, which was why they weren’t in the secure data center underneath the school. They had a few sub projects on it around temporary renovations for tests, some backup servers with non-restricted data for groups they liaised with, and handled things like the cafeteria and robot maintenance subsystems. They also held the cloud servers for the support and management students, but he really didn’t see the villains going to this amount of trouble for a couple of school projects, especially since the students didn’t have access to any data that was too advanced.  

It made no sense.

“You’ll grow even more wrinkles under your eyes if you keep frowning like that,” Hizashi said at a surprisingly quiet decibel. Aizawa sighed. “It’s not like you wouldn’t have figured it out eventually.”

“Not as fast as we would have needed,” he said.

They’d already started re-tooling security features and shuffling schedules and reaching out to Hero Agencies for volunteers to increase support and security for a while.

And, of course, it was creating even more havoc in his world right now. Naturally. It wasn’t like he was already more than busy dealing with-

Wait.

He scowled as he thought of the changes and uptick in villain behavior patterns that had been keeping him scrambling lately… Perhaps it was because of more than just All Might being in town?

Could they be related to this?

Or was he just being paranoid?

XxXxX

Katsuki scowled as he looked over the expansive Unforeseen Simulation Joint. Part of him appreciated needing such a varied atmosphere to train in to better prepare for real life scenarios. The other, more cynical part of him thought of going to schools that had been trying to buy new school books for years, had had to have them water down the cleaning supplies, been barely able to scrape by…

He clenched his fingers, looking over his classmates. A few were just as awestruck as he was trying not to be... Round Face, Hedgehog Hair, Socket Hair… Others barely gave it a glance. Rule Book and Ponytail Chick at least looked polite while waiting for everyone to finish gaping like idiots.

Half-and-Half didn’t even look like he was paying that much attention to it. Like it wasn’t worth his time.

Like they weren’t.

The shit was dismissing them.

Dismissing him.

It felt even more horrible than when Eraserhead had mummy wrapped him in front of the press a few days ago.

100. 99. 98. 97. 96. 95. 94. 93. 92……….

XxXxX

Stupid Half-and-Half can rumble, Katsuki thought with a scowl as he faced the little prince from where they stood in the middle of a ‘square’ in the Downpour Zone of the USJ. To go along with the name ‘Unforeseen Simulation Joint’ the spoiled little shit had ambushed him while Katsuki was walking through an area doing a walk through threat assessment before having him attempt to ‘rescue’ civilians with Thirteen, who was now standing back watching them after making some stupid snarky comment about possible villains being part of what could make rescues difficult.

Tch… So much for being just an initial understanding of their baseline observational skills when assessing a scene and seeing where his current knowledge on pulling people out of a disaster zone was at.

There were six robots representing civilians in danger scattered around the square, all in various trapped or injured states with little holograms floating over their heads indicating how much time Katsuki had to rescue them.

He was at less than five minutes on two of them.

He was at a disadvantage in this damn weather when compared to the ice powers half-and-half could use.

His only chance had been to get close and take him down, but when a combo of asdf and using his blasts to propel him closer had resulted in a solid minute of hand to hand combat that resulted in a near standoff until the little prince had used what was obviously years of training (making it even more apparent that damn hero kids didn’t have to follow the stupid rules) to get a hand between them and almost impale Katsuki with a sharp spike of ice, which made Katsuki jump back, buying the damn ice prince the room he needed to really get them at a distance again.

Which gave him the damn advantage again.

The ice didn’t bend in most cases, whereas Katsuki’s explosions, even if they were strong enough to stay on fire in the rain, were still at the mercy of the wind when it came to aiming. He was getting the hang of it, but the wind kept changing directions and throwing him off.

Katsuki was…

He was losing…

NO!!

He was not going to come in second to some annoying, pampered, spoon feed, perfect little bratty prince!

He was better than those damn recommendation brats who got in on connections. He was the damn top score!

The only person better than him was freaking All Might and even he was pathetic and sad and over the hill and Katsuki had so much potential.

