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Chapter Text

罪悪感
Guilt
A feeling of anxiety or unhappiness that you have done something immoral or wrong.

For the longest time, Kaminari wasn't quite sure he understood what guilt was. Of course, he had heard about it. He had always read books about or seen people on TV talking about how "the guilt was killing them" or doing something solely out of guilt. It had always seemed like such a familiar term in the world, yet he never really understood it.

 The first time he realized he had never actually felt real guilt was when he was nine. He and his sister, Aishun, had been playing in a tree not too far from their house. Aishun was five at the time, and his mom had been on the patio talking with a friend.

He wasn't sure why, considering she was still in kindergarten, but Kaminari had told his sister to climb the tree. He was already high up in the branches, and he wanted her up there too so it could be like they were tree people. At first, she had been nervous, but Kaminari and kept pushing, kept insisting on it. Eventually, she did, each tiny leg moving one after the other to push herself higher and higher into the tree.

Soon enough, Aishun was halfway up to Kaminari, but even from where he was he could see that she was scared. For a few moments, she stood there, clinging to the trunk of the tree with her tiny hands, too scared to move.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?" Kaminari had called. "Get up here already!"

Aishun had shaken her head, tears stinging her bright blue eyes. "Denki, I don't wanna! I wanna get down!" She had cried, gripping the trunk even harder.

This was about when most people would feel guilty. He had forced his five-year-old sister to climb to staggering heights, and now she was obviously terrified. She clung to the tree on the verge of tears, the fear in her eyes obvious. Most people would probably feel a bit bad about that, and make attempts to help them.

Yet for some reason, Kaminari hadn't felt any of that. He had actually almost felt amused even. Shaking his head, Kaminari smiled, looking down at her again. "C'mon, you're fine!" He called down. At the time, he had believed she was just being a crybaby, acting overdramatic for the sake of just doing it. But as time went on, and she refused to get down, Kaminari began to get irritated. With her clinging right there, he couldn't get down, and sitting on the bark for so long was starting to hurt.

"Just come on already!" He called. "Do you wanna stay there forever? Either come up or just get yourself down."

That's what got her. Of course, Kaminari knew she wouldn't actually be there forever, but being five years old, Aishun thought that she actually would. Tears started rolling down her face as the sobs bubbling up in her throat finally exploded out in loud gasps. With trembling fingers, Aishun tried to climb down, her fingers slowly gripping the branches.

But of course, she was only five and scared out of her mind. She wasn't concentrating right, wasn't paying attention to the proper place to put her foot down. Kaminari knew deep down what was bound to happen. 

One step.

Two steps.

Slip.

The doctors had said she fractured her arm in two different spots; one minor fracture and one major fracture. Since she was so young, it wouldn't take as long to heal as most broken arms; perhaps three and a half weeks, maybe four. Being so young, she was lucky she hadn't landed on her head, or else it could have been fatal.

Fatal.

The word echoed in Kaminari's brain like it was bouncing off the walls of his skull. Fatal. As in death. Gone forever. In the ground. No coming back. It had taken a few moments for that to sink in, but when it finally did, it didn't hit him like he thought it would.

He knew it was his fault. Because he had pushed his sister so hard, she was now wearing a cast and could have died. And yet, he didn't feel the way he thought he would. He felt...surprisingly neutral. The whole time, even as the ambulance was pulling up, he knew she was going to be okay. She was breathing; his mom had checked. There seemed to be no reason to worry. Even when the paramedics mentioned the word "fatal", he had thought that he was going to feel guilty.

But as the reality of his sister's possible death being his fault sunk in, he realized he was still alright. It was then when he finally realized that he had never actually felt guilt. He had felt substitutes for it, but never actually guilt before. And the reality of that almost terrified him.

Almost.

Kaminari felt like there was something wrong with him. He wouldn't call himself a sociopath; if he tried really hard, he could maybe empathize with someone. It's just that wasn't his initial instinct. After a time, he found out things about himself. He could lie without batting an eye; so easily and effortlessly it was almost like second nature. Several times when his mother had taken him to the store or gone to school, he would snatch something from the shelves or something from someone's pencil case if he really wanted it enough.

It was nothing too severe, though. It certainly wasn't good, but it wasn't super bad either. He just felt like he didn't have the best ethics as a lot of kids he knew. He never thought much of it, never thought it was such a big deal. He just went on with his life, living what he believed was his idea of normal. He was happy.

And then there was the fire.

He knew everyone thought he caused it; with the most potent electric quirk out of everyone else in his family, and being notoriously reckless, he would seem like the obvious choice. But Kaminari was careful; he knew how to safely handle his quirk. He would never start a fire, even by accident. 

But he knew who did. 

It happened a year after Aishun fell out of the tree. Their house was in flames in a matter of minutes, the building crumbling around them. Kaminari had felt the smoke filling his lungs, reaching it's slithering fingers into his body, making it so he couldn't breathe. The heat blazed around him, creating a suffocating barrier as sweat poured from his skin, and somewhere in the destruction, he could hear Aishun's sobs and his mother crying his name, which after a while, went silent.

He was starting to get light-headed. Kaminari wasn't an idiot. He knew if he didn't get out of there soon, he would die from being burnt alive or just asphyxiation. But no matter what he did, he couldn't get his legs to work. His head felt like it was made of clouds; like he couldn't properly think. His last thoughts before he gave up were, I'm going to die here.

And then he felt the arm wrap around him.

Everything else from that moment on was fuzzy. He felt himself drifting in and out of consciousness, and he only managed to pick up a few things. The air suddenly becoming easier and cleaner to breathe around him. The sight of the apartment building crumbling. Police sirens ringing in his ears.

The second he finally came into full consciousness, he started crying. Not light crying, the deep, body-shaking kind that heaves through your whole body and makes it so you can't breathe. The kind that fills you with such a deep, immense sadness where you just feel so sad and empty that you just want to reach inside yourself and cry forever, just laying there.

Although he wasn't awake most of the time, Kaminari did get a few things. He knew that something terrible had happened. He knew he was far away from his home. And he had the deep, sneaking suspicion that somewhere, in some way, he wouldn't be seeing his mom or his sister anytime soon.

He didn't bother to process what had pulled him away from the fire. He didn't bother to question that; he just sat there, on the grass, watching the cloud of smoke billow into the night sky. He probably would have stayed there forever, let himself slowly wither away, had he not felt a hand on his back.

It was cold and leathery, with a rough skin that felt weird on his back. Shivering, Kaminari realized that his shirt was gone. It must have burned off, he thought, shivering as he felt a cool breeze blow through the air.

