Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dedications

I dedicate this book to the memory of Izuku Midoriya. Deku, I wouldn’t be the man I am today if you never existed. The whole world knows my name, and now they’ll know yours too. -Kaachan

-OOO-

A month before my admittance to UA Academy I told my quirkless classmate Izuku Midoriya that he was better off killing himself than trying to become a hero. He took my advice, and threw himself off the roof of our school. No one was there to save him, and the next morning they found his body. His limbs were pointed in the wrong direction, while his corpse soaked in a pool of his own blood, and carrion crows picked at his flesh. A formal investigation was launched, and the authorities concluded that a combination of despair for being a quirkless, and the unattainable dream of being a hero drove Izuku Midoriya to take his own life. As far as I’m concerned he was murdered, and the fault of his death lies with me. My name Katsuki Bakugou and this is the story of how I became the greatest rescue hero in the world.

-OOO-

The news report about Midoriya was a fifteen second blurb, placed between reports of All Might surprising people at a grocery store in the early morning, and stopping a sludge monster with his bare hands and a couple bottles of soda in the afternoon, it spun out into some lesson about recycling and reusing at every turn. It provided white noise for my thoughts, the first of which I’m ashamed to admit was that it seemed better that way with Midoriya dead. In the many years that I’d known him, Midoriya always had an innate sense of courage and justice. When I was a boy I was an absolute terror to those weaker than me, but Midoriya didn’t give a fuck about how strong I was. He was quirkless, but still had the balls to stand up to me. I couldn’t help but think that eventually he would of just got himself killed anyway. The fact that I held a measure of responsibility in his death didn’t even factor into the equation.

-OOO-

Midoriya had the saddest fucking wake I’d ever seen in my life. Not because of how somber the occasion was, or that a child had died, but because there was almost no one there. His mother was sitting in a corner next to his shrine, while the only other thing in the room was the smell of burning incense. Shades were drawn all over the room, and her black kimono made her blend in with the corner of shadow she occupied, it looked like her pale skin and green hair just appeared out of the shadows. She didn’t hear my parents and I arrive, but looked up when my dad tried to stifle a gasp, he always was a pussy. She forced a smile onto her face, but her pain was noticeable in every single action she took. It was like the act of existing hurt her. My mom and dad walked over to her and said all the things adults are obligated to say, but I stood there stiffly, almost rooted there in the door frame as I looked around. Where the hell were his friends? Did he have any? Where the fuck was his father? Did he have one? Those questions stormed through my mind, but came to heel upon an even greater realization: If my mother hadn’t made me come here then there would have been no one at this wake.

-OOO-

The next morning I got up before dawn and pulled my suit out of the closet, got dressed and slipped out of the house. It wasn’t unusual behavior for me to leave before dawn and my parents must have assumed that I was just out for physical training. It didn’t occur to me back then, but I didn’t want them to know that I was going to Midoriya’s funeral. Looking back the emotion that drove me to such secrecy was guilt, a feeling that I didn’t recognize, because I’d never felt it before in my life. When I arrived at the shrine the name reading ceremony had already started, and a knot twisted in my stomach when I saw that yet again his mother was the only person there. I couldn’t put words to it just then, but there was a wrongness to it. I kinda hated Midoriya back then for having the balls to stand up to me and daring to dream his impossible dreams when he had no power, but even the sour, angry, entitled brat that I was could understand that he didn’t deserve to have no one there to remember him. It made me angrier than I would have expected, and my hands started sparking as my emotions fueled my quirk. The sound made the priest and his mother jump, I had the decency to look embarrassed. The priest continued with the name reading, and I walked over to his mother to stand next to her. She held my hand when he started speaking again, squeezing it as tears started to fall from her eyes. I didn’t say anything or try to take my hand away. Comfort was an alien concept to me, but I figured that this was the least I could do. It was my first selfless act.

-OOO-

I kept finding excuses to visit his mother, I checked to see if she needed groceries, if there was something wrong around her house I’d (try to) fix it. I was wildly overcompensating of course, I’m not exactly sure what lies I told myself to avoid thinking about my role in her son’s death, but eventually one afternoon two weeks before the entrance exams at UA Academy she sat me down on her couch with a cup of tea. “Katsuki,” It marked the first time she’d called me by my first name without any sort of honorific so I tensed. “I appreciate you coming around here, checking on me, and being such a good friend to my son even after he’s gone. It means the world to me, but shouldn’t you be focused on other things? Like your entrance exams? Your mother tells me you haven’t been training as much.”

My knee jerk reaction was to tell her to mind her own fucking business, but I managed to hold my tongue. She was right of course, I hadn’t been training as hard as I used to, and it seemed like my mother had noticed, which I guess must have seemed like the biggest fucking red flag in the world. “I’m doing fine. I still train when I can.” It was best for me to keep my responses short, or I’d say something rude, and this woman was one person I could never let myself be a dick to.

She smiled and it didn’t look like a chore. “Did you know that Izuku wanted to get into the hero program at UA?”

“Everyone knew. He was obsessed with heroes. We talked about it a lot when we were kids.”

She reached over and took my hand in both of hers. “Katsuki. I don’t know everything your feeling, and I won’t try to, but could you please do me a favor? Get into UA. Be the best hero you can be, do it for my son, but most importantly do it for yourself. Your life doesn’t stop because you’ve lost someone, and you’ve already done more than enough for me. I’m just happy my son had a friend like you.”

I took her words to heart and spent the next two weeks training my ass off. The force of my guilt had managed quell the fires in my heart and I will be forever grateful to Inko Midoriya for reigniting them. Having my passion back drove me to push my body and mind to their limits everyday for fourteen days and on the morning of the entrance exams I was ready.

-OOO-

The written exams were more or less cake, and went down easy. The practical exams were simple enough too, we were tasked to destroy robots and they went down left and right like nothing under the force of my explosions, and I probably would have had an uneventful exam if not for the proctors releasing a giant monster of a robot. The fucker was as big as a skyscraper and it was clear none of us had a chance at taking it out. The sensible thing to do was to run, and I would have, but a girl who I’d later come to know as a classmate had managed to get herself trapped under some rubble like a dumbass. I didn’t do the sensible thing, I didn't even think. I bolted towards the danger, my body moving all on it's own. I’ll never forget the look on Ingenium’s face while he ran away right past me like a little bitch.

When I got to her I tried to shift some of the rubble that had pinned her with my hands, but she stopped me. She clapped her hands and touched the rock pinning her leg and it fucking floated into the air. I pulled her away from the rubble and she clapped her hands again and the stone dropped into the pavement.

“You fucking dumbass. I’m risking my neck for nothing! How the fuck did you even let this happen to yourself?” Personal growth can be a slow thing. She looked me puzzled, but it shifted to focus as the treads of the giant robot beared down on us.

“Ugh. Nevermind that. We gotta move. I hurt my ankle, you have to help me walk.”

“Could you levitate both of us at the same time?”

“Yeah, but i-”

I didn’t let her finish. If my assumptions about her powers were correct then this would workout in our favor. I pulled her onto me in piggyback position and groaned. “Holy fuck you’re fat.”

“Fuck you asshole! I’m not fat I’m thick!” I noticed an accent slipping through her voice but she clapped her hands and then we were floating. I pointed my hands at the ground and released twin explosions. I can’t really describe the experience, but both of our powers let us glide through the air, but together when combined it was the closest either of us ever got to flying. That was probably when my subconscious decided that it was attracted to her. Eventually when we got to a safe distance from fucking robot she clapped her hands and brought us back down to earth, I slowed the descent with controlled burst from my hands. We stood there for a second my hands keeping her stable by holding the underside of her thighs, and her arms wrapped securely around my chest before I introduced myself.

“I’m Katsuki Bakugo.”

“Ochako Uraraka.” She proceeded to vomit all over my back and part of my hair.

-OOO-

A few weeks later when I got my acceptance letter, and got to review the footage of  the test. I learned that I had been smiling like a maniac the entire time. From the second I ran into danger to the second Ochako puked all over us. I was reminded of a moment from my childhood when little quirkless Izuku Midoriya put up his fist and tried to defend some kid from me and two other idiots. The odds were completely against him, but that fucker never stopped smiling.

Chapter Text

On the morning of my first day at UA Academy I walked into our kitchen and was greeted by the sight of my mother and Midoriya-San having breakfast at our table. My father was wearing his “Cooking is my quirk” apron as he served them pancakes. It was altogether something I hadn’t expected, and as I stood there trying to puzzle together just when the hell they all became friends, they looked up at me and stared, each with varying degrees of pride.

"What?" I asked

"Nothing son." My dad spoke. "It's just really nice to see you in your UA uniform."

I gave them all a general grunt of acknowledgement, but I remembered who exactly was sitting in my kitchen. “Good morning Midoriya-San.” I gave her a half bow because I was still me and bristled at the idea of giving anyone a full bow. I didn't try to rationalize my feelings about why I was being so respectful to her because that meant confronting my feelings about Deku. She smiled and returned my greeting. My mom scowled at the exchange.

“Oi Katsuki! Why don’t you ever greet me like that in the morning you ungrateful little fuck.”

“Cause you’re a raging hag, and you’re always on my fucking case!” I’m not even gonna try to normalize the relationship I have with my mother. That’s just how we are, I’ll still kick a fucker’s teeth into their colon on her behalf, to say nothing of what she’d do if someone tried to fuck with me.

“We have a guest, behave yourselves.” My dad always tried to play the peacemaker, with ranging degrees of success. I cut him a break mostly for the sake of sparing Midoriya-San the typical rudeness of our household. I settled on sneering at him, and sitting down. He seemed pleased when he slid a plate of Omurice in front of me. If you’re a foreigner who’s reading this and have no idea what Omurice is I’ll tell you. Imagine a dish of fried rice, chicken, and vegetables packed into a neat half circle. Then someone frying an omelette and placing that omelette over the rice. Then you take a knife and split that fucking omelette open down the middle. All that runny egg goodness fall all over the rice. Garnish it with ketchup if you’re a fucking pussy. If you couldn’t tell it’s one of my favorite dishes, and dad had made it for me on the morning of my first day of school at UA Academy.

I’ve never given my father enough credit, but he always did shit like that for me. Mom too now that I think of it. Maybe it was hard for him to express himself verbally, it’s not like mom and I were prone to letting people get a word in edgewise, but he always found ways to make sure that we knew he cared. That morning was the first time it ever occured to me thank him for it. “Thanks dad.” I started eating and didn’t notice that my parents were wearing shocked expressions until I was done with my food, such was the power of Omurice.

Midoriya-San looked back and forth between us all understandably embarrassed and confused. Me being grateful for anything other than my kick ass quirk was a rare occurrence in the Bakugou household. Seeing them so shocked that I’d done something as simple as say thanks for breakfast made me ask a lot of questions about myself. Just how fucked up was I? I wasn’t ready to deal with those answers so I deflected and diverted. “Midoriya-San?” I asked shifting the attention away from myself. “What brings you over here so early?”

She brightened up at my question, and reached down for a bag at her feet. “I wanted to drop off a gift for you, my little congratulations for making it into UA, and then you’re mother invited me in for breakfast” She passed the plastic bag over to me and I looked inside and saw a bunch of notebooks. I pulled out one at random and a fucking chill shot down my spine, like someone replaced each of my vertebrae with a chunk of ice. It read: Hero Analysis For The Future #13. The whole thing was scorched, and the pages were stiff and crinkled like they'd been underwater and then left out to dry. A storm of memories came flooding back to the last day I’d seen Izuku Midoriya alive. I burned this notebook and threw out of a window shortly before I told him he was better off killing himself than trying to be a hero. She hadn’t noticed just how still I’d gone. “Those were Izuku’s notebook’s he covered them in note’s about heroes and quirks. I thought you might find them useful.”

“I-I c-can’t take these.”

“Oi you ungrateful little bitch! Don’t refuse a gift!” Hearing my mother’s voice, brought me back from the state of near catatonia I was in, my hand started shaking, and I couldn’t make it stop. I couldn't understand it, why the fuck couldn’t my hand stop shaking? I asked myself that question over and over again.

“Please Katsuki.” Midoriya-San smiled at me, but it wasn’t a real one. It was like how she smiled when we showed up at her son’s wake. “You’ve been so kind to me since Izuku passed, and I think since you’ll be able to put them to some actual use he’d want you to have them.” That was all I could handle, I bolted from the table taking the bag of books with me. I tossed them into my room and went straight to bathroom. I damn near kicked open the door and slammed it shut behind me. I barely made it to the toilet before I puked up a mixture of rice, chicken, vegetables and eggs. It felt like the ghost of Izuku Midoriya had decided to haunt me. My mind replayed those words over and over again. He'd want you to have them. You’re better of killing yourself. He'd want you to have them. You’re better of killing yourself. He'd want you to have them. You’re better of killing yourself.