Potential he couldn’t afford to waste like the stupid half-hot half-cold bastard that wouldn’t even take him seriously, so stuck up on his damn high horse that he couldn’t be bothered to think he needed to actually fight against Katsuki.

And that…

The smug look of almost disinterest, the way he looked so dismissive…

The tight, hot ball of anger in his stomach surged up through his chest, down his arms and exploded out of his hands. He screamed his rage to the world.

“BURN YOU DAMN PATHETIC PRINCE!”

He aimed the explosions back, shooting himself forward and startling the spoiled brat who back-peddled, throwing up a wall of ice that Katsuki redirected one of his hands. He saw it, though -- an opening. The spoiled brat had had to throw up his ice too fast and it wasn’t as thick as it should be. Katsuki concentrated and tightened the explosion as he slammed his fist through it.

The ice shattered around him, and Katsuki crowed with laughter at the stupid, dumbfounded look on Half-and-Half’s face right before Katsuki slammed his stupid skull into the ground.

It didn’t last for long, though, as the other boy shifted with a kick to try and throw him off, but Katsuki slid into a grapple and the two kept trading holds and counter holds, practically rolling around on the soaked pavement.

The prince managed an arm lock that made Katsuki trigger the emergency release on his gauntlet to slip out of it, and he howled with frustration as he watched the ass use his ice to trap it against a wall well out of Katsuki’s reach.

He’d have to have the support teams build some type of defrosters into them.  

“And time,” Thirteen called out. Katsuki blinked. “Katsuki Bakugou, while Aizawa will give you your score, I want you to think about this. You were so focused on fighting your villain, that all your civilians died. Three of whom in particular died due to actions that you took in your overzealous drive to defeat Todoroki.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened, and he spun to stare.

One mannequin had a shard of ice impaled through it’s torso from where he had blasted through an ice wall of the prince’s. Then the enhanced blast he’d set off from his gauntlet had knocked over a wall that had been holding water from a bloated stream away from a car where a set of mother and son mannequins had been trapped.

They drowned.

Katsuki wasn’t going to throw up.

Especially in front of…

He scowled and glared at the prince, who was picking himself up from where Katsuki had planted him. His face was blank like a doll as he shifted his shoulders, asafasf, and generally did a self check of his injuries like it was nothing. Like Katsuki hadn’t hurt him. That stupid, still somehow pristine, white uniform of his practically glowing in the dark of the training area.

Like Katsuki hadn’t made him, the recommended golden boy who was too arrogant to believe he needed to use everything he had like Katsuki did, taste dirt.

Like Katsuki didn’t leave every other person he fought against whimpering on the ground for hours.

100. 99. 98. 97. 96. 95. 94. 93. 92. 91. 90…...

By the time he hit 1, Katsuki was able to bite his lip and turn away from Shouto Todoroki, who was staring at him quizzically. Thirteen had walked off at some point, and Katsuki wasn’t sure if it was a sign of trust or some kind of test to leave the two of them alone when they’d been actually, really trying to beat the crap out of each other not even five minutes ago.

Katsuki started counting down from 100 again.

So stupid.

63. 62. 61. 60. 59. 5-

“We should get back to the class,” Half-and-Half said.

“Back off, you damn spoiled brat!” He yelled at the other boy, barely managing to avoid giving the shit a matching scar on the other side of his face.

XxXxX

Katsuki claimed the seat in the back corner of the fancy ass bus on the way back to the main school building, glaring at anyone that tried to get near. That didn’t deter freaking Hedgehog Hair or Pinky though, who slammed into the seats right in front of him with bubbling, effervescent happiness.

Or freaking Socket Hair, who dropped into the seat opposite him, side eyeing him, though he at least had the smarts to keep his mouth shut.

The damn prince was up front with Ponytail Chick, muttering back and forth.

If Izuku had been there to pull out the civilians while Katsuki beat that spoiled brat into the ground, he wouldn’t have lost.

Katsuki texted the skeleton to see if he would be available to monitor him using his quirk in public. He felt the need to finish off the last of the junk at the beach tonight.