"There, there, child...it's alright..."

Suddenly, Kaminari felt something warm and fuzzy wrap around his shoulders, suddenly shielding him from the cold. It's a blanket, he realized, hugging the blanket closer to him.

Turning around, Kaminari would have jumped if he wasn't so tired from running. Towering over him was a large man, who would have been almost inhumanly tall even if Kaminari had been standing up. He wore a dark suit, which now had singe marks on it, what might have once been a dark purple tie now tattered. His face was mostly masked in shadows, so that even if he squinted Kaminari still couldn't have properly seen him, but even in the darkness, his eyes glowed almost unnaturally.

Still, it was obvious he had saved him from the fire. Just knowing that made Kaminari feel a little bit safer.

Looking up at him, Kaminari tried to make his voice sound confident. Whoever this man was, he had been able to save him from a fire. He knew at least that he was strong, and he didn't want to appear like some sniveling child in front of him. "My mom. Aishun. Are they alright?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.

The man at first didn't say anything. Instead, he looked off into the the distance, tucking his hands into his pockets. His face was still shrouded in shadow, but when he spoke, his voice was solemn and free of emotion. "I'm sorry. I couldn't get them in time."

Kaminari gazed up at him a moment longer, wrapping the blanket tighter around his shoulders as a deep silence settled around them. He couldn't get them in time. He had been alive long enough to know that was the nice way of saying they were dead. They were dead, the fire eating away at their flesh, burning their bones until they completely crumbled into ash. Leaving nothing to bury, nothing to remember them by, just the cold spot where they had last been.

Instantly Kaminari's mind began to work, looking at what could happen next. What would happen to him. His father was out of the question. Whenever he asked his mother about him, he would always get vague descriptions, but he wasn't stupid. He had heard enough to know that his father was probably off in a bar, drinking until his face turned red and forgetting about the several other children he had with women who were not Kaminari's mother. No, he had no desire to live with his father. He was pretty sure the prefecture wouldn't even allow him to house a child.

His mom had no other known family. She was an only child, and both her parents gave birth to her later in life and were gone by the time Aishun was born. He never even met them; all he remembered was going off to a funeral and counting the headstones while people wept under a tent for people he never knew enough to care about.

That left only the system as an option, and Kaminari had no desire to go into that. He knew he had passed the "desired age zone" to get adopted. Chances were highest that he would just hop from home to home until he turned eighteen and the system tossed him out on the streets to rot. 

Just as he was calculating other possibilities, a voice broke his thoughts. "You do not shed tears for them?" The man asked, looking down at him. Kaminari noted that he didn't sound confused, but rather just curious. Kaminari liked curious a lot more than confused. When you were confused, you simply didn't know. When you were curious, you sought out answers for things you didn't know yet. It was then that Kaminari decided he liked this strange man shrouded in black.

He thought for a moment longer, then shrugged. "Hm. I guess not," he said, the revelation almost startling him. They were his family. He knew he was supposed to grieve them, mourn them, fall down on the floor and weep. 

And yet, he didn't feel anything. He just felt the same way as he always did: empty. And he wasn't even upset that he felt this way.

The man looked back up, gazing at something unseen in the distance. "Then what exactly were you thinking about?" 

Kaminari looked down, twiddling his thumbs in his lap. "I guess I was just analyzing things. Calculating. Trying to figure out what exactly would happen to me, and looking at all the possible ways it could happen," he admitted. He had never tried to explain this to another person before. It just sort of always...happened. 

The man fell silent for a moment before speaking again. "How old are you, child?"

"Just turned ten," Kaminari replied, not looking up from his twiddling thumbs.

"Have you ever taken an IQ test before?"

"Yeah." 

"And what did you get?"

"140," Kaminari answered, his face taking on a smug smile as he did so. It had happened not long ago, just at the beginning of summer vacation. Still, he remembered it vividly. He had enjoyed the gawking looks of the people who had given him the test, and the amazed looks of everyone he told. For a little while after that, his mother liked to brag about him, and there was talk of him switching to higher level classes when the second term of the school year started back up in August.

"You realize that's 2 percent of the population, correct?"

"Well why wouldn't I? It's my IQ, isn't it?" Kaminari scoffed, leaning back in the grass. It tickled the back of his neck in a way that he liked.

"You're exactly what this world is lacking, young Kaminari," the man went on, his voice taking on a new purpose as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Intelligent, independent children like you who aren't weighed down by trivial things like emotions."

"You do realize how inhumane that sounded, right? 'You shouldn't be weighed down by trivial things like emotions," Kaminari asked, arching his eyebrow with a lisp of amusement hinting at his voice as he did a purposely bad impression of the man's voice before snickering a little bit. His mom and sister had just died, and he was sitting here in a field, laughing anyways. And he didn't care.

"It's true, though, you know," the man went on, his voice free of any humor. The silver moon outlined his back, and when mixed with the shadow, he looked unreal. Almost as if he would disappear if Kaminari blinked at the wrong moment. "Feelings such as sadness, or joy, or love...they're merely chemical pathways to the brain. They cloud our intentions, cause us to fret over tiny, insignificant things and get small bursts of joy out of momentary fun that never hold up. They hold us back, keep us from reaching so much more than we could. By letting go of emotions, you are letting go of your earthly tethers that bind you to this world, and instead free yourself to accomplish so much more. So, so much more."

For a long while, Kaminari was silent as he thought through what the man had said. He had thought about this, of course. He thought about it again and again, thinking about pros to why he didn't feel the same as the other children. He once tried to bring it up to a few kids at his school, and they had just looked at him with either an uncomprehending gaze or a had just laughed it off. Kaminari had frowned and walked away. He didn't like being about ignorant people who couldn't see the bigger picture of things.

Yeah, he had thought about this many times. He just didn't think there was another person who would understand that. "Exactly," was all he managed to say. As the words brushed past his lips, a new feeling overcame Kaminari. He wanted to say it was joy, but really, that wasn't the case. He had seen joy. He knew what he was feeling wasn't strong enough to be joy. Maybe a more calm, peaceful version of it. Like he was...understood.

The man looked back behind him. If he listened closely, Kaminari could hear sirens in the distance, approaching the glow of his burning house. Soon, firefighters and police officers would swarm the place, and once they had enough time, they would realize that one child was still missing. They would come find him, and once they realized his family situation, he would be tossed into the system.

Kaminari frowned. Thoughts swirled in his head. Bad thoughts. Thoughts that would usually scare people as he thought of all the ways he could escape that life, and some of them made him smile just a little bit.

There was a ruffling of a coat, and Kaminari looked over. The man's pale hand was outreached to him.