-OOO-

When I came out of the bathroom Midoriya-San had left, and my mother was absolutely furious. She had laid an ambush for me at the bottom of the stairs and brought her palm across my face. The slap echoed through the house, and my dad came out of the kitchen and into the hall. “Katsuki, how dare you act like that. That woman lost her son and that’s how you act when she gives you a gift?”

“Fuck off. What do you care? You never gave her the time of day before Deku offed himself. Why do you suddenly give a fuck now? You think pitying her is any better?” My face stung, and my emotions were raw, but I couldn’t just tell her why I acted the way I did. So I put my walls up, I shrugged my shoulders and spit venom back at her.

“It’s called compassion you little shit. When you get out of school you go straight over to her house and apologize. Don’t bother coming home till you do.”

“Then maybe I just won’t come home.”

“Katsuki. Do not fuck with me.”

“Fuck. You.”

She reared her hand back to slap me across the face, it was no less than I deserved, but the slap never came and she just dropped her hand. Mom and I were similar in a lot of ways, probably too similar really, but there was one key difference between the two of us. She knew what lines not to cross and when to turn it off. She gave me a look that summed up just how much of a human pile of garbage I was and grabbed her keys and her purse and headed out the door only stopping to give dad a kiss.

-OOO-

Dad had insisted that I let him drive me to school, and after the morning I had I didn’t have the heart or energy to argue the point. So I got into the passenger seat of his sensible blue family car and buckled in. Looking back the trap he was setting was glaringly obvious, but my mind was exhausted to notice. We pulled out of the driveway and he waited till we were one with the flow of traffic before he started speaking. “Your mother and I have noticed a change in you-”

“Dad I do-”

“Katsuki after the way you’ve conducted yourself this morning you’re gonna shut the fuck up while I’m talking.” I was so incredibly caught off guard that I actually shut up. I couldn’t remember ever hearing my father curse like that. “Like I was saying, we’ve noticed a change in you since that Midoriya boy passed. At first we just thought you were grieving, but you’re changing son. I want you to think about your behavior this morning and then think about your future. This is the point in your life where you decide what sort of man you’re going to be. So I’m asking you think about it. Think about how it feels to treat a gift from from your dead friend’s mother with scorn. How it feels to say the words fuck you to your mother and break her heart. Think about how it feels to thank your father for breakfast, then think about how it feels to greet your dead friend’s mother with respect. Think about all of that and ask yourself this: What kind of man will Katsuki Bakugou be?”

Chapter Text

I wasn’t used to feeling things like shame, guilt, or regret, but as I walked through the gates of UA they consumed me. Instead of feeling pride or excitement a melancholy overwhelmed me as I remembered my mother’s face and my father’s question reverberated against the walls of my mind like a sad metronome. What kind of man will Katsuki Bakugou be? Even then I was just barely self aware enough to know that sooner or later I’d have to answer that question. I hadn’t really given it much thought yet, but what kind of teenager had? The most I could do just then was push all my feelings down deep inside me. Regardless of everything I was still at UA for a reason, and nothing would stop me from being the best.

-OOO-

Finding class 1-A wasn’t particularly difficult, and when I got there I claimed an empty seat and propped my feet up on the desk. Nearly seconds later someone was in my face.

“Remove your feet from that desk this instance. You should be more respectful of school property!”

I don’t imagine I have to tell any of you pro hero fanboys reading this who was speaking, but for everyone else it was Tenya Iida, known better by the name Ingenium. Even back then the guy had a dedication to order, unfortunately for him he caught me on a really bad day. “You should probably fuck off.”

He looked taken aback, and then I watched recognition appear on his face. “Ah. Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot.” He extended his hand. “I’m Tenya Iida. I might have misjudged you, I remember you from the exam. You ran towards that robot and saved that girl. You must have seen that there was another layer to the test. I’m sure I can learn much from you.”

Hearing those words pissed me off, and I remembered where I’d seen him from. I slapped his hand away. “You’re the guy who was running away like a little bitch. I hate to disappoint you, but I didn’t know about the rescue points. I helped her because that’s what heroes do. We’re supposed to run towards danger not away from it you coward.” Was I taking out some of my frustrations on Iida? Absolutely. That doesn’t mean I was wrong though. There are plenty of situations where a hero might have to run from a fight, but if you’re running cause you’re scared then you’re in the wrong business. I was harsh with Iida, but at the time it was impossible for me to have any respect for him.

“Hey! Angry Explosion Guy!” I looked up when I heard that because who the hell else would be Angry Explosion Guy? Ochako Uraraka, was standing in the doorway of our classroom. I guess Iida recognized her too because he walked over and gave her a full bow.

“I’m sorry for running away when you needed help during the entrance exam.” She looked surprised and confused, and our classmates had been watching since about the time I told him to fuck off. This just added another layer to the show.

“It’s no big deal!” She smiled just a bit awkwardly, “It’s not like I was in any real danger. And that thing was scary, so I understand.” It’s impossible for me to know what was going through his head at that moment, and I’ve never asked him, but I’d bet between the verbal abuse I laid on him, and Ochako being so chill about it all that he probably felt guilty. There was a lot of that going around those days. She stepped around him and he went back to his seat and hung his head low. The chair next to me scraped across the floor and she took the seat. I cast a glance at her and she smiled wide. “You made it! Thanks for helping me out at the entrance exams by the way.”

I greeted her in my way “How’s the ankle, fatass?” She hadn’t limped her way over which was pretty amazing considering that when I’d last seen her she had her ankle pinned under a giant piece of rubble.

“Wow, what a considerate asshole.” She rolled her eyes and turned in her seat to face me. “It’s fine. Recovery girl healed it right up.”

“Good, take better care of yourself next time. You may not always have someone around to save your ass, especially considering how huge it is.” I wasn’t sure exactly at what point I started having fun messing her, but it was easy and got my mind off the clusterfuck that happened at home.

“You seem awfully obsessed with my ass, something you wanna tell me?” Her comebacks were also pretty amazing. “You know, you’re pretty rude, but your heart is in the right place. I can tell you’re gonna be a great hero.”

“I’ll be judging that.” The greatest thing Aizawa Sensei ever did for me was appear at that moment because I had absolutely no comeback for what she said. And when I say appeared I do mean it literally. To this day I don’t know how he did it, but he just appeared in the front of the room laying across his desk in a sleeping bag. “We’ll don’t just gawk. Get into your costumes.”

-OOO-   

Aizawa Sensei had us change into our uniforms and report to one of the school’s many training arenas. This one happened to be the same one that I had my entrance exam in. The rules of the training were simple, two teams of two. One a hero and the other a villain. The villains had to protect their super weapon from the heroes, and the heroes had to seize it. He gave us earpiece communicators and told us whichever team achieved their goal in fifteen minutes was the winner. In the hero business it’s common for random heroes to be forced to team up and work together, the exercise was a microcosm of that.

I was paired up with Iida as the heroes, and our opponents were Ochako and Shouto Todoroki cast as the villains. They took position inside the empty building that would serve as our training course. I looked over at Iida and was thoroughly disatisfied with my partner. “What do you know about that Todoroki guy?”

Iida looked surprised to see that I was even talking to him. “Not much, it would seem that we’re at a disadvantage. Uraraka-San would be familiar with both of our quirks from the entrance exam, and developing a counter strategy with Todoroki.”

“Just stay the hell out of my way alright?”

“We’re a team Bakugou you can’t run off by yourself!”

“And how the hell am I supposed to trust you to have my back?” I was probably being too hard on Iida, but at the time I just couldn’t trust him. I think I came down so hard on him because I saw pieces of myself inside of him. Him running away from Ochako was just an easy scapegoat for me to project my guilt about Izuku onto him. Aizawa-Sensei started the timer and I walked inside the building, vaguely aware of Iida trailing behind me.

The interior of the building was a series of tight corridors and corners. Taking what Ochako and I knew about each other’s quirks I assumed that I wouldn’t have to worry about her trying take Iida or I head on. I remember that it suddenly got cold in there and before I knew it A jagged wall of Ice was rushing at me. I held my hand up and fired off what was back then a medium explosion, the wall erupted and ice chips dug into my skin. I looked back at Iida who was just as surprised. I grinned “Well I guess now we know what Todoroki’s quirk is.” He had managed to ice what looked like the entire building, it was probably the first time in my entire life that I felt like I was being challenged. It also presented a problem. Would Todoroki know that I stopped his ice? Did he have our position?

“Bakugou. Look at the ground.” There was a trail of ice, that started from where I launched my explosion, what made it distinct from the all the ice coating everything else were the jagged icicles jutting out of the ground. “That either leads back to Todoroki or it's a trap.”

“It’s probably a trap, but I’ll take it over blindly fucking around in this building.” If we had more time, I would have liked to try and find another way, but we were on the clock. “Glasses, stay behind me. If this is a trap I can deal with the icicles while you head off to deal with the weapon.”

“That is strategically sound, but supposing it is Todoroki, his quirk is clearly quite powerful, can you manage?”

“Don’t insult me, I’m gonna burn a matching scar into the other side of that fucker’s face, and even if I can’t win it doesn’t matter, you just have to do your job and get the weapon alright?” I was starting to come around to the idea of having Iida on my team. It occurred to me that Todoroki was probably a whole hell of a lot more dangerous than Ochako, and as much as I didn’t like him at the time he was my teammate, and I couldn’t stomach idea of someone on my team getting hurt.

“Right, um Bakugou? Why are you smiling like that? It’s rather unsettling.”

“Haven't you ever seen All Might? Heroes smile in the face of danger.”

-OOO-

Todoroki’s trail lead us to the top floor, and on the way up we stopped at each floor allowing Iida to sweep the area to make sure we weren’t getting played. With his speed it didn’t take very long. Outside of that we talked strategy for how we’d approach the situation. I managed to convince Iida to employ a few stratagems that weren’t exactly heroic. The first thing we saw as we rounded a corner and started our sweep for the weapon was Todoroki’s eye, it glowed in the dark like a single red bulb against a sea black and icy mist. “I figured this might be easier if I let the two of you come to me. You can try to fight me, but it won’t end well for you. I know one of you likes to fire explosions and alter your trajectory, and the other one can run really fast. In this small corridor where you have to run in a straight line I have the advantage. You can try me, but you will get hurt.”

“Iida. Fastball special.” There was boom as his engines activated and he ran towards me from behind.When he was right behind me he grabbed my arm and carried me with him, the force of it almost tore my arm out the socket. But we had crossed about half the distance to Todoroki in two seconds. That was all the time he needed to send an ice wall at us. Iida let go of my arm and sent me flying at it. I pointed my hands behind me and let out an explosion the second I heard Iida’s boots skidding across the ground. The momentum boost brought me inches away from the ice wall, but I had my hands out towards it and poured everything into a big blast attack. Our attacks collided with a roar of flying shrapnel and steam.

Iida’s engines roared to life and I can only Imagine the look on Todoroki’s face when he came roaring through the cloud of steam and landed a cheap sucker punch into the icy half of his face. Iida kept running to search the floor for the weapon. I was running to fuck up other side of Todoroki’s face. We were on the top floor so we’d bet everything that the bomb had to be up there, and all I had to do was kick Todoriki’s ass long enough for Iida to find it. He formed a patch of translucent ice in my path and I tripped as I was running, but I rolled into it. I had to keep moving forward, fighting him from afar was a death sentence. He responded with surprise, more ice, and sent an ice covered fist into the top of my skull since I was still low. It hurt like a son of a bitch and the ice was so cold that when he pulled his fist back a piece of the skin off my scalp went with it staining my hair crimson. I opened my palm and thrust it up towards his chin ready to end the fight in one blow and primed an explosion. He leaned back and when the blast detonated it blew a hole in the ceiling.

Bits of rubble rained down and beams of sunlight came down on us. I kept up the pressure and threw punch into his gut, and I tried to get back to my feet, he bought his ice coated skull against my forehead and took a patch of skin from there too. Blood poured down my face and got into my eyes. I tried to blink it away and he reached out with his hand and put it on my chest taking advantage of my blindness. The cold surrounded me, it spread over my body and burned like the coldest fire you could imagine. I twisted my hands towards him  and released an explosion into his chest before the ice engulfed my palms. I was so thoroughly encased in ice by then that I didn’t even move from the recoil, but it sent Todoriki flying The sunlight from the hole in the ceiling was my only source of warmth, and for just a second I lost it. I looked up as a shadow was cast in the sky by the goddamn weapon. It was like a bomb from an old kids cartoon and it was just sitting there floating in the sky. Fucking Fatass. “Iida!” I shouted into my earpiece. “The weapon it’s in the sky! Take out Uraraka!” It was already too late though. The timer buzzed, and we’d lost. I learned a bitter lesson that day. There was always someone better  

-OOO-

The rest of the day was filled with irrelevant details, and I walked out off UA’s gates with a bandage on my forehead and another on the top of my skull. I pulled out my phone when I felt it vibrate and saw a text from my mother it read: “I meant what I said, don’t come home till you apologize.” I sighed. I wasn’t sure what was worse, dealing with the entirely new sensation of failure or my problems at home. I typed out a reply.

“On my way over there now. I’m sorry. I love you.” I tried to remember the last time I had told someone I was sorry or my mother that I loved her. It was deeply unsettling to me that I couldn’t remember. 

“Hey Explosion Guy!” I looked up and wasn’t at all surprised to see Ochako there, I don’t think anyone else would have been that comfortable calling me explosion guy. “Wait up. You wanna walk to the train together?”

“I did tell you my name right? It’s Katsuki Bakugou. Why the hell do you keep calling me explosion guy?”

“Why do you keep calling me fatass? My name is Ochako Uraraka.”

“Fine. I’ll call you Ochako. Is there something you wanted?”

“Well I did ask if you wanted to walk to the train together. I also wanted rub our victory over you guys in your face.” I grunted and turned away cursing under my breath. Stomping in the general direction of the train station. I heard her footsteps and soon she was walking right next to me. “Oh don’t be like that. I’m just teasing. You were pretty amazing out there. You did a lot more than me. I just floated a prop.”

“The fuck are you talking about? We lost. There’s nothing amazing about that. And you did your part. Even if we did manage to beat Todoroki your power was still a huge obstacle.”

“Well yeah, you did loose, but think about how much you must have learned.”

“Learned?” I found everything she was saying meaningless and confusing. The idea that a loss was in any way valuable was a foreign concept to me back then. I turned the idea over in my head as we climbed the stairs to the train station.

“Yeah, imagine how you’ll do next time when you face Todoroki or someone with a quirk like his.” She shadowboxed and snapped out a few punches, which to my surprise were in perfect form.

“You’re weird, but thanks I guess.” I tried to remember the last time I had a conversation that lasted this long and that I actually enjoyed, but there wasn’t a one. Ochako was easy to talk to, and she didn’t cower away from my personality like most people did, usually that meant people wanted to kiss my ass, but a significant portion of this conversation had involved her giving me shit so I didn’t really see that being her motivation.

“I guess someone would have to be pretty weird to try and be your friend.” Friendship was another thing I didn’t have a grasp of back then. Not real friendship anyway, so I had no respone for that, and  for the first time in my life I floundered and my mouth moved, but no words came out. She thought it was the funniest fucking thing in the world, and held her sides while she laughed at me.  “Really? Is that all it takes? Big bad Katsuki King of Explosions! Loses all his composure at friendship?”

“Oi! Fuck you fatass!”

-OOO-

Eventually we got on seperate trains and parted ways. It didn’t take long for me to get to my home station, and as I walked through the neighborhood my heart started pounding as I got closer to Midoriya-San’s house. I still had no idea what exactly I was going to say even as I knocked on the door. I heard shuffling from the inside and then the sound of the locks turning. She poked her head through the door, and my resolve eroded a bit when I saw her face. Her eyes were red, from what had to be tears. She wore her pain like battle scars. “Ah Katsuki come on in.” I stepped in after she pulled the door apart and stepped aside. Her home was remarkably clean, almost sterile. Like she tried to wash everything away. “Would you like some tea?”

“Um. No thank you. I came here to apologize to you. I’m sorry about refusing your gift this morning. I didn’t mean to be rude.” I bowed to her, all the way this time. I think it was easier for me to say everything else I needed to say if I couldn’t see her face. “Those books were painful for me to see. I-i said something cruel to De-Izuku before he passed. I told him he was better off killing himself than trying to become a hero. I scorched his notebook with my quirk. I made him feel like he was nothing, I’m so sorry.” I dropped to my knees, and pressed my forehead to the floor. “It’s my fault that he’s dead.” I don’t know how long I stayed like that, I don’t know at which point I started crying, but the tears poured down my face and pooled on the hardwood floor. I don’t even know why I told her everything, but when I walked into her home and looked at her tear stained face, I couldn’t lie to her anymore. I couldn’t lie to myself anymore and everything just came out.

“Katsuki, stand up.” Her voice was barely above a whisper but I did what she said without hesitation. Her expression held even more pain than when I walked in. I would have let her punch me, kick me, slap me, hit me till she was satisfied, but of all those things she chose to hug me. She cried into my chest, “You weren’t even his friend, you were cruel to him, you didn’t even like him, and his life didn’t matter to you. So how could this be your fault? I was his mother Katsuki. His fucking mother, and he thought I didn’t believe in him, he thought I didn’t support his dreams. He thought he couldn't share his pain with me. The only person who’s at fault is me.” I cried too, I have no idea why she could possibly think those things, but I understood that it was my fault that she had to carry that pain. I think that’s when I realized how much one person’s life can affect another. How losing a person could cause so much pain, and that’s when I decided I’d save everyone.

-OOO-

We cried like that for a long time, and eventually I had to leave. There wasn’t much said though and I had no idea how our next encounter would go, but as I walked home I felt remarkably light. Things weren’t better, but it felt good to have everything out in the open. That much made all the difference.  

When I got home my mom was waiting for me, her arms were crossed and I raised my eyebrows. “Were you waiting for me to come through door?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I knew this was coming, but after what I just did this was easy. “I got your text message.”

“And I got yours.”

“So did your apology go well?”

 That was something I didn't have answer for. “I don’t know, but I gave her the best apology I could.” Outside of bringing her son back to life, but I kept that part to myself.

“Katsuki I’m sorry.”

“Mom I’m sorry.” We spoke at the exact same time, and somewhere off in the kitchen I could hear my dad laughing and she held up her hand to stop me from speaking.

“I shouldn’t have hit you. You’re grieving too and I didn’t recognize that. I’m sorry.”

“Mom.” I sighed. “I think that if you hit me more I would have turned out a lot better. I’m sorry for the way that I am.” I tried to walk past her on my way up the stairs, but she grabbed my arm.

“Katsuki. You’re a flawed person, but you are my son. Never apologize for who you are only your actions.” She let me go and I didn’t say anything back as I climbed the stairs and went into my room. I dropped my bag and sat down on my bed. I heard a crinkle of plastic and looked down next to me and saw the bag of notebooks. I reached in and pulled one out. It read: Hero Analysis Notes For The Future #1. I opened the cover and saw what looked like a crude drawing of me as a child. Messily written in a child’s script were notes about my quirk and how I used it. It was surprisingly complex, but there was one glaring issue. He spelled my name wrong, instead of Kacchan, he wrote it as Kaachan.

Kaachan. That had a nice ring to it.

Chapter Text

I woke up the next morning feeling a lightness in my heart that I hadn’t felt since before I found out that Deku had passed away. Spilling everything out to his mother had been cathartic. I still felt like crap about the whole thing, but that was when I decided that I could keep moving forward at least. Midoriya's death might have defined me, but I wasn’t gonna let it chain me down. I had a promise to uphold, to be the best hero I could be, and I’d see it through to the end.

-OOO-

There was a media circus outside of UA by the time I got there. I’ll go on record now saying that I absolutely hate the shitstorm of media attention that goes along with being a pro hero. That morning they had been whipped up into a frenzy when the news broke that All Might would be teaching at UA that semester. The press had clogged the main gate and were harassing students on their way in. It pissed me off.

“Dude, if you’re thinking about blasting your way through the press I wouldn’t recommend it.” I had almost expected it to be Ochako, but the voice was way too deep. I turned my head as Kirishima waltzed over. I grunted at him, not yet incensed enough to tell him to fuck off. I stopped to to wonder if I was going soft before responding to him.

“I wasn’t gonna blast them, it’d be more satisfying to break their cameras.”

He laughed at that. “True, you wanna walk through the shark tank together?” He nodded his head at the media.

“Sure.” I was still trying to figure Kirishima out as we walked in an easy silence up to the gates of UA. Well, it’s more accurate to say that I was still trying to figure out the whole friendship thing. Outside of Ochako most of my classmates in 1-A had given me a wide berth after I verbally assaulted Iida that first morning, and then even further after I actually assaulted Todoroki, but I think that had more to do with the smile on my face while I fought him, and the threat I made about burning the other side of his face. The press swarmed as soon as they saw us.

“What’s it like having All Might as a teacher?”

“Do you like All Might?”

“Is All Might the best?”

‘Can you comment on the negligence allegations made against the pro hero community?”

I took a deep breath as we were assaulted by questions and Kirishima noting my rising anger took a step away from me. “Stop talking to us.” I elbowed my way through and so did Kirishima. When we reached the other side of the gates and made our way into the building he spoke.

“I’m surprised Bakugou. You seem like the kinda guy who’d blow up at something like that, or more literally blow something like that up.”

“I’m trying to work on managing my anger, or at least save it for fuckers who really deserve it.” Another silence passed as we made our way to our classroom. What I appreciated most about Kirishima was that he didn’t try to fill silence with meaningless chatter, he’d probably say something about manliness and the passion of silence if he was ever asked about it. The silence was shattered when we entered our classroom. Our classmates were still hyped about the mock battles from yesterday, and the energy was in every corner of the room, and since my battle with Todoroki had more or less set the tone for everything that followed when I walked in that energy shifted just a bit. On the way over to my desk I nodded at Iida. He’d gained a measure of my respect since we’d fought together. It’s hard to not at least respect someone you’ve fought side by side with. He returned the gesture.

The second I sat down Ochako turned to face me. “Aw you’re getting along with Iida now? And walking together with Kirishima. Goodness Katsuki keep it up and you’ll start having actual friends. I hope you can handle it.” I was beginning to understand that Ochako got her kicks from pushing my buttons. I turned to face her.

“I’m starting to get real tired of your shit Ochako. Is there a reason why you keep messing with me?” I’ll be honest, I didn’t exactly mind her taking jabs at me it was kinda fun most of the time.

“Katsuki, you set the tone for our relationship when we first met, now reap what you sow and suffer.” I couldn’t actually argue with that, but before I could trysomeone decided to step in and speak on our little back and forth.

“Oh, first names already? You two have gotten awfully close awfully fast.” Two seat ahead of me someone had turned around to face us. I didn’t know his name at the time, but in my mind I had labelled him: ‘Belly Button Laser Fucker’. He seemed like an acceptable target for my fury.

“Why don’t you go fuck yourself with your useless quirk, you belly button bitch boy background character!” I really wanted to savor that moment and the look on his face, but then Kaminari stood up and pumped his fist in the air.

“Woooo! Pay up everybody! Bakugou exploded in less than five minutes! I win.”

I turned my head in his direction, but then the grape haired fucker shouted back at him. “That’s not fair. Aoyama provoked him you guys could have been in on it together from start!” I remember feeling like a volcano. Instead of erupting I turned to Ochako. Her mouth was over her hand and she struggled to contain her laughter. At least she tried, the rest of the class with the exceptions of Iida, Todoroki, that shadow bird fucker, the six armed bandit, and the frog girl couldn’t contain themselves.

“Did you know about this?” I asked.

“I had no idea.” She stopped to breathe. “I only walked in a few minutes before you did.” I mentally added her to the list of people safe from my fury, it was a really short list, just her and Kirishima actually.

I rose to my feet the chair skidding back. “Oi! Did you fuckers make a bet about me?”

Kaminari turned to me. “Yes. Specifically about how long it’d take before you exploded in anger about something, you kinda have the personality of flaming hot garbage.”

“You’re also super terrifying when you smile.”

“I’m amazed you’re not currently enrolled in a school for villains.”

I don’t know if you’ve ever had a room full of people shit on you, but it doesn’t feel nice. I wanted to grab them by their faces and explode them, but I was reminding myself of Deku and all the times, that I’d lead a classroom of people in hurling abuse at him. I realized that I’d probably made him feel a whole hell of a lot worse for a lot longer. I didn’t lash out, I sat down and sulked. “Fuckers.” I figured that Deku had endured a lot worse than this without losing his shit, and I wasn’t about to lose to him.

“Eh. I don’t think he’s that bad, ribbit.” All the heads in the room turned as one and regarded the frog girl, Tsuyu Asui. “He’s abrasive, but so far he’s only exploded at people he cares about.” She pointed one long finger at Ochako. “Or at people he thinks aren’t living up to the ideals of a hero.” She pointed another at Iida. They were silent for a few seconds before Kirishima spoke.

“When you put it like that Bakugou’s actually pretty manly isn’t he?”