"Join me, young Kaminari. Escape this life, and come with me."

Kaminari took one last long look at the outstretched hand.

He took it.

Chapter Text

Seven Years Later...

"Okay, guys, so I was thinking that Friday, bowling would be a solid plan for the night," Sero said, fingering one of the pieces of tape from his elbows.

"No way, man, we always go bowling!" Kaminari cried, leaping forward on the commons couch. "Besides, midterms right now are killing me right now, but Yaoyorozu's holding a study session on Friday. I want to hang out with you guys, though, so I was hoping we could do something quieter where I could study at the same time. I don't wanna get the same score I got last time."

"And the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that..." Jirou muttered, not looking up from her guitar as she adjusted the strings.

Kirishima covered his mouth, trying to hide his smile at Jirou's comment as Kaminari whipped around to face her, his eyes blazing. "Ah c'mon Jirou, quit messing with me! You're not even coming with us!" 

Jirou shrugged, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. A rare sight, especially for Jirou, Kirishima thought, crossing his arms as he adjusted himself on the couch. For some reason, she only seemed to smile when she was laughing at Kaminari or making fun of him.

"I know; it's just hard to overlook how you always get the worst score in every test we take," she quipped casually, gently plucking a few of her guitar strings.

"Hey, not every test! There was that one time where I ranked 19th, remember?" 

"Ack, don't remind me—I ranked 20th that time!" Ashido moaned, leaning her head back against the couch as she placed a hand on her forehead.

"Ah, don't worry guys; just study, I bet you'll do better this time!" Kaminari encouraged, slugging Ashido in the shoulder. Normally if he did that to one of the other girls, they would give him a weird look or just roll their eyes and whisper to one of their friends. But with Ashido it was different—she was actually more athletically built than most of the boys in their class, so when he punched her she would usually just laugh it off.

It was times like this that Kirishima didn't at all mind living in the dorms with his friends. At first, he had been worried he wouldn't like it—he had heard that living with people and seeing them constantly can start to get tiring after a while, and anyway, he was so much more used to seeing them in a school environment that he was worried it might be weird.

However, after four and half months of living in Heights Allegiance, Kirishima had found that he was able to put those worries to rest. He had always liked being able to see his friends in class every day, but living with them had been even better. Even Bakugou was being affected, he could tell, as he was starting to yell less and less.

As of right now, the commons wasn't very crowded, considering it was a school night. In the kitchen, Uraraka and Asui sat talking quietly about something as they each held a cup of tea in their hands. At the counter, Ojiro stood, mixing what might have been a protein shake as his tail lashed back and forth.

"Does it really matter what score you got right now?" Bakugou muttered, finally speaking up from beside Kirishima. "I thought you guys wanted to figure out what to do on Friday or something."

"Easy for you to say, Bakugou!" Kaminari muttered. "You always rank the highest out of everyone in our class!"

Bakugou glared back at Kaminari. "Not the highest, dumbass—" he began, but Kirishima quickly stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. Not worth it. At this point, it had become common knowledge in the class that Yaoyorozu was the one at the top of the class, but it wasn't super uncommon for Kaminari to get a few things wrong from time to time. Kirishima could see how Kaminari could easily get it mixed up—Bakugou was the one who hung out with them all the time that always got the highest grades out of their friend group.

It was just that Kaminari seemed to be the only one to mess it up. A lot. Along with a lot of other things, but Kirishima had just gotten used to it at this point. He would never call him dumb per say, but of course, Bakugou would.

As Kirishima quickly shut Bakugou up, Kaminari raised his eyebrows. "What? What did I say?" He asked, his gaze flickering between everyone as he tried to understand if he had done anything wrong or not. Kirishima practically had to shove his fingers down Bakugou's throat to keep him from saying anything. Ashido crossed her legs, biting her lips as the corner of her mouth twitched, and Jirou looked down to hide her amused smile. At this point, they were both used to Kaminari's behavior too.

Sero snickered a little, sucking the tape back into his elbow to pat Kaminari on the back. "Nothing, man. Let's just focus on Friday night, okay?" He said dismissively. Kaminari furrowed his eyebrows together a little bit, as if he were thinking about it one more time, then shrugged and laid back on the couch as if he had already forgotten about it.

Kirishima settled back on the couch. "You know, on second thought Kaminari, maybe you should go to that study session..."

Dumbasses.

Every time Kaminari hung out with those guys, one word always came to mind: dumbasses. Each and every one of them. After so long in deep cover, there were cases of people getting their real intentions mixed up with their fake ones, such as coming to have emotional connections to the people that they were against, so every day Kaminari made a point of reminding himself that everyone he hung out with was a dumbass.

Except for Bakugou and maybe Jirou, though Jirou was the only one who provided at least a little bit of intellectual support. Most of the time, Bakugou was too busy yelling cuss words and calling him "dumbass", and sometimes "retard" when he was in his quote "brainless state" after going over his wattage limit, which Kirishima always reprimanded him for. Kaminari never minded though; it always meant that he was succeeding.

To Kaminari though, it was obvious that Bakugou was intelligent from his thinking in battle and test scores; he just wished he acted more like it. Of course, the whole reason Kaminari had chosen to befriend this certain group as opposed to say, Midoriya's or such, was mainly because he believed they weren't smart enough to notice when he did certain, mildly questionable things, mostly because everyone he hung out with except Jirou and Bakugou ranked in the bottom five when it came to grades. 

By this point, Kaminari had been taking notes on everyone in the class. He could recite the entire list of grades in order from highest to lowest off the top of his head, as he figured that would give him an edge. He just thought throwing in that thing about Bakugou being at the top of the class would be a good subtle thing to add in. He had to keep his game going strong, now that he was starting to near the end game for all of this. To be honest, he was starting to wonder if he was overdoing it a bit, but right about now it was obvious that no one was concerned. 

Kaminari placed his head in his hands, listening to all of them drill on as they discussed their plans for Friday night as he kept the same clueless, "classic Kaminari" look on his face: dopey grin and blank eyes. At first, it had been hard to pull it off all the time, but after so many years of doing it had almost become second nature. He could switch from his normal expression to his undercover expression at the drop of a hat.

"Okay, okay, if we're going to stay in the dorms, then I was thinking we could watch some movies! I heard that Swing Girls is coming on tomorrow," Ashido was saying, leaning forward on the couch eagerly.