I hated having people speak about me like I wasn’t there, and I hated the attention and scrutiny, but after everything I’d put Deku through that didn’t really matter. I thought of Inko Midoriya and how she would never get to see her son again, and my stomach turned. I decided getting verbally abused by my classmates was something I could live with.

“HA HA HA. WHAT A LIVELY CLASS!” All the attention that had been on me vanished in seconds when All Might stepped into our classroom. If you’ve never had the privilege to see All Might with your own two eyes then I can only try to explain how it feels. Imagine that every worry you ever had, and every insecurity and fear you carried just vanished, because he was here, and everything would be alright. He was wearing his Silver Age costume when he showed up, and he addressed the room like a crimson beacon of peace.  “BUT LET’S NOT FORGET TO HONOR OUR CLASSMATES! NOW INTO YOUR COSTUMES! YOUR INSTRUCTOR IS HERE!”

It took everyone a while to get over the shock of having All Might as our teacher. It wasn’t a surprise though, part of the reason the competition was so stiff this year was because it was widely known that All Might had decided to take up teaching, but seeing him in the front of your  class was just inspiring. The air was charged with awe and ambition.

-OOO-

All Might, and Aizawa-Sensei boarded us onto a shuttle that took us to the USJ facility where we were greeted by the pro-rescue hero Thirteen. If All Might was the uncontested number one hero, then Thirteen was probably the uncontested number one hero when it came to rescue operations. Arguably, even better than All Might. Thirteen could do it all, fires, floods, rockslides, earthquakes, and even nuclear disasters. Thirteen was also wrapped in mystery, nobody knew their gender or what they might have looked like. The world never saw past that environment suit and the quirk that let them generate gravity wells. Thirteen never seemed to mind, and they explained to our class that the lesson of the day would be seeing how we behaved in rescue situations, but then the League Of Villains showed up.

A black mist seeped into existence all around us. It was like the air itself was split apart and the fog rushed out of anti-matter to fill the space and when it got thicker than blood tons of villains stepped through. Most of them were grunts and didn't look like much, but there were so many of them. Three however stood out. One was massive and colored jet black, it’s brain was exposed and it’s muscles were big as All Mights. It was the first recorded sighting of a Noumu. The other two shared a similar love for the color black. One was Kurogiri who was the source of the mist and the other looked like a punk bitch who got fired from Hot Topic for being too edgy. We’d come to find out in time that his name was Tomura Shigaraki.

My classmates tensed, but I didn’t see any hesitation from any them. They were ready to fight, well grape boy looked like he was gonna shit himself, but he didn’t really count. “Fall Back! This is not training!” Aizawa-Sensei shouted at us while he and All Might kept their eyes on the threat. They pros didn’t even have to talk to each other. All Might took point, while Aizawa-Sensei hung back and formed a defensive line and flicked down his goggles.

Thirteen was ushering us back toward the exit. Sensei could use his quirk to provide ranged support if by some miracle any of the chumps managed to get the drop on All Might. Thirteen almost had us out the giant doors, but Kurogiri appeared in front of them, his rich black mist blocking the exit, the fucker had the nerve to monologue at us, "Children I can't allow you to leave, the time of reckon-" and then my body moved on it’s own again.

My classmates were all behind me, and there he was an obstacle to their safety. I wanted to protect them. It was all I could think about. I didn’t tell my hands to blast off of the ground, but they did. Twin explosions rocketed from behind me and the smile was glued onto my face. I wasn’t alone though, Kirishima was right next me and we launched through the air, but we never even made contact with him, we lashed out to strike and found ourselves bathed in the darkness of Kurogiri.

-OOO-

Passing through him only lasted a second, but it was cold and had an emptiness that was felt everywhere, like I was living in a space that didn’t exist. When we came out of the darkness it looked like we were in an empty building that was ready to collapse in on itself. It was dingy, and disgusting, but the more pressing issue was that Kirishima and I were surrounded by villains. We didn’t have to speak and got back to back. He shifted to his hardened state and I primed explosions in my hands. Then they attacked. The thugs were sloppy and untrained, but heir biggest detriment was cowardice. If they had tried to swarm us they might have overwhelmed us with sheer numbers, but as it was they were too scared to get an explosion to the face or a rock fist through the gut. We made short work of them and when the last one was down we had time to formulate a plan.

“We need to see if we can rescue the others.” Kirishima didn’t have any hesitation as he said it, and I respected the hell out of him for it.

“No, we need to focus on getting back at that black mist fucker.”

“What kind of man are you Bakugou? It’s our fault that we all got separated. We have to help them!”

“Just think for a second. They need that black mist guy to make any sort of easy escape, and these punks aren’t worth a damn, our classmates can handle them.”

The fucker started smiling at me. So you’re saying we should trust our classmates? That’s pretty manly Bakugou.”

-OOO-

When we finally made it back things weren’t looking great. Some of our classmates had managed to get past Kurogiri, and Iida had sprinted back to the school for reinforcements, but it didn’t look like we’d last that long. All Might was engaged in Battle with the Noumu, they were trading blows, faster than I could see, but each clash made the USJ facility shake. Sensei was starting to get overwhelmed by sheer numbers and Thirteen was down for the count. Kurogiri was still a threat, my classmates had managed to expose a piece of metal armor that I could only assume was protecting the vulnerable part of his body. I focused on that, the armor had just been slammed into the ground, through a combination of Sero and Sato’s quirks. I put my hand over it and released an explosion. The impact seemed to have him rattled, so I checked the battlefield. I understood completely that if we tried to interfere in All Might’s battle with the Noumu we’d just get in his way, but Sensei was outnumbered and his opponents were more on our speed. “Kirishima! Sato! Don’t just fucking stand there, help out Sensei! Sero! Guerilla tactics! Get in there and keep moving! Trip up who you can! Ashido! Hurl acid at the fuckers!” My classmates stared at me like deer in headlights. Everyone but Kirishima anyway, he charged in and a fraction of a second later Sato was there too right behind him plunging headfirst into the fight. Their strength quirks literally punched a hole right through the enemy line and they stood back to back taking some of the pressure off Sensei. Sero was there just behind them swinging through the air on his tape, he never stayed in place for very long, and used his quirk to stick enemies together or to the ground. Ashido used her acid to melt the ground beneath her and skated through the crowd tagging people with acid burns.

“Do you really think this will make any difference?” I looked down at Kurogiri and released another explosion into his armor, but he kept talking. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, that creature, that Noumo was specially designed to kill All Might, you’ve given your friends something to do, but that beast will kill All Might and then who do you think it’ll attack next? You’re rather cruel giving them this hope.”

“You gonna shut him up with another explosion?” I looked up and already knew the voice, Ochako was standing over me, and supporting Thirteen. I released another explosion and Kurogiri shut the fuck up. Thirteen looked me over.

“Bakugou right? You should be down there fighting with your classmates, if you’re going to be their leader, then you should be supporting them from the front lines. I can keep watch over him.” They held up their hand and painted the black holes of death at Kurogiri. “Go.” I didn’t need more prodding. I stood up and turned towards the battle and Ochako was next to me. We charged.

-OOO-

Battle is chaotic, it requires you know where your allies are at all times, and knowing just what they can handle. Sero, Ashido, and Ochako were using their quirks like guerillas. Weaving in and out of the fight setting traps and laying out sucker punches. Kirishima and Sato formed an iron wall, and were making their quirks work in tandem like a shield and spear. Kirishima would tank damage with his hardening quirk and when the enemy was close Sato would come from behind and deliver powerful punches with his sugar rush quirk. A sloppy pile of bodies was forming at their feet. It made the most of their time limits.

Ochako stayed focused on staying nimble and sending people skyward with her quirk and once they got high enough dropping them back into the ground. They had raw numbers over us, but our offensive was making a difference and we chipped away at them one piece at a time. Then Shigaraki decided that he’d had enough of watching stepped into the battlefield. I saw him and made a beeline for him. I stopped just a few feet away from him, I had no idea what his quirk was and decided to play it safe.

“You.” He said. “You’re the kinda hero that pisses me off the most. You’ve got a big flashy quirk and you boss people around. I bet you think you’re better than m-” I detonated explosions behind me and the momentum let me clear the distance between the two of us. I bent my elbow and pointed my right hand at my side and fired an explosion. It spun me around and my elbow cracked into his jaw. He hit the ground and I didn’t give him a chance to recover. I took my open palm and was going to send it into his face and release an explosion, his palm met mine and the material of my glove faded away into dust and then the skin of my palm shared it’s fate. It was like my hand was being made into sashimi, peeled away one ultra fine layer after another. I released an explosion. The blast forced me away from him. He was quick to his feet, but didn’t attack. His hand was blackened and charred from the explosion, while mine was red and raw from his touch. Somewhere behind us there was an unfathomable boom as All Might punched the Noumu through the roof of the facility, but we didn’t take our eyes off each other.

“To answer your question.” I spoke. “Due to some recent events in my life I don’t exactly have the highest opinion of myself, but yeah I do think I’m better than you. I’m sure you have some reason for hating heroes, or have probably had a tough life, but fucking tough you bitch. People struggle with burdens every day.” Izuku’s face flashed through my mind. “But they don’t turn into murderous fuckers like you. Your mother should have swallowed you.”

“I really do hate guys like you! What’s your name? Your hero name? What do they call you?”

I didn’t hesitate to answer, “Kaachan.”

“Well, Kaachan I’m Tomura Shigaraki your archnemesis.” The doors of USJ burst open and there was Iida with the rest of the heroes, I was told later on that that had been enough of a distraction for Kurogiri to open a portal under Thirteen’s nose and slip away. The inky blackness pooled around Shigaraki and he waved at me with his burned hand before he disappeared. “I’m going to kill you one day, hurry up and get your license, I want it to be official.”

 The pros stormed into USJ and mopped up what was left of the villains in a few seconds. The incident at USJ would go on to make national headlines and Class 1-A would begin to be put under a microscope. We had not only survived the attack with minimal injuries, but had managed to soundly defeat the villains. It was also the first day that I announced to the world and myself what kind of man Katsuki Bakugou would be: Kaachan A Hero Who Saves People.

Chapter Text

After the USJ incident my classmates and I were given the next day off from school. I can't speak for the rest of them, but for me the time off didn't help. My hand was healing slowly and had to be kept bandaged. I could have had it healed, but after everything I'd endured and Shigaraki's threat on my life, I wanted to have something to remember it all by. I decided to spend the day off training, and so I slipped out of the house before sunrise. The morning air was chilly and had a bite to it. I started to run and eventually my body warmed up, but no matter how hard I ran all I could think of was Shigaraki. You didn’t get into this business without knowing that one day sooner or later you were gonna cross a villain and it was going to get personal. I was trying to imagine what would happen if Shigaraki came after my parents, or maybe even brought a Noumu with him. I didn’t like the image so I ran faster, hoping that I wouldn’t have the energy to think.

-OOO-

I knocked a man over as I was running, He was just another jogger out for a run, but I hadn’t been paying attention and crashed right into him. He hit the ground and started coughing up blood. He was was skinny and just barely taller than me, I stopped and looked down when I realized I had no idea what to do, coughing up blood was always bad. I stood there awkwardly until he finished coughing and extended my hand. “Shit. I’m sorry about that, I didn’t see you there. Are you okay?”

He took my hand and pulled himself to his feet.  “I’m quite fine young Bakugou.”

“How the fuck do you know my name?” I squeezed his palm tighter and primed an explosion, just so he could feel the heat. The tracksuit he was wearing looked at least three sizes too big and his skinniness made him look malnourished. He had hair the color of sunlight and blue pupils set against black eyes. His eyes reminded me of All Might’s, but my nerves and paranoia conjured up images of Shigaraki and his threat against my life.

“Hang on. I’m going to reach into my pocket. Don’t explode my hand please.” He did just that and when his hand came out he was clutching a business card and held it up to me. It read: Might Productions, Toshinori Yagi, Second Secretarial Office.

“Wait,” I released his hand and snatched the business card. “You’re All Might’s secretary?” That was certainly the name and address of All Might’s agency on the business card. There was even a little drawing of the Might Tower in the corner. I decided that this man was probably who he claimed to be.

“One of many, but I do have the distinct pleasure of reporting directly to All Might. He speaks very highly of you.” Hearing that All Might thought highly of me was like a knife in the gut, it was praise that I should have been able to enjoy, but I just couldn’t. Not when I knew it’d all be blown away like sand on a windy day if he ever found out about Midoriya. “His teaching at UA has forced me to relocate as well. I didn’t mean to startle you by saying your name, but I recognized you from his descriptions. He’s an avid storyteller and you rallying your classmates at USJ has become a favorite of his I think.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, more praise from All Might was unexpected, and more than I thought I deserved. “Well, thank you. Take care of yourself.” I turned away and got ready to run again. He called out to me before I left. “Wait young Bakugou, would you mind if I joined you on your jog? It is better to do these things with a partner.”