Kaminari inwardly rolled his eyes. Swing Girls was a pointless comedy about lazy schoolgirls poisoning and replacing members of the jazz band as an awkwardly out of place and surprisingly uneventful plotline, with random jokes shoehorned in. But of course, she would like it—Kaminari had managed to deduce Ashido as the dumbest person in this class based off of questionable actions and unimpressive test scores. Still, of course, he always tried to appear just below her. This always gave the attention of "dumbest person in the class" to him and took a lot of eyes off of Ashido, which is why he was really the only one that noticed her lack of intelligence.

Of course, that was a good thing. Right away, when they had announced that students were being asked to move into dorms, Kaminari had had the sneaking suspicion that they would be keeping a much closer eye on the students. He had successfully covered up his tracks with the breach in security thing last year, but that had alerted the teachers that there might be a traitor—he had to keep an extra low profile now.

"It is?" Kaminari suddenly cried in excitement, leaning forward as Mina mentioned Swing Girls. "Aw man, I love that movie! How about we watch that?"

"C'mon dude; you only watch it for all the girls," Sero said playfully, nudging him with his creepy elbow that always made Kaminari shudder a little whenever he touched him with it. Still, he tried to ignore it, widening his eyes as he forced his face to flush pink.

"Wha—I do not!" Kaminari protested, which warranted a few giggles from Kirishima and Ashido. Before he could say anything else, however, Bakugou butt in.

"Besides, if we're watching anything, it's Battle Royale. I have a DVD of it in my room," he commented, and Kirishima swiveled around to look at him.

"Are you sure, Bakugou? I mean, isn't that movie a little...uh, violent?" He supplied with a small smile. Battle Royale was a thriller film, where 9th graders were put on an island with bomb collars around their neck and forced to fight each other to the death, and if they broke a rule the bomb would explode. It was bloody, gruesome, and mildly disturbing, so of course, Bakugou would like it.

"Yeah? What's so wrong with that?" He cried, already getting defensive. Kaminari continued to watch as Kirishima tried to calm Bakugou down as he went on, talking about a bunch of the disturbing details and Battle Royale.

"Look, how about we just ask everyone what the want to watch?" Kirishima suggested, trying to defuse the situation. Kirishima had always been the peacemaker in situations like this. "We know that Ashido and Kaminari want to watch Swing Girls, and you want to watch Battle Royale, and personally I want to watch Seven Samurai," he said, referring to an old movie about samurai warriors that came out fifty-something years ago.

Just as Sero started to suggest and describe some action comedy called The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio, Kaminari felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Slipping his hand into it, he pulled out his bright yellow phone case decorated with tiny yellow lightning bolts and opened up the phone. He had a passcode of course, but it didn't really matter anyway since he could block the signal whenever he wanted if anyone ever tried to hack it.

Seven missed calls. Crap.

Opening up his messages, he looked at the most recent one, from "Hiturska Aogima". It there hadn't been anyone around, Kaminari would have scowled, frustrated. What did he want this time? The guy had never been his favorite; he always found him frustratingly annoying. Sighing, he clicked reluctantly the name.

Hiturska Aogima: Hey, call me
You: Why?
Hiturska Aogima: Just do it I have something to tell you
You: Well why would you tell me to call if you didn't?
Hiturska Aogima: Are you calling or not
You: Alright, just gimme a sec.

"Ack, sorry guys, I got to go. My uncle's been texting me, he said he wants me to call him and ask talk about midterms." Kaminari said, standing up and stretching his back as he shoved his phone into his pocket.

Ashido rubbed the back of her neck. "Wow, Kaminari, you've been getting a lot of calls recently," she speculated, and Kaminari inwardly cringed. Shit. They had noticed.

Still, he pulled an aloof, somewhat annoyed expression as if he were annoyed with his "uncle", trying to cover it up. "Yeah, he's this big math whiz at this university, and he always gets mad whenever he hears about my grades. He keeps checking in to see if I'm studying or not, even if it is really annoying." 

"Ah, don't worry man, I get it. I've managed to get higher grades now, but the first time we took our midterms my mom practically blew a gasket when she saw my grade," Sero commented, shaking his head at the memory.

 "Yeah, well, my uncle's gonna do the same thing if I don't call him," Kaminari said, starting to walk away. "I'll probably just go to bed after we finish talking; see you guys in the morning," he called, walking towards the elevators to the dorms.

Standing in the small box, Kaminari smiled at them, letting them say their goodbyes as he pressed the button for the third floor. He continued to stand there, keeping that same dopey grin on his face and waving until he let the doors close all the way. As soon as the doors finally locked shut, and the sound of the elevator whirring into motion filled the small space, he let the expression drop. The smile quickly fell off his face, and his eyebrows lowered to their usual position. 

Damn, he hated keeping that expression all the time. He knew it was all part of the act, but sometimes it was almost painful to act that stupid. Rubbing his eyes, Kaminari yawned—he was actually pretty tired. He just wanted to wrap up this call and go to bed.

Pulling his charger out of his jacket pocket, Kaminari stuck the chord in his mouth to allow himself to charge a little bit as he walked past the rows of closed doors. Being on the third level, he shared the floor with three people: Koda, Iida, and Ojiro. He had never really been worried about Koda; he had always been too quiet and weak to suspect anyone of anything, and if he did he would be too scared to share it anyways. And anyway, he had managed to lower Ojiro's expectations of him by constantly playing with his tail like it was a cat toy during class like he was completely infatuated by it.

Ojiro had always seemed rather amused by this, and sometimes slightly annoyed, but Kaminari was certain he doubted his mental capabilities. Still, he had to be careful; Ojiro was fairly smart, as was Iida. If he slipped up too many times, there was a chance one of them would see through his act. He had already slipped up once when talking to Ojiro about how he thought that Stain was kind of cool after Iida's brother had just been crippled by him.

Nobody had really thought much of this, thinking Kaminari was just being "classic Kaminari", but Kaminari couldn't help reprimanding himself for being so careless with what he said.

As he walked past the rooms, he pressed his ear to each of the doors, listening to the sound of slow, methodical breathing that signaled sleep. Once he was certain that everyone was asleep, he slipped into his painfully tacky bedroom that he had to have designed like that to keep his cover, and shut the curtains, locking the door with a solid click.

For a moment, he stood there, completely silent to make sure that there were no other footsteps. Once he was certain he was alone, he finally pulled out his phone, opening the text messages and clicking the phone icon in the corner.

One ring. Two rings. Three rings.

"Damn it, Shigaraki, what the hell was so important that you had to call me before my next report?" Kaminari hissed in a low voice. "You couldn't have waited another week?" Kaminari had never liked Shigaraki; he always seemed like a pain in the ass. The man always talked all high and mighty and what-not, acting like he was the next top villain, but when you actually hung out with him he was a whiny, spoiled little brat.

He hated anyone who got more attention than him, such as Stain, for example. Not to mention whenever something didn't go quite right or he didn't get his way, he would throw dignity out the window and practically throw a tantrum. Still, he was one of the top members of the League of Villains and practically right-hand man to All for One, so he had to put up with him anyways.

"Yes, I did, Kaminari," Shigaraki's raspy voice hissed over the phone. "You better get used to it, because we're going to start having to drop in a lot more frequently. We're nearing our end game; the final piece in the row of dominoes. We have to make sure everything goes right."

"You think I don't know that?" Kaminari muttered, collapsing onto the bed as he summoned a ball of electricity in his hand. He would never do this in public; he always made a show about being super sensitive about going over his so-called "wattage limit" and becoming a bumbling idiot for a while. When someone (it might have been Kurojiri; he couldn't quite remember who) had suggested the idea of a wattage limit, it had sounded so ridiculous that Kaminari was convinced it wasn't going to work.

Still, he had quickly learned that most people would accept whatever reality you handed to them, and if you hadn't given them any reason to, then they wouldn't question a lot of the things you did. Still, it got frustrating never using his electric quirk, which was why whenever he was in his room behind locked doors, he allowed himself to play with it a little in his hands. 

"We're gonna be checking in at least every week now," Shigaraki went on, ignoring Kaminari's previous comment. "Before our final game, there are a few things All for One wanted you to do..."

Chapter Text

"Mina! Kaminari! I'm so glad you could make it!"

As the elevator let out a small ding, and the two of them exited, Yaoyorozu's head shot up from the steaming tea platter, her face instantly splitting into a wide grin.

"Hey, Yao-Momo!" Ashido greeted, rushing forward with the stack of books still piled in her hands. "I hope we're not late! Kaminari's uncle called, and I didn't want to be rude and leave without him!"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Kaminari said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck as he flashed an embarrassed smile. "He wouldn't hang up until he was sure that I was going to a study session and not playing video games or something like that."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that!" Yaoyorozu assured, placing the tea platter down on a table. "I have a whole night of diligent study plans so that everyone here will be able to get an easy A! You can take a seat anywhere, and I made green tea because studies have shown that green tea improves brain function and cognitive thinking!" She went on, gesturing around the room.

As Yaoyorozu spoke, her black eyes sparkled with the excitement as her ponytail bounced up and down like a spring. How someone could be so optimistic and excited about anything, Kaminari didn't know. Honestly, it made him want to gag a little bit, but he still managed to at least pretend to be amused along with Ashido by her bouncy attitude.

Right now though, his main priority wasn't Yaoyorozu. He had tried to make his talk with Shigaraki last night as short as possible, but even so, it still went on for a while. After All Might had officially retired, Kaminari had thought he would be able to leave U.A. High School, or at least stop reporting so frequently. However, even with All for One currently imprisoned and Shigaraki the new leader of the League of Villains, it was clear he had plans. He just hadn't made clear what those plans were until last night.

If it hadn't been for the phone call, Kaminari probably would have ended up going to that movie night with Kirishima, Bakugou, and Sero. He wouldn't have loved it, but it was better than staying here in the Commons for three hours. Still, because of Shigaraki's phone call, Kaminari found himself with two things to do tonight: put up with the most annoying people in the world for a few hours and find a way to get Yaoyorozu's computer.

Of course, Shigaraki hadn't told him directly to get the computer, but it was the first thing that ran through his mind. With her family's money, it was guaranteed that her computer would be crazy expensive, which also meant the only computer that could handle what he planned to do. He had several thoughts on how to get it, including breaking into her room, but that was risky on several different levels. 

The safest way he could think of was to go to the study session she was hosting tonight, and he wasn't even completely sure if she was even going to bring it. It felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders when he saw the bright red laptop sitting on the kitchen counter, gleaming in the fluorescent lighting. He just had to find a way to get his hands on it.

"Sero probably would have been here too, but he's watching a movie with Kirishima and Bakugou," Mina explained as Kaminari surveyed the room. As he looked around, he didn't see anyone he would particularly want to sit by. Dispersed around the five tables of the commons kitchens were Ojiro, Tokoyami, Uraraka, Jirou, and maybe Hagakure, though Kaminari was never really sure about her. The three girls sat in a group, Uraraka and Hagakure chatting among themselves as they waited for Yaoyorozu to start while Jirou sat silently, listening to something on her earbuds. 

Meanwhile, the boys were more spread out, with Tokoyami hunched over what looked like a textbook in the corner by himself. Kaminari scowled a little bit; he didn't know why he had to be so dark and brooding all the time. All the black and moodiness had always seemed extra and unnecessary.

While Mina grabbed a cup of tea and sat down with the rest of the girls, Kaminari slid into a seat beside Ojiro, plastering a false grin onto his face. "Hey, Ojiro!" He beamed, slamming the book he brought onto the table. "Ready to get our study on?" Startled, Ojiro's head shot up from his textbook, his tail sticking out, but instantly relaxed when he saw who it was.

"Oh, hey Kaminari," he greeted, his tail falling back down. "Yeah, I think we should be starting soon," he said, closing his textbook. "Do you need a pencil?"

"Oh yeah, thanks! I forgot to bring mine," Kaminari said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Ojiro just smiled, shrugging as he reached into his backpack.

"Don't worry about it; it happens to everyone," he said, handing Kaminari a No. 2 pencil as he took another sip from his tea. Kaminari looked down at the pencil; of everyone in this room, Ojiro had to be the one who sucked the least. That wasn't to say he would miss him when he left this school, it was just that along with Kirishima, he was probably the one who had the most potential of becoming one of the heroes Stain looked for.

Before he had been taken into custody, Stain looked for heroes, real heroes who didn't do hero work to collect income or for fame and glory. He didn't know everyone's reasons at this school, but he knew for a fact that that girl Uraraka wanted to become a hero to make money. She had never told him directly, but at this point, Kaminari had made it a point to find out everything he could about everyone at this school, and when he had found out that she wanted to become a hero to make money he instantly disliked her.

Being a hero wasn't so that you could have your own personal gains. It was so that you could do good and save other people, and so far he had only seen about three people who he thought could be worthy of that: Ojiro, Kirishima, and Midoriya. Of course, Stain had chosen Midoriya as worthy himself, but after scouting out, Kaminari believed that Kirishima and Ojiro had potential, too.