“I don’t know. You look kind of frail, can you keep up?”

He grinned like I’d made an inside joke. “I’m fitter than I look.”

-OOO-

Turns out he actually was, I started off at a light pace for his sake, but when I noticed he had no problem keeping stride I turned up the pace and he stayed with me just fine. I turned my head to him. “You really are fitter than you look. What’s your secret?” He chuckled again like I’d made some sort of inside joke.

“Oh, I’ve just spent a lot of years chasing All Might from crime scene to disaster area to fundraiser. It forces me to stay in shape. May I ask you a question young Bakugou?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you wish to be a hero?” The question stopped me in my tracks and for just a few seconds Yagi’s footsteps plodded along rhythmically in front of me. He stopped and turned around to face me.

“If you had asked me that question maybe two months ago, I probably would have said I wanted to be the best and I wanted the world to see it, just like All Might. I wanted to be someone who never loses and it’s still kind of true, but now more than anything I wanna be able to save people. I want to save everyone.”

“That’s a worthwhile goal young Bakugou, but between those two months and now what changed?”

“Someone died and it was my fault. I don’t mean that as in someone died and I failed to save them. I mean I was so cruel to this guy that I might as well have pushed him off the roof myself.” Being honest about Deku was starting to become natural, opening up kept me from going insane with guilt, but it added to my self-loathing. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be to the best, and damn sure not the next All Might with that cloud hanging over me, but I can still give it my best, and try to save everyone I can right?”

“Yes young Bakugou I think you can.” He smiled. “I may just be a secretary, but I’ve been around a lot of heroes. The greatest ones are driven by a desire to save people. Even if that cloud over your head means you can’t be the next All Might I think it means you could be something different, something just as important to the world, maybe even better.”

And that was the day I was deemed unworthy of One For All

-OOO-

It’d be a while before I ran into Yagi again, but our conversation and Its implications were stuck in my head. I was so distracted that when Sensei announced the UA sports festival, I didn’t even look up. I should have been paying more attention or I would have noticed Kirishima and Ochako sneaking up on either side of me. They each shouted in one of my ears. “Bakugou! Get! Pumped!”

It took every measure of self-control not to fall out of my seat or explode their faces, but somehow I succeeded. “What the fuck do you two want?!”

They both pumped a fist in the air in fucking unison, like a couple of perfectly synced marionettes. I was annoyed beyond belief. “Dude. Where’s your energy? The sports festival is gonna be going down soon.” Kirishima was more energetic than usual and Ochako was the same. I could understand, but I had a lot of things on my mind, but I couldn’t find it in me to give a ton of fucks about the sports festival, not after Shigaraki and Yagi.

“Hey, why do you guys wanna be heroes?” They looked surprised at my sudden change of topic, but I wanted to hear what they had to say, ever since USJ it dawned on me that these two were the people I had the most experience fighting with and that when shit went south they were usually by my side. I wondered what kind of heroes they wanted to be.

Kirishima answered first and without hesitation. “I always wanted to be a manly hero like Crimson Riot. That means no hesitation and living without regret. I want to be the kind of hero who doesn’t hesitate and if you don’t hesitate you can’t regret.” I hadn’t expected anything less from Kirishima. We both turned ot Ochako and she looked nervous.

“To be honest.” She rubbed the back of her head. I’m in this for the money. My parent’s construction business has gone under and after everything they’ve given me I want to be able to give them a comfortable life. Why do you ask Katsuki?”

“Well, you two are the closest thing I have to friends. You're my go to allies when the shit hits the fan. I wanted to know what kind of heroes you two wanted to be.”

“Damn it guys! That was so manly!” Kirishima grabbed us both and pulled us into a tight hug. Ochako and I were pressed together and I caught the scent peaches on her hair.

“Wow. Class 1-A sure can afford to take it easy can’t they?” Kirishima put us down and our entire classroom looked where the voice was coming from. The door was open and there was a whole crowd of students outside, but this one purple haired fucker stepped through and addressed the room. “Has being celebrities made you complacent? Do you think you’re better than us because you’ve had to face a few villains? Or because you’ve all got flashy quirks? Must be nice. I just wanted to stop by and put you all on notice. We’re coming for you. If you mess up we’ll gladly take your spot.” I suddenly had a reason to care about the sports festival.

-OOO-

We trained our asses of in the weeks leading up to the sports festival and when it finally came the tension was palpable. We sat in our class' waiting room and I could see it on the faces of my classmates there was something to prove nestled in each one of them. My ambitions were slightly different. Yagi had told me that I could be something different and that vision was starting to take place, but I couldn’t grasp it yet. I was hoping to find that answer in the sports festival.

A hush fell over the room and when I looked up Todoroki was approaching me. His face was grim and he stopped just in front of me. “Bakugou. It’s obvious to me that you’re the biggest threat to me in this class. As it stands you couldn’t beat me in our last battle and you won’t beat me in this one. My father is watching, that means I need to crush you.”

I smiled, “Try it Todoroki.” I didn’t exactly know who the new Katsuki Bakugou was yet, but the old one he lived for shit like this and Todorki’s challenge added fire to my heart.

-OOO-

Since I had the highest score on the entrance exam I was called up to speak at the commencement for the festival. I wasn’t sure what I was trying to become yet, but in that moment looking at my classmates and everyone else aiming to claim a victory by standing on their backs it clicked for me. The world of heroes was a no holds barred battle for popularity, but that didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to save people and be the best that was possible for me. Each person here was standing in the way of myself and my class and then I knew what to say. “I just wanted to say that I don’t give a fuck about this festival, but some of the students here decided that being a hero is a zero sum game and that if they wanted to be the best it meant stepping on the backs of myself and my classmates, all because we’ve faced real danger before. Because the media decided to praise us for it. I think that’s fucking stupid, but I can’t change their minds so instead I’ll say that this is my declaration of war. Come for us if you want, but class 1-A will crush you. We’re gonna win it all, and when there's no one else left we'll show you what it means to fight like heroes.”  

Chapter Text

I walked down from the stage and Midnight took my place, she tried to restore some manner of order to the stadium. The crowd was torn and exploded into a wild medley of cheers and jeers. It was kind of funny, even though the stadium was mostly filled with pro heroes a few words had brought them near to riot. It made sense to me even back then, the thing that separated heroes like All Might from the guys you’ve never heard of, who spend their entire careers as sidekicks isn’t the power of an unstoppable quirk, it’s just the drive to be better than everyone else. I’ll let you figure out which heroes in the crowd were booing me and which ones were cheering me on.

At the bottom of the stairs, my classmates met me with a mix of stares and grins.“What?” I asked.

“Bakugou! What the fuck man?!

“Are you fucking serious? They’re gonna be on our asses now!”

“Bakugou! Why on earth would you say those things?! That sort of behavior is unacceptable, apologize to the other students!”

They took a few more turns yelling at me, but they were mostly nervous. I think that speech had been my way of helping them. After USJ I had grown attached to them and wanted to see them all succeed, but I didn’t really think they had a shot at it unless they were absolutely on their A game, and this was my of pushing them there. “Are you guys done yet?” I elbowed past them and made my way to starting line for the first event. “They were gunning for us anyway. So now we’ll show them and the rest of the world why they shouldn’t fuck with class 1-A. Win damn it.”

-OOO-

I lost the first challenge to Todoroki, he crossed the finish line a whole two seconds before I did, and when I finally did make it over the damn line he was there on the other side looking me in the eyes. The arena was roaring, but Todoroki regarded me with that icy glare of his. It made fire boil in the pits of my gut, he didn’t have to say what he was thinking it was clear as day and written all over his face. He turned his icy gaze from me and into the stands to gaze into the face of his father, Endeavour. I grew to understand Todoroki in that moment. I wasn’t really an opponent in his eyes, I was just a stepping stone to being greater than his father.

That pissed me off more than I can describe. My hands balled into a fist as Midnight explained the rules of the cavalry battle. I could deal with wearing a target on my back, and people aiming to remove me from the fight, but this was just disrespectful, that he dared looked down on me. I wouldn’t allow it. He’d be crushed. I was trembling when Kirishima rushed to approach me. “Bakugou.” He said. “Let’s team up!” He had his fist held up and he looked ready to fuck shit up. “You’re going after Todoroki aren’t you? Then you’re gonna need someone up front who can tank your explosions right?”

“You know I came in second right? That means there’s gonna be people coming after me too, you okay with being a target?”

He smiled. "Todoroki dropped a frozen robot on me during the race. You're not the only one looking to dethrone him."

-OOO-

Kirishima and I recruited Ashido and Ochako respectively. Ochako was happy to join up, and it only meant I had to endure more of her teasing. Ashido was a little bit more skeptical, which I respected. Having the second highest score meant that I was only slightly less of a Target than Todoroki, but Kirishima was able to convince her through a combination of reminding her about the way I handled the USJ incident and whispering the words ‘Horn Buddies’ to her when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. With the team assembled we huddled and formed our attack strategy.

-OOO-

Kirishima was our frontline, Ochako our left flank, Ashido our right, and I was standing above them all as the captain of our enterprise. I won’t go into all the details, but when the starting gun sounded things went to shit pretty fast. Some of the lower tier teams made a beeline for Todoroki's group. He had teamed with Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, and Iida. They didn’t move a muscle as they were swarmed instead, Todoroki launched a wave of ice at them and froze their feet to the arena floor. That’s when they moved to attack, snatching the headbands off as many teams as they could. With Iida’s speed towing the rest on skates, it didn’t take very long for Todoroki’s team to snatch up several headbands.

Then the other teams launched their attacks on us. Mina hurled acid at the ground on our right flank. We had figured that rather than wade their way through acid, they’d either try to approach us head-on, which we figured was unlikely since that was the equivalent of running at a brick wall with a cannon standing on top of it.  We accurately deduced that they’d attack from our left, assuming that Ochako was our weakest link. That was their error

When the first team approached, it was some of those fucks from class 1-B some blonde shit talker was on top. When their frontman was within range Ochako tapped him and he left the ground and started floating up and away from his team. The sudden loss of balance made the rest of the team topple over, and on the way down I snatched his headband. When they all hit the ground they were disqualified.

Things went on like that for some time until the clock started to wind down, headbands were gained and loss and when there was a minute left on the clock we played our trump card. Ochako tapped me and I took to the air. I angled my hands behind me and released explosions, I rocketed towards Todoroki and extended my hand. The plan had been to stay away from him for as long as possible, and in the last minute with the speed boost from Ochako making me weightless he wouldn’t have enough time to react. I watched his eyes widen, and smiled back at him. He raised his left hand and for just a moment it came alight with flame as he tried to block, and then he froze. His body went still and I snatched two of his headbands away from him as I went by. Our team score increased by over ten million points.

There was a short break after that and for the teams that made it through Cavalry Battle, the brackets for the one on one tournaments were announced. I only really cared about who the people on my team would be fighting. I was against Belly Button Laser Bitch-Boy, Mina was against Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, Kirishima was up against the purple haired fucker who declared war on our class, and Ochako was set against Todoroki.

-OOO-

The atmosphere in waiting area for the first match was tense, most of the people who had made it through were from Class 1-A, that only intensified the pressure on the people who weren’t from class 1-A. The division between our classes was almost violent, but it was hard to care about. The Cavalry Battle was the first time I’d ever even seen or gotten the slightest inclination that Todoroki inherited his father’s quirk. I knew that one way or another the tournament was going to come down to me versus Todoroki. A more pressing issue was Ochako, her first opponent was Todoroki. She was sitting next to me, and her head was down. My arms were crossed, and I let them drop to my lap I was furious at Todoroki for holding back, but projecting that at Ochako was a piss poor idea.

“Oi. Ochako. You got a strategy?” I tried to keep the usual edge out of my voice. I was concerned, and I didn’t want her to deflect with an insult, keeping composed was essential to that. She looked up at me and smiled.

“Better question, do you think I have a chance against Todoroki?”

“No, not even a little bit.” I respected her far too much to lie to her. “It really doesn’t look good for you, but that’s no reason not to try. You signed-”

“Katsuki, I know what I signed up for.” She cut me off and I closed my mouth. “When I decided I wanted to be a hero I accepted that there’s going to be a lifetime of impossible odds ahead of me. Might as well get started now right?” She was smiling, but it wasn’t for me. Ochako understood even back then that the life of a hero was one devoted to tearing down all the barriers before you, and if you could do it with a smile? Then you were already halfway there.