Kirishima had always been the peacemaker of their little "friend group", but it was when he had risked his safety needlessly to help even an ass like Bakugou after he had been kidnapped by the League of Villains that he had shown he had potential to be a true hero. Kaminari, of course, knew that Bakugou had never been in any real danger, but

Ojiro had never been the flashiest person to Kaminari; his simple and plain personality had never really made him stand out; really the only thing that kept him from fading into the background was the fact that he had an extra, furry part of his body sticking out of the back. 

He was what some people might call "noble", especially after that spectacle he had made at their first U.A. Sports Festival, resigning because he felt he didn't "rightfully earn his place to be there." At the time, Kaminari had pretended to be in awe of it, but really he couldn't think of anything dumber. If you have an opportunity, you don't throw it away like that. Before, Ojiro had been in the top 16 and could have ranked even higher if he continued on, but because he resigned he had been demoted to the top 42.

Personally, Kaminari didn't know why anyone would throw away their shot like that, but he had learned by now that it was often the painfully noble types that Stain would often spare. Besides, so far Ojiro had been the only one to not just shake his head and snicker whenever Kaminari did something idiotic, and while it was all fake anyway, he could see that Ojiro was one of the nicest people there.

Kaminari quickly shook his head. What was he saying? If he was anyone else, he might have felt warm and tingly about that and kind of bad about working against them all like that. But the thing was, he just didn't. What he was saying wasn't a compliment, it was a simple fact, and that didn't make him feel any different about his mission. He didn't get any warm fuzzy feelings or any bullshit like that when he thought about it; he just felt the same as he always did. That was what made him Kaminari, made him feel like he was in control.

Sighing, he adjusted himself in his chair. He didn't have time for this.

 Putting his idiotic undercover-face back on, Kaminari started to play with his pencil as opposed to working to keep the charade going as his brain started working away to formulate a way to get Yaoyorozu's computer.

"I'm telling you, Hagakure, you've got to give it a shot!"

"Really?" Hagakure said, putting a hand to her face at Uraraka's encouragement. Whether or not she was blushing, Jirou couldn't really tell, but then again, she never really could.

"Absolutely! Ojiro would have to be crazy not to go for you!" Mina added, waving a hand dismissively as she leaned forward to put her elbows on the table. "We know he doesn't just like you just because of your looks, at least."

"Uh...thanks?" Hagakure replied as if she were uncertain as to whether or not she should take that as a compliment or an insult.

Jirou sighed, closing her textbook. She didn't know why all the girls were obsessed with talking about topics like this; after all, they had all come here to study, not talk about boys. However, it sometimes seemed like that was the only thing they were capable of talking about.

As Momo looked over her notes one more time, preparing to begin, Mina and Uraraka rambled on about Hagakure's obvious crush on Ojiro, which, to Jirou, seemed a little frivolous. She didn't want to sound insensitive or anything, but honestly, she thought that it didn't matter that much who had a crush on who. They would all still graduate after high school and go their separate ways, become heroes and whatnot.

In the grand scheme of things, who had a crush on who didn't seem very important, and only interfered with all the important stuff. "Does it really matter who has a crush on who?" She asked, leaning back in her chair. "I mean, we're all going to go on and do other, more important stuff after high school anyway."

Hagakure looked at Jirou and shrugged. "I mean, I know but it doesn't hurt," she said, glancing over at Ojiro. The blonde boy sat at a table across the room, hunched over a textbook as his tail lashed from side to side. Beside him, Kaminari sat, a pencil balanced on his nose like a seal.

Gosh, he looks ridiculous, Jirou thought, shaking her head. Of everyone in this room, Kaminari was probably the one who needed the most help in basically everything. He would probably get better scores if he actually paid attention, but at every one of the study sessions, he went to he always messed around and learned next to nothing. In fact, on every test, he got just enough to keep from failing completely.

Still, as the pencil fell off his nose and Kaminari was sent scrambling for it, Jirou felt a small giggle bubble up in her throat. Even if he was an idiot, at least he was still a little bit funny. Every time he went over his wattage limit and into his brainless state, Jirou always tried not to laugh, but damn it was funny. She couldn't help it; hearing him yell "whey!" like that

As she giggled, Mina glanced over at her, a smirk working its way onto her face. "Yeah, stupid..." she muttered, arching an eyebrow.

Jirou whipped around, instantly feeling hostile. "What?" She cried, feeling her face heat up. Mina only shrugged, stretching her arms as if she were yawning.

"Oh nothing...it's just that you don't have much room to talk when it comes to 'high school crushes not mattering'," she said smugly, leaning forward again in her chair.

She may as well have slapped Jirou across the face with a dead fish. For a moment, Jirou found herself unable to speak, as if her voice had left out the back door. "I-I-I...are you talking about Kaminari?!" Jirou cried, dumbfounded.

Mina didn't say anything, only shrugged, continuing to fiddle with her pencil. However, her eyes said it all.

Jirou felt the blood rushing to her face in waves as embarrassment quickly settled over her. The way Mina said it was so casual as if she were saying "the sky is blue", which only made it harder for Jirou to find a response. "What—I—I don't like Kaminari!" She cried, pounding a fist on the table. Mina only shrugged. "If you say so..." she cooed, which only made Jirou blush harder. "C'mon guys, tell her how ridiculous she's being!" She cried, turning to face Uraraka and Hagakure.

While she and Mina had been talking though, Uraraka and Hagakure had conveniently opened up their textbooks, scanning the pages and apparently not listening to the conversation. "Guys—" Jirou protested, slamming her hand on the table, but before she could continue, Momo's voice filled the room.

"Okay everyone, if we're all settled, I think we can get started!" She beamed, a pair of glasses sitting on her face. Mina looked at Jirou and shrugged, as if to say, "oh well!" as she flipped open her textbook. "Ooh! Can we start with social studies? I'm falling a bit behind in that," She suggested, raising her hand.

Huffing, Jirou sat back, her arms crossed over her chest as she tried to lose the blood in her face. As Momo went on about geography and everyone else talked as the study session went on, Jirou tried to make herself concentrate, but for some reason, she just couldn't. Mina's comment had stuck with her, like a bur that had gotten caught in her brain, and she just couldn't forget it.

She didn't see why, though. Obviously, she didn't like Kaminari. He was annoying, rude, and loud, and never knew when to shut up. His big mouth always made him say something he would later regret, and he was so idiotic that sometimes it was almost painful. One time, she had overheard Mina and Sero talking, saying that Sero was 102% certain that Wii music was playing on a constant loop inside Kaminari's head.

Besides, he was surprisingly easy to make fun of. Every time she poked a little fun at him, he would always have these big reactions, which always made it worthwhile. She could make a little fun of his wattage limit or his grades and he would always have the funniest results, almost like watching those reaction videos on YouTube. And yet, despite that, he was nice to her all the time.