-OOO-

I was sitting next to Kirishima when Ochako’s match started. The pro hero Cementoss had made a ring in the center of the arena. The rules were straightforward, if Midnight stopped the match, or someone was thrown out of the arena or was otherwise unable to compete then it was over. My arms were crossed as I stared down into the ring, Kirishima had said something to me, but I wasn’t listening.

Ochako and Todoroki were on opposite sides of the arena. Todoroki didn’t hesitate to spread his ice over the arena. It wasn’t one of the massive towering walls that he usually unleashed, it came a few inches off the ground, but spanned the width of the ring.  I can only assume his plan was to either force her back and out of the ring or ice her on the spot. She surprised him and ran toward the oncoming ice and when she was inches away from it she jumped and brought her fingers together. Her momentum and the lack of gravity carried her halfway across the arena. She tapped her fingers again and hit the ice. She started sliding across the slick surface and when she was about three feet away from him he summoned forth his ice. He raised a wall in front of himself and she harmlessly slid into it.

The fight up until that point had just felt awkward to watch, and it dawned on me why. Todoroki was holding back against her. That realization made the storm of feelings roiling inside me settle down. I had known from the beginning that I would have had to fight Todoroki at some point. Now though, I had a reason to absolutely destroy him. I remember going completely still in my seat. I couldn’t believe that he dared to hold back against Ochako, that he dared to embarrass her like that. that he’d spit on her efforts.

The match ended swiftly after that, Ochako brought her fingers together after she made contact with the ice wall and kicked off the ground. She went straight up, and when she reached it’s lip she brought her fingers together and vaulted over it. Gravity brought her down towards Todoroki faster than he could react. She brought her right leg to her chest and when the distance was just right she released it and kicked the top of Todoroki’s skull. The crack of foot against skull silenced the arena, and I smiled, and then Todoroki got serious. Before Ochako was able to get away Todoroki grabbed her by the ankle and encased her in ice up to her neck.

-OOO-

I didn’t get to check on her right away since my fight was up next. Aoyama was entering from the other side of the arena when I got there. I briefly toyed with the idea of unleashing some of my fury on him, but I set aside my rage. It was all for Todoroki.

Midnight signaled the start of the match. I didn’t move, my best opening would be if I attacked just after Aoyama fired his laser. The only issue was that he made no move to attack me, instead, he decided he wanted to talk. “I can tell you’re concerned about Uraraka-San. You must be thinking to yourself, 'I’ll end this match quickly and check on her.' How romantic.”

An attack on my feelings was one I didn’t see coming, but I probably should have. For just a second I froze and he fired his laser at me. It hit me square in the stomach and burned a navel sized hole through the jacket of my uniform. The embers spread, and the next thing I knew the damn thing was on fire. I fumbled with the zipper and his laser hit me again in the shoulder. I finally got the jacket off and stood there in my tank top. I was royally pissed off, but still a little impressed. “You crafty motherfucker. That was a cheap trick trying to get in my head like that. You know it won’t work a second time right?” His lasers had burned and boiled some of the skin on my shoulder and had warped together the fabric of my tank top and my stomach where he shot me the first time. It hurt like a motherfucker, but I was angry enough to deal with it.

He smiled nervously, and I couldn’t fault him for that. His full strength laser was probably enough to kill me. I’d seen him use it to punch through machines at the entrance exam. If that battle had taken place in the real world I’d have already been dead. We both knew that, and we both knew that his tricks wouldn’t work a second time. “Oui, but I had to try mon ami.” He fired another laser at me, but I was ready for it that time. My right hand unleashed an explosion, and pushed me out the path of his laser, while my left hand unleashed another blast behind me and shot me forward closing the distance in seconds. I reached out with my hand and grabbed his face and primed an explosion. He had the sense to yield after that.

-OOO-

Recovery Girl insisted on healing my injuries and made it clear that she wasn’t about to tell me which room Ochako was in until she had. It was concerning that people were beginning to think that they could use Ochako against me, and downright disturbing when I realized that it seemed to be working. What the fuck did that mean I wondered. I decided for the time to tell myself, that she was my friend and that it was perfectly natural to be concerned about my friends. I decided not to ask myself if I’d still be just as worried if it was Kirishima.

When I finally got to her room, I put my hand on the doorknob and would have barged in if I hadn’t heard her talking from the other side. She was using that accent I’d only caught glimpses off before. Hearing it in full effect made me pause and listen to her voice. I studied the natural cadences before I realized what I was listening to. She was talking to her parents, and it sounded like an intensely personal conversation that I had no business listening to. So I let go of the doorknob and took a few steps down the hall. I stopped at a drink machine and perused the options before assuming that she’d probably like hot chocolate. It wasn’t long before I finished and when I got back she had just stepped out of the room wearing a grey UA hoodie about two sizes too big for her. I approached and she looked up at the sound of my footsteps. A sheepish smile wound its way onto her face, and I offered her the steaming cup. “Here. You should drink something warm.”

“Thanks” She took the cup and our fingertips touched for a moment, and goosebumps flared over my skin. She didn’t notice, and I couldn’t explain why that had happened to myself. She sipped the hot chocolate and made a sour face. “Did you put any sugar in this?”

“Who puts sugar in Hot Chocolate? It’s already sweet.” We fell into a natural step after that and began making our way to the seats with the rest of our class.

“I do. There’s no such thing as too sweet.”

“Weirdo.”

“Sugar Snob.”

“Ochako?”

“Yeah?”

“I just wanted to tell you, I’m gonna destroy Todoroki.”

She kept walking and kept her face forward, but I could see her tensing. “Katsuki, I don’t need a Samurai fighting for my honor or someone trying to get revenge on my behalf. Win or lose I’m going to fight my own battles.”

“I know that. I’m not gonna do it for you. I’m gonna do it for me. Todoroki has really pissed me off today. Someone needs to kick his fucking teeth in, and show him that doesn’t get to half-ass it when we’re all trying our best. He doesn't get to spit on our efforts.”

She smiled, and it was genuine. “In that case, give him an extra kick for me.”    

Chapter Text

Ochako and I returned to the spectator area for our class. Aoyama gave me a subtle grin and I glared back at him. That was when I got my first taste of the rampant speculation that came with being a hero. Unlike in America most heroes in Japan tended to not bother with secret identities, especially considering how public every aspect of our lives as heroes tended to be. It was probably the part of the job that I was least prepared for. I didn’t really care about what anyone in the media had to say about me, but figuring out how to deal with what the people close to me would go through was always tougher.

We sat next to Ashido and as I looked up at the brackets, she explained what we’d missed. Iida had won his match, but dropped out of the tournament shortly after, and was now nowhere to be seen. Ashido herself had managed to defeat Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, and move on to the next round, which was frankly more than I had expected from her. Assuming that Tetsutetsu’s powers operated under restrictions similar to Kirishima’s she covered his body in acid and used her superior agility to evade him till his time limit was up and his skin reverted to normal. He had to forfeit before that happened, or he would have been burned.

Now, Kirishima was down in the ring and on the opposite side of him was the purple haired fucker. I hadn’t noticed any displays of his quirk all through the sports festival, but he had made it this far. He was either skilled or lucky, and I didn’t believe in luck. Ashido leaned forward in her seat and cheered loudly. “Kick his ass Kirishima!” Down in the arena Kirishima looked up and smiled. Midnight signaled the start of the match. Kirishima went into his hardened state, and held his ground. He had no idea what Purple Hair’s quirk was, and smartly he was being cautious. That’s when Purple Hair decided to speak.

“That’s an impressive quirk you got there. Sturdy and built for battle, I bet you had no problem getting scouted or making it through the entrance exams?”

Kirishima being the good natured person that he is responded honestly. “The entrance exams were easy enough, but getting scouted took a lot of work. Despite how useful it is, a boring quirk like mine means that you have to work about twice as hard to stand out.” That was what sealed his fate.

“Don’t I know the feeling.” Purple Hair smiled broadly. “Step out of the ring, and tell me all about it.” Kirishima’s face looked glazed over, and he smiled dumly. He started walking and the microphones down near the stage carried his voice throughout the arena.  

“The first time I activated my quirk I almost stabbed my out. That’s how I got this scar.” He pointed at his eye. “I was afraid of my quirk for a long time after that. Hated it actually, but I wanted to save people so I said I’ll deal with it. I’ll become a hero like Crimson Riot. It’s been so hard trying to make an impression with this quirk since it’s so common. Guys, like me and Tetsutetsu? Who are just a bit stronger, and a bit tougher? To the hero community, the fans, and the media? We’re just cannon fodder, expendable. Look at Crimson Riot, he was one of the greatest heroes of his day, but hardly anyone remembers him now that he’s dead. Sometime I think that’s what’ll happen to me even if I make it through UA and graduate. I’ll just be one more expendable tough guy, but I figure if I save lives it’ll be worth it.” He stepped out of the ring, and both feet hit the ground. There was a pause before Midnight awkwardly called the end of the match.

“Winner, Hitoshi Shinso.” No one clapped, no one cheered and no one booed. In the ring Shinso looked as dumbfounded as anybody. It was clear that his quirk had somehow let him control Kirishima, but he clearly hadn’t expected that to come out of Kirishima’s mouth. He silently mouthed the word release, and Kirishima came back to his senses. He was groggy, but quickly took stock of his surroundings and realized he was out of the ring. He looked back at Shinso, and raised an eyebrow.

“How hard did you hit me? I don’t even remember getting knocked out of ring.” He didn’t know it yet, but Kirishima’s life was about to drastically change. He had just indicted the entire culture surrounding pro heroes, and the whole world had heard him.

-OOO-

With the preliminaries having ended, my fight with Todoroki was that much closer. We were on opposite ends of the bracket, which meant that I had to go to the grand finale to face him. In short I couldn’t loose. The tournament progressed, and there was only one match before my bout with Todoroki that I think was worth talking about, and that was Ashido versus Shinso.

In a word Ashido was pissed at Shinso. That was the first hint any of us had, regarding the depths of her feelings towards Kirishima. To be honest, it was kinda scary how similar her reaction to Kirishima’s fight with Shinso was to my reaction to Ochako’s battle against Todoroki. Watching the seriousness written in her body language as she stepped into the arena against Shinso was like a peak into my future. I understood her feelings. Midnight signaled the start of the match and Mina released acid from her feet and glided across the ring to Shinso. He already knew what sort fight this was going to be and shifted into a fighting stance. He put his right foot forward and shifted his weight back to his left leg. He raised his hands just in time. Mina had closed the distance, and her feet came off the ground. She tucked her body forward and put one hand on the ground and used it as a pivot point and lashed out with her left leg swinging around with incredible speed and momentum. Her leg met his forearm and the force of the blow staggered him, but he had the wherewithal to lash out with his foot and kick at the hand that was keeping her upright. The blow was unavoidable, but she released acid from her shoulder and when she made contact with the cement the acid on her shoulder melted it into gooey paste softening the blow. She released more acid from her back and shoulder blades melting the pement into more paste so when her legs came down she was able to twist around on the frictionless surface like a breakdancer on cardboard sweeping Shinso’s legs out from underneath him.

He hit the ground back first, and didn’t have any acid to soften his blow. Ashido didn’t give up her offense for even a second. She did a kip up onto her feet and stomped where Shinso was, he had managed to roll away so her foot just hit concrete. He was on his feet, looking a little winded. “I don’t suppose that Kirishima guy was your boyfriend or something?” He smiled at her, and he chuckled when she didn’t say anything. “No response? Well, it was worth a shot.” He sighed and dropped out his stance. “Midnight! I yield. I submit, I quit. Whatever. I can’t beat her.”

Ashido looked surprised, but she lowered her hands and Midnight called the match, but Shinso wasn’t done speaking. “My first opponent in this Tournament had a lot to say about the state of this world, and how it treats people with certain quirks. Well so do I, I couldn’t make it past the UA entrance exam because it caters to heroes with big flashy violent quirks, but here I am. I’ve made it to the semifinals of the sports festival with the same power that you all declared made me unfit to be a hero! The world of heroes celebrates violence as the highest means to the highest end. Well there are other ways, and kids with other quirks who want to be heroes and want to save lives just as bad. Tear down that old world, before someone else does it for you.”

-OOO-

If Kirishima’s speech was an indictment against hero culture, then some would see Shinso’s as a declaration of war against it, it gave the crowd and the billions around the world something to think over in the finals. Mina went on to face Todoroki, but his raw power had her about just as outclassed as Shinso was when she had fought him, and she was summarily eliminated. That just left Todoroki and I on the bracket in the grand finale a short intermission had been annouced and I slipped away to be alone. I was sitting in the pre fight waiting room when someone knocked on the door, they didn’t wait for an answer and pushed open the door. I half expected it to be Ochako barging in on me, but it turned out to be Endeavor.

I was stunned, Endeavour had been the number two hero for as long as All Might had been the number one. This is the only time I’ll ever admit this, but since I was a boy I always looked up to him. So I may have been a little star struck when he walked in. “Uh. I think you have the wrong room. Todoroki’s is down the hall.” He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He was cloaked in his signature flames, and they illuminated the room, making shadows dance and flicker through the room. He walked over and grabbed a folding chair from one of the tables and set it down in front of me. Then he sat down and looked me in the eyes.

“I’m not here to see Shouto. I came to speak with you Bakugou-San.”

I straightened my posture and leaned forward. “Is this the part where you tell me not to harm a hair on your son’s head. Cause with all due respect you can fuck all the way off if that’s why you’re here.”

He started laughing, it was deep and booming and a smile appeared. It wasn’t reassuring like All Might’s if anything it was downright sinister. “No, I came her to ask you knock some sense into my boy, but it seems that was your intention all along. Shouto denies half of his power, and refuses to use his left side, but during the cavalry battle you got him to use it!” His flames flickered and jumped in height. “If a hard fought battle against you is what it takes for my son to embrace his fire, then I humbly ask that you show no mercy.” It was obvious to me that I wasn’t getting the full story, but it was clear that Endeavour and I were on the same page, Todoroki needed some sense to beat into him.

“Well I don’t show mercy on principle anyway, but yeah that was the plan.” Endeavour was still kinda creepy though, he seemed obsessive. I didn’t know why he needed Todoroki to embrace his fire so damn much, but I understood the man’s obsession. When I looked at Endeavour it was like a glimpse into the future, at the person I would have become if Deku’s death hadn’t so thoroughly changed me as a person. It was a pretty shitty reflection.

-OOO-

When I entered the arena cheers exploded through it, and they did the same for Todoroki. When we each stepped into the ring from opposite ends, my eyes met Todoroki’s and I could see that his gaze was different from when the Sport’s Festival first started. He wasn’t looking through me like I was just one more stepping stone to surpassing his father, he saw me as an opponent. It was a start. Midnight didn’t bother with building hype for the crowd, instead opting to yell start, and then it was on.

Todoroki pressed both of his hands on the ground and pillairs of ice rushed up at me, they were coming to fast to dodge so I held my ground and primed explosions in my palm. When the ice pillars came within range I detonated explosions. I was priming and detonating blast faster than I ever had in my life, but it still wasn’t enough. Todoroki was using the pillars to keep me busy while a mountain of ice started to form and encase around me. Todoroki’s ice was unbelievably cold, and when I was completely surrounded by it and it crept forward on all sides, like a tightening noose ready to choke me.  

I forced more glycerin to both of my palms, pointed them forward and released. It made a dent in the ice and it took two more explosions before I blasted my way to freedom. Todoroki, seemed shocked and I smiled before releasing explosions behind myself. They shot me across the ring at Todoroki and I put my foot forward and let it make contact with his face. I felt and then heard his nose crunch under my foot. “That one was for Ochako fucker!” The force and momentum of the kick sent him sprawling onto his, back but he rolled with and managed to create some distance. As he backpedaled ice formed at his feet and I released more explosions from behind me. Todoroki’s ice was deadly at a distance, and I knew if I wanted to win then controlling the space would be everything.

He waited till right before I reached him, and was still airborn to summon a pillar of ice in my face. I barely got my hands up in time and detonated an explosion. The pillar was obliterated but it had also stalled my momentum, and created a cloud of steam around me. I couldn’t see a damn thing, and the ground beneath my feet was slick with ice. Todoroki’s fist came out of a cloud of steam and hit me square in the jaw. The force knocked me off my feet and as I hit the ground, and my skull bounced off the ice it dawned on me that I’d been baited. Todoroki hadn’t been covering the ground with ice to launch a long range attack, he’d wanted to engage me in close quarters on terrain that favored him.

I placed both hands to the arena floor and primed explosion, forcing glycerin to my palms, Todoroki deigned to kick me in the ribs, but I accepted the punishment even as I felt them buckle under the pressure. The explosions were ready by then and when I detonated them and the ground beneath our feet exploded. The force was absorbed directly into the ground ripping through Todoroki’s ice and the cement beneath it leaving Todoroki and I in the dirt, and part of the arena destroyed. I had the fortune of knowing the explosion was coming, and was able to brace myself, but my ears were still ringing and I disoriented for about ten seconds. Todoroki was in much worse shape he was on the ground clutching his ears.

I staggered over to him and mounted him. I took a deep breath and clenched my shaking fist and drove a punch right into his unscarred eye. I think the pain brought him clarity, because when I pulled my fist back and brought the other one down into his face he seemed far more alert and tried to protect his face, he was too slow and my fist crunched into his nose. I continued like that raining punches down onto him, pouring my feelings into each blow.

“How fucking dare you.” Words soon followed. “Who do you think you are? Use your fucking fire god damn it!” Another punch to the scarred section to his face. “Do you think you can beat me by half assing it?!”He caught next punch and I felt the chill of ice in his palm. I bent my arm and drove my forearm and elbow into his face. “Do you think you save anyone using half your power?!”

“It’s not my power! I will not use his quirk!” He threw a punch at me from the ground and managed open a cut underneath my left eye. I responded by ramming my skull into his, just like in our first fight.

“You spoiled brat, there are people here who have quirks they hate, quirks that make it impossible for them to stand out, but they’re still trying their best! There are people in this world who are quirkless and choose to die because of it!” I put my palm over his face, over the eye that wasn’t scarred, and primed an explosion. “Todoroki. I don’t give a fuck about you or your dad, but I won’t let you disrespect everyone here who’s working their ass off!”

I think it was the heat of the primed explosion in my palm against his face that did it for Todoroki, it must have reminded him of how he got the scar on his face, but suddenly his left aside was awash with flame, the intensity of the heat was incredible, and parts of my hand got burned. I had to get off of him. I rolled away and he got to his feet, cloaked in fire like some kinda prince of hell. He looked right at me.

“Remember that you wanted this.” He shot a column of flame at me from his hand, I ducked under it and felt the hair on the back of my neck get singed. When the flames subsided I primed explosions in my palms and pointed them at the ground.  I rocketed into the air, and angled two more explosions behind me and when they were detonated my trajectory was set to Todoroki. I released more explosions so that I was spinning through the air. It was the first time I’d ever used the Howitzer Blast. As I spun an air funnel formed around me and when Todoroki unleashed his flames at me they spun around the funnel, the heat was beyond intense but I primed the biggest explosion I had and just before I hit Todoroki I detonated it.

When the dust settled the arena was destroyed, I was the only one standing.

-OOO-

Between Todoroki and I there were six bruised ribs, one cracked orbital socket, one broken hand, one broken nose, four frostbitten toes, one concussion and a whole bunch of burns. Thank god for recovery girl, she had managed to heal our more severe injuries, but that did nothing to ease the pain. She had set us up in the same room, and we were both set in beds while Cementoss rebuilt the arena, and made it presentable for the winner’s ceremony. I didn’t have anything left to say to Todoroki, but he spoke to me without looking over and stared up at the ceiling.

“Why did you care so much about whether or not I used my fire?”

“Because it pissed me off.”

He sat up in bed and turned to look at me. “I understand that, but why?”

“I knew someone once, I had grown up with this guy since we were in diapers practically. When all the kids in the neighborhood started getting quirks his never came. We figured he was just a late bloomer, but his quirk never came. Now all he wanted was to be a hero, but he could never do that since he was quirkless. His ambition wasn’t congruent with his reality, and one day he took a swan dive off the roof our school and right into the pavement. Then there’s you Todoroki, a guy who basically hit the quirk lottery, but you only use half your power, and even then you hold back against people. You may not realize it, but that spits on the efforts of everyone here. That’s why you pissed me off.”

He was silent for a while. “This flame came from my father, and I resent him more than anything in this world. He beat me senseless for years, and called it training, worse though he was sometimes cruel to me just because. Do you know what that’s like?”

“Yes.” I sighed. “Your father is a bully, and I’ve been a bully for a long time Todoroki, and I’m trying to change but as a former bully I can tell you nothing would frustrate your father more than if you took that power and made it your own. Use it for yourself, and not for his ambitions.”

-OOO-

When it was time to go up to the winner’s circle we both could hardly walk. My ribs made it hard to walk and Todoroki was still a bit dizzy. Footsteps that didn’t belong to either of us echoed down the walkway, and to my shock it was Yagi. He was wearing a suit that was about three sizes too big for him.  

“Yagi? The hell are you doing here?”

“Hello Young Bakugou. Young Todoroki. I’m just doing a last minute check on everything before All Might comes through, don’t tell anyone, but he’s something of a perfectionist.” I had completely forgotten that All Might was the presenter of the medals at the Sports Festival. Todoroki stared between the two of us still a bit dazed. “Oh how rude of me,” Yagi reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card and offered it to Todoroki. “Toshinori Yagi Secretary to All Might. Seems like you boys are having a hard time walking, might I make a suggestion?”

-OOO-

When Todorki and I entered the arena one of my arms was slung over his shoulder and I leaned on him for support. I gave him simple directions that his concussed brain could follow. When the crowd saw us they exploded in cheers, and I could have sworn that I heard Kirishima’s voice slice through the cheering and shout ‘manly’. When we took our places at the podium I understood why Yagi suggested that we enter the arena like that. Outside of practicality it had the added benefit of sending a message to the world. The Sports Festival that year had brought some ugly things to light, but at the end of the day? We were heroes and we were united.

Chapter Text

The aftermath of the Sport’s festival meant that the students who did exceptionally well, and even some of the ones who didn’t were thrust into the public spotlight. Practically overnight almost every aspect of my life was under a microscope. I was hardly the only one. Abuse allegations were being hurled at Endeavour in regards to Todoroki’s scar. People were rallying behind Shinso, practically demanding that he be placed in the hero course, and UA folded. Class 1-A had only accepted nineteen students that year, meaning that there was one seat left in the hero program and Aizawa-Sensei oversaw Shinso’s transfer.

Kirishima though, he had it the worst, or best depending on your outlook. It turned out that many of Kirishima’s fears and speculations about his fate upon going pro were, reflected in the lives of pro heroes just like him, people who had effective quirks that weren’t flashy in the slightest. People began compiling the statistics of heroes like him, and they were horrifying. Most of them faded into obscurity or stayed sidekicks, but far many too many died in the line of the duty at a rate even higher than the general hero population.

In honor of Kirishima’s speech while under Shinso’s power the media began dubbing them as “Expendables” and the “expendable” heroes themselves adopted the name, hundreds of pro heroes began wearing bright red armbands with black E’s on them. To his credit, I never saw Kirishima crack under the enormity of that pressure or complain about it, but it can’t have been easy for him. He went from being a guy who at worst expected to die in the line of duty, and at best fade into obscurity to being someone who had the full enormity of the hopes, dreams, and expectations of hundreds of heroes and countless others placed on him. I didn’t think there was anyone in the world who might have understood how that felt, but I was very wrong.

-OOO-

Shinso was sitting in the classroom alone when I got there. My classmates were there, but no one was speaking to him, I had assumed that as class rep Iida would have taken on the responsibility of making him feel welcome, but he was nowhere to be found. Shinso and I exchanged glares as I sat down, he looked back at me expectantly.

“What?” He asked incredulously. “You don’t have anything to say to me? No threats?”

“Why would I?” I raised my eyebrow. “You did everything you said you were gonna do. As far as I’m concerned you earned your spot.”

He looked surprised and some of the tension left as his shoulders sagged. “I guess you did the same thing huh? I thought you were just a cocky asshole, but class 1-A really did win everything, and even then you won it all.”

I sighed. “Listen, I may respect how you fought, clawed, and gouged your way into the hero program, but you embarrassed my friend on the grandest stage there is, in front of the whole world, so stop talking to me before I explode your face off.”

“Wow, Bakugou you’re being awfully nice to the new guy I can tell you held back at least seven f-bombs just now.” Kirishima walked into the classroom, with a lightness to him that I couldn’t explain. “I’m really impressed.” He didn’t speak any more words and walked right over to Shinso and, the room tensed. Shinso even got to his feet. His chair sliding back and scraping against the floor. He was priming for a fight. I watched his fist clench, did he think that he had any shot? Really what was he gonna do against Kirishima? Everyone knew his trick already, he wasn’t like Aizawa, his quirk didn’t bring other people down to his level, but he was still ready and defiant. Kirishima was as cool as could be though and he just offered Shinso his hand. “Hey, welcome to the hero program and class 1-A.” And while the old grudges weren’t exactly forgotten right away. No one ever doubted his place as a member of class 1-A again.