When they had been exploring the dorm rooms the first day and Kaminari had seen her room, she had been so flustered by his praise for her music that she didn't know what to do except punish him with her earphones. It was the exact opposite of what she expected, as she more used to making fun of him and him getting upset. She had always felt weirdly comfortable with their dynamic to a point where she actually looked forward to sitting next to him in Hero class so she could poke fun at him.

Is that what a crush is? Jirou asked herself, leaning over her notes. No, she told herself. A crush is when you think about them every day and you get all giddy and happy thinking about them. You get happier just being around them, and always feel better after hanging out with them, and a lot of the time don't know how to act around them but still look forward to hanging out around them.

...shit.

Glancing over at Kaminari now, she saw that he was watching Momo, but his eyes were squinted and his head slightly tilted to the side, as if he were barely comprehending what she was saying. He did have a notebook, but for half the time she was pretty sure he had been doodling in it as opposed to actually trying to remember what she was saying.

Probably drawing boobs or something, Jirou thought, remembering the boy's flirty attitude, and frowned, turning back to her notes. She had forgotten how much of a flirt Kaminari was; she was pretty sure he had plans to hit on every girl at this school at least once. Everyone except her, at least. But then again, it wasn't like she didn't know about it; even last night he had wanted to watch that movie Swing Girls because of all the girls.

He wasn't as bad as Mineta, who was obsessed with looking at naked girls to a point of it being quite disturbing and probably watched porn, but rather a more tampered down version who still really liked girls. He didn't seem like the kind who would really like a girl for her, but rather because she was "hot." He was overly self-confident about where he stood with most girls, which often led to a few marks or scars by certain girls who didn't like being looked at that way. Thinking about it, Jirou gripped her pencil a little harder, feeling it crack a little in her palm.

What was she thinking? There was no way she liked Kaminari. His flirty attitude had always bugged her, considering he was probably one of the most unfaithful people on the planet. It's because you have to stand up for girls, she told herself, but even she knew there was another reason back in a far corner of her brain that she really, really didn't want to address. Sighing, she looked back down at her notes, trying to push Kaminari out of her head as she tried to tune back into the conversation, but as she did Kaminari raised his hand.

"Uh, Yaoyorozu?" He called as Momo looked over in his direction. "I had some of my notes from class saved on our school accounts. Do you think I could get them out?"

"Sure, that's fine," Yaoyorozu agreed, giving Kaminari a curt nod as she turned back to her flashcards on some old Japanese war. "Okay everyone, now, what did General—"

"DANG IT!" Kaminari's frustrated call suddenly ripped through the hall again, and Momo turned to look back at him again. "Is something wrong?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowing together.

Kaminari groaned, putting his hand on his forehead. "I left my phone in my room...dang it, the one time I take notes and I don't have them with me when I actually need them. Yaoyorozu, could I pull up my notes on your laptop?"

For a moment, Jirou glanced at Momo's bright red laptop sitting on the kitchen counter, plugged into the wall. Even she knew how expensive it was, considering Momo's family was one of the richest families in the area. If she had a laptop like that, she would never let anyone use it, considering she would probably never be able to get another one.

Momo, however, seemed far less protective of it, shrugging at Kaminari's request. "If you want, sure. Just plug it back in when you're done," she said, already losing interest as she turned back to her flash cards.

Kaminari beamed. "Thanks, Yao-Momo!" He called, standing up and unplugging Momo's computer from its spot on the counter. There was a slight ding noise as it opened up, and Kaminari started typing away as he opened up a browser to find his notes.

Sighing, Jirou turned back to Momo, trying to push the thoughts out of her head. Dammit, she was the exact kind of person who didn't like girls who thought about boys all the time, and she had no intentions of becoming one. Instead, she tried to focus her thoughts back on the study session.

"How long did the Boshin War last?" Momo called out.

"From January 1868 to June 1869," Jirou answered quickly.

 "Correct."

Chapter Text

For someone who liked the color red so much, Kirishima soon realized that he didn't have the stomach for blood.

With Mina and Kaminari away studying, that had eliminated Swing Girls as the movie to watch, and Kirishima had tried to be nice and say that they could watch all three movies. He hadn't seen the harm in one long movie night, and after finishing up Seven Samurai and The Mole Song, that had left Bakugou's movie, Battle Royale. He had never actually seen the movie himself, but he had heard about it and how violent and gory it was from friends who had watched it. 

However, it wasn't until the first kid's neck blew open and spattered everyone around with red that he finally realized this was going to be one of the most disturbing two hours of his life. Kirishima was all for manliness and being tough, but he would never admit that when it came to things like constant blood and death, even he was disturbed.

Sero was way worse. When Megumi had her throat sliced open by Mitsuka and blood sprayed everywhere, Sero's face had taken on a greenish tint as he covered his mouth with his hand. "Dude...how can you watch this stuff?" He muttered to Bakugou, looking like he was ready to throw up.

Bakugou didn't even look at Sero, shoving a fistful of microwave popcorn in his mouth. He was really the only one eating it, considering Kirishima was too busy counting down the minutes until the movie was over, and Sero didn't look like he was in the condition to eat anything at this point.

"It's a good movie. If you actually went and grew a dick then maybe you would like it too," he grumbled, leaning forward with the bowl of popcorn in his lap.

Sero opened his mouth like he was about to protest, but just as he did, another wave of nausea swept over him as Megumi's head rolled over the floor, the face still in an expression of fear still frozen on her face as blood spilled everywhere.

"Aw man...!" Sero groaned, the green color deepening in his face. Holding one hand over his mouth and another on his stomach, he leaped up from the couch and rushed to Bakugou's bathroom, not even having time to shut the door before Kirishima heard him making loud retching noises from inside.

"Shut the fucking door, dammit!" Bakugou called after him, glaring angrily as he turned back to the movie.

Kirishima's eyebrows furrowed together as the movie switched to another scene, soon showing a guy with an ax sticking out of his head with blood spewing like a fountain from the wound. "My gosh, Bakugou..." he muttered. "I get that we got to pick any movie we wanted, but did you have to pick one where someone dies every five minutes?"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! THIS MOVIE IS GREAT, ALRIGHT? DAMMIT YOU GUYS, JUST WATCH THE FUCKING MOVIE!" Bakugou roared, quickly losing his temper as a small explosion crackled in the palm of his hand. Kirishima sighed, settling into the couch. Sometimes he could confront Bakugou about freaking out like that, but right now he knew that arguing would get them nowhere. He could tell it was going to be a long night.