-OOO-

Our assignment for that day was to pick codenames, internships were coming up and that meant operating in the outside world as heroes. I watched as my classmates tossed out their names. I think for most of them it was a moment of childhood fantasy fulfilled. Froppy, Alien Queen, Grape Rush, and a whole lot of other names that sounded like they were invented while hopped up on sugary breakfast cereal and Super Sentai. Not that I’d begrudge them for it, King Explosion Murder is what I would have called myself a few months ago. Every once in a while, though, someone came along with a name that clearly meant something, Iida was the first example.

“Ingenium, in honor of my brother.” The class went quiet after that. The death of Iida’s brother at the hands of Hero Killer Stain wasn’t the first time that a hero fell in battle, but it was the first time our class had seen the direct results of that. It was like the stick up Iida’s ass got coated in ice. He’d always been a stuffy prick but after that? He just went cold. I didn’t know what do for him, but after I heard about his brother I made an effort to keep my feet off my desk. We tried not to dwell on it as sick and horrible as it was, but at the end of the day sometimes heroes died.

More time and names passed. I perked up at Uravity, and filed it away for later. I was still mostly focused on myself. I’d already declared myself as Kaachan to Shigaraki. I couldn’t take that back, but how was I supposed to explain that to Midnight? Kaachan. Mommy. and I was stuck with it cause young Deku couldn’t fucking spell out Kacchan. I was prepared for the inevitable jokes, but they’d start asking questions. The only people who even knew were Inko and Yagi. How long could I keep this secret?

“Crimson Might.” My eyes were drawn to the front of the room where Kirishima was holding up his placard. Crimson Might was a strong fucking name. “Yeah, it’s just a combination of Crimson Riot and All Might, but Crimson Riot inspired me to be a hero, and All Might inspired me to keep going. I don’t ever wanna forget what I owe them.” I didn’t know the story there yet, but Kirishima had this look in his eye that I couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t determination, I’d seen plenty of that. Regardless, I came away with the impression that he had even more conviction than before, maybe everything with Shinso had made a bigger impression than I thought. Our classmates had noticed too, curiously I glanced at Ashido. She had a smirk on her face.

“Bakugou you’re up next.” Midnight called me up to the front of the room, and I decided to just get it over with. It wasn’t something that I could ignore and it sure as shit wasn’t something I could lie about. I made it to the front of the room and before I turned to face my classmates I swiped the placard off Midnite’s desk and scrawled out the characters. Then I turned around.

“Kaachan. It’s going to be Kaachan.”

“Is he joking?”

“I have literally never heard Bakugou tell a joke before. This would be a weird time for him to start.”

“Shut the fuck up.” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m only gonna explain all of this once.” I honestly was getting tired of explaining about Deku, I think I had finally started to make peace with it. It was tenuous kinda peace. I still question if what happened could be considered Murder, but I didn’t really know. Still don’t. “At my old school, I was a bully. There was someone there, that I’d known since we were kids. We used to actually be friends, but he was Quirkless and I thought my quirk made me better than everyone so I bullied him. It got so bad that one day he couldn’t take it anymore and he took his own life. His nickname for me as children was Kacchan.” I held up the placard with the characters reading Kaachan. (For those who don’t know the way Deku spelled it roughly translates it to Mommy) “This is how he spelled it, and it’s how I’m spelling it.”

I went back to my seat not eager to hear questions or judgments.

-OOO-

Things hadn’t really changed that much in the following days, at least not with my classmates. I wasn’t exactly close with them to begin with, so if they were a bit more distant as a result I hadn’t noticed. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Kirishima hadn’t treated me any differently if anything he seemed like he wanted to be even better friends with me. Eating lunch with me, walking to the train with me even though he lived in the opposite direction. I think, he just didn’t want me to be alone because the only other person from class I actually spent time with had distanced herself from me.

It’s not like I suddenly turned invisible or anything. She still spoke to me, still called me Katsuki, we even on occasion walked to the train together, but and this is gonna sound fucking stupid, but she stopped making fun of me. But, the atmosphere between us had changed and it took a conversation with Kirishima for me to piece together what was different.

Instead of going straight home that day we’d stopped at one of the school’s many gym’s. I was spotting him but it didn’t really seem like he needed it since he was casually benching around two hundred and fifty pounds in his unhardened state, it was the first time we’d ever worked out together so I had no idea if that was normal for him or not. Around his fifth rep, he asked. “Hey Bakugou, are you and Uraraka still fighting? It’s getting kinda awkward being around you guys.”

“What are you talking about?” I squinted down at him keeping my fingers on the bar as he exhaled and pushed it up, setting it down on the rack. I thought back to all my interactions with Uraraka and tried to remember us having a fight and absolutely nothing came to mind. He sat up and turned to face me resting his arms on the bar. “We haven’t argued in a while.”

“Well, yeah.” He used his forearm to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “That’s sort of the problem dude. You guys are weird like that, normal for you two is bickering. You guys being all polite and civil to each other is kinda unsettling, and it’s making the class feel weird. It’s like one of those movies with robots trying to be human, but there’s just something off about it and you just kinda know? What’s that called?”

“The Uncanny Valley.” It started to dawn on me that he was right and interactions slowly fell into place. She hadn’t made a single joke at my expense and because I must have gotten hit in the head too damn hard during the Sports Festival, I fucking missed it.

He snapped his fingers “Yeah that’s it! You two pretending like everything is okay with each other is like the Uncanny Valley.” He watched me and must have seen the realization crossing my face.  “Oh man, you’re hopeless how long would it have taken you to put that together if I hadn’t said anything?”

 I didn’t have an answer. “Well we both know what she’s probably upset about, but how exactly does that solve anything?”

“Well, have you talked to her about it?”

“Should I?”

…

He sighed and shook his head. “Bakugou you’re gonna be an awesome hero, but a really awful boyfriend. Yes, you should talk to her. Clearly she needs to talk about it because getting a bombshell like that dropped on you about someone you’re growing close to is going to make you reevaluate your relationship with that person.”

I felt stupid, “You’re making a good point, but I guess I just kinda figured that it’d be okay? I’ve never really had friends before. I mean, you’re still fine with me.” I was surprised by how easy that was to admit to Kirishima, but I guess after dropping my biggest secret in front of the entire class everything else was just inconsequential.

“Eh, girls are complicated man.” He didn’t meet my eyes/when he said that and was lost in his own mind for a bit. “Besides, you’re trying to be better than you used to be right? That’s the manliest thing ever dude. You’re allowed to try and be better than the guy you used to be in middle school.”

I think that was the reason Kirishima became the kind of hero that he did, it didn’t matter that he was unbreakable or charismatic. He was earnest, he was kind, and he saw the good in you even when you didn’t. He was my best friend.

-OOO-

The next few days consisted of me repeatedly trying and failing at talking to Ochako, or prepping for my internship with Best Jeanist. Things had gotten so damn bad I was waiting outside the girl’s locker room. I felt like the most disgusting fucking creep in the world. In my defense, it was the end of the day and I hadn’t had a moment to talk to her all day since I was so busy with internship preparation, and I’d be leaving the very next morning so this was just about my last shot.

Eventually, she walked out flanked by Ashido and Frogger. In my all esteemed wisdom, I hadn’t managed to factor in that she wouldn’t be alone. I’m not by nature an awkward person, but I was a teenaged boy trying to have a complicated discussion about feelings and how revealing the truth about something from my past might have changed her perception of me. So I think I can be excused for what I said next.

“Ochako, can you ditch the sidekicks so we can fucking talk?” Okay maybe not. Frogger didn’t seem to take it personally. I don’t think she ever took anything personally. Ashido though, I could see the fire in her eyes. It cooled through into a knowing smirk and for some inexplicable reason I wanted to explode Kirishima.

“Bakugou, don’t be rude.” Ochako was addressing me directly for the first time and I wasn’t thrilled about it. She met my eyes and when I looked into hers I just saw disappointment, which I’d expected. The part that was really getting to me was that she just wouldn’t express it. Her tone was even and clipped and her posture straight and tight. It was a world of difference to the exuberance I was used to. I really hated to see her keeping it locked in. Worst of all she wasn’t fucking calling me Katsuki “We’ve got plans Bakugou I can’t talk right now.”

She walked away.

-OOO-

It was the morning of the start of my internship and I was slumped in the passenger seat of my dad’s car. My face pressed up against the glass. He had insisted on driving me to the train, and I was trying my best not give my parents such a hard time anymore.

“So, Katsuki. You’ve been uh awfully sulky lately.” I really should have realized by then that car rides with my dad were just his way of trapping me into lectures and talks.

“Ugh. Come on dad I haven’t been sulking.” I straightened up in my seat and turned to face him, trying my best to demonstrate how unsulky I was.

“Katsuki, you’re on your way to intern with the number three ranked hero in the nation and you look more upset than when the neighbor’s cat tore up your All Might PJ’s” He pulled the car to a stop at a red light that seemed to match the color of my face.

“Ugh you’re not going to drop this are you?”

“No my son, I will not.”

As terrifying as my mother is she could never hold a candle to my father’s dogged persistence. “So, a friend of mine-”

He cut me off almost immediately. “You have friends?! Your mother isn’t going to believe it!”

“Do you wanna hear the fucking story or not!”

“Ah, of course son. Continue.”

I took a breath and then I released it. “Right, so this friend of mine. She found out what an absolute shit head bully I was in Middle School. It didn’t sit right with her, and she’s been distant. It fucking sucks.”

“Ah.” His tone shifted a bit, and it was also mischievous. “Girl problems.”

“Dad.” I sighed. “Don’t make this weird. We’re just friends.”

“You know before I met your mother I was quite the womanizer.”

“Dad I just fucking said to not make it weird!”

“Let me finish.” My dad never raised his voice but he could shift his tone and let you know he wasn’t fucking around. “When your mother found out about my past she distanced herself from me quite a bit. I think Bakugou that maybe you should try and show this friend of yours that you’re the person that she met and not the person she heard about it. You can’t ignore your past, you can’t change it. You can only recognize your failures and try to be better, always forward Katsuki. If this friend of yours can’t respect that then she’s probably not worth your time.”

-OOO-

I got out of the car and said goodbye to my dad. I was just happy he wasn’t one for tearful goodbyes. As I made my way up the stairs I could hear familiar voices floating down from the platform. Son of a bitch, all of Class 1-A was waiting with one another. I clocked Shinso as the first notice me showing up. He was standing apart from the crowd up until Kirishima threw an arm around his shoulder and practically forced him to socialize.

I spotted Ochako standing there laughing and joking and a combination of frustration and the talk I had with my dad made the damn burst. I could practically hear my dad’s voice in my head as I stormed over. ‘Show her you’re the person she met’ Taunting me like a damn force ghost. Kirishima waved at me and approached holding up his hand for high five.

“Yo Bakugou! We decided to hang at the platform and see each other off! I would have let you know but I don’t have your number.”

I walked right past him and stormed up to Ochako. I had no idea what was about to come out of my mouth and just spat out the words as they formed. “Fatass! I’m tired of your shit!” At the moment everyone else was a goddamn background character.

Her eyes went wide and I could see everything that she’d been keeping locked up, rising to the surface. “Baku-”

“Don’t start with that Bakugou shit! Why do you keep acting so weird?!”

“Fuck you. You asshole!” That did it, the damn was broken and she started yelling at me. “You’re the one who’s been acting weird! Like you’re afraid to talk to me! The one time you actually tried you insulted my friends!”

“I was only acting that way cause you were acting weird and different! All fucking polite and shit!”

“I was only acting like that so you’d feel more comfortable opening up you dumbass! I wasn’t gonna make fun of you after you put yourself out there like that!”

We were having a shouting match on a train platform in front of our entire fucking class and honestly, it was the best I’d felt in days. “That’s very fucking considerate of you! I’m not a mind reader though you dumbass! I thought you were being distant! If you wanted me to open just fucking ask!” I think by then we’d each lost steam and we were just yelling because it was better than keeping shit inside.

“I wanted to give you space!”

“I don’t want space from you!” It just then dawned on me that the entire time we’d been yelling each other we’d been inching closer and closer, and I was close enough to smell her shampoo. Fucking peaches.

“You idiot.” She was smiling. “You wasted all that fucking time. Your train is pulling into the station by the way.”

The world shattered back into focus and suddenly the weight of my bag suddenly felt a lot heavier. “Uh.” I looked back from the train to her. The doors hadn’t slid open yet.

“Quick!” She hissed. “Give me your phone!” I fumbled for it in my pocket before handing it over. She quickly typed on the screen as the doors slid open, then handing it back. “There’s my number. You better fucking call me.”

“You better fucking answer.”    

I dashed onto the train and before the door closed I could hear Kirishima’s voice. “See, weird.”