At around 11:30 or so, right when some guy was getting stabbed repeatedly in the balls and Sero was looking about ready to pass out, Kirishima felt his phone buzz in his pocket with a new text message. Curiously, Kirishima pulled out his phone, opening up the text messages. From Ashido, he read, opening up the conversation as intrigue poked at him.

Ashido: hey is ur movie night over yet
Kirishima: Nah, we're watching all 3 movies
Ashido: wow ok. the study session ended a while ago, is kaminari with u?
Kirishima: No, why?
Ashido: I dunno I was just wondering. he looked like he was in a rush to get out and he wasnt answering my texts so I thought he was watching a movie w/ u guys.
Kirishima: Is he sick?
Ashido: maybe. he probably just fell asleep or lost his phone or something tho.
Kirishima: Yeah probably.
Ashido: Ack, gtg! I'm hanging out w/ Tsu & Ochako right now; ttyl!

As Kirishima looked down at his and Ashido's conversation, he felt a heavy stone of doubt settle in his stomach. Their conversation had been short, but for whatever reason, it was bothering him. Something wasn't sitting right with him. Kaminari wasn't usually the one to go to bed before at least 1 A.M on a Friday night. He was at least watching YouTube on his computer or playing some game on his phone if he wasn't doing something loudly with other people. In fact, Kirishima had kind of expected Kaminari to come over here once the study session was over.

I bet he's just tired from studying, he told himself. Still, he had always seemed fine after every other study session. Kirishima didn't know why this one should be any different. Besides, even if he wasn't asleep, he still should have answered Ashido's texts or something. He talked to people through his phone just as much as he did in real life; often times, it just seemed like Kaminari loved talking to people in general. He was just social that way.

"Hey, have any of you guys talked to Kaminari?" Kirishima asked, leaning forward to look at Bakugou and Sero. Sero, still looking green after watching some guy have his balls mangled with a knife, only managed to shake his head as he held his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting again. Bakugou only scowled as Kirishima interrupted the movie, glancing over at him.

"I thought he was at that lame study session or something," he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, but that ended a while ago," Kirishima pointed out, arching a single eyebrow.

"Well, then he's probably just asleep or something. Damn, stop worrying about it so much," Bakugou mumbled in response, kicking the empty popcorn bowl a little with his foot.

Despite what Bakugou had said, Kirishima didn't feel very reassured. A stone of nervousness had settled in his stomach, making him feel like he was made of rock on the inside as well as the outside. Something wasn't right. He could just tell. He remembered one time in fifth grade he had read a book about natural disasters, and how before a bunch of things like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions animals would flee the area because they just had a natural instinct that something was wrong. No one had told them that there was going to be a huge disaster or anything like that; they just had a deep guttural feeling that not everything was as it should.

For some reason, Kirishima felt like he had that same instinct. His stomach refused to sit right as he tried to calm down and watch the movie; worried thoughts about Kaminari spiraling through his mind. Although he tried never to say it out, Kaminari admittedly wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. The list of problems he could have gotten himself into was endless, and over the next five minutes of the movie, another one kept adding itself to his list, making him feel more and more uneasy.

Kirishima had been called protective a few times in his life. It was mainly after the incident with Bakugou after he had been the one to insist on saving him, but there had been other, smaller times too. He remembered all the times Sero had accidentally gotten one of his oversized elbows stuck in something like the bars of a park bench or anything with small spaces and Kirishima had been the one to help him get out of it. One time, Ashido had wanted to prove she was "one of the guys" while hanging out with them and had actually tried to get a fake ID so she could buy beer. Kirishima had been the one to stop her, saying that she could probably get expelled from the school if they found that in her dorm.

Of course, the list of times Kaminari had gotten himself into trouble had been almost twice as long. One time, Kirishima wasn't even sure why, but Kaminari had thought it would be a good idea to fit himself into a baby swing at the park and Kirishima had to literally break the swing apart to help him get out. Another time, before they lived in the dorms, Kaminari had been sleeping over at Kirishima's house and had decided to be helpful and help wash the dishes, but Kirishima had to save him from cutting his hand open after he tried to grab the kitchen knives by the blade rather than the handle.

One time, Kirishima had been walking to school with him, and out of nowhere Kaminari had just said, "how come girls never have to take a DNA test to see if the baby is theirs?"

Even if it made him feel a little bad to say it, Kirishima had to admit that sometimes the dude just wasn't smart enough to figure out how certain things worked.

"Do you think one of us should go check on Kaminari?" Kirishima finally suggested, piping up again. As he was doing so, the same girl who had just stabbed the guy's balls over and over again was shot twice not even ten minutes later, blood spraying everywhere. Sero's face turned an even deeper shade of green, and no sooner than the words had slipped past Kaminari's lips, Sero whipped his head towards Kirishima.

"I'll go!" He volunteered quickly, flying up from the couch. From the color of his face, you didn't have to be a genius to figure out that the guy just wanted to get out of there. Kirishima wouldn't have guessed that Sero wouldn't have the stomach for this kind of stuff, but then again, the guy was full of surprises. At this point, Kirishima was just surprised Sero's stomach wasn't on the floor right now.

Bakugou didn't put up much of a fight, probably because he was fed up with Sero's constant vomiting. "The movie ends in an hour; be back by then if you want to finish it," he grumbled, shifting himself on the couch.

Sero didn't respond, his feet already slapping on the door as he opened up Bakugou's door and walked out, closing it with a click. Kirishima tried to calm his nerves, now knowing that someone was going to check on him. Still, for some reason, he found that the deep feeling that something was wrong remained in his gut. 

Sero didn't like horror movies. 

Actually, that was putting it lightly. For as long as he could remember, horror movies or just any scary movie just never sat right with him. He remembered maybe a few months ago, Kaminari had rented the movie "It" so they had watched it together, and Sero could swear he had never seen a more horrifying, disturbing movie in his life. He could see why it was rated R; the opening scene alone had been enough to absolutely terrify him.

Battle Royale wasn't rated R, but with all the blood and gore, Sero felt like it should be. He had thrown up at least six times, and he was pretty sure his face was green throughout most of the movie. With Kirishima and Bakugou both sitting there toughing it out, Sero had felt like a huge wimp, and it didn't help that Bakugou cussed him out every time he threw up. 

As the elevator doors opened and Sero stepped inside, punching the button for floor three, he realized he couldn't logically see himself going back. And anyway, chances were Kaminari had probably just lost his phone or gotten stuck between the wall and his bed (it wouldn't be the first time). He didn't feel like going to bed, so maybe Sero would just hang out with him the rest of the night and they could play Dungeons and More Dungeons or something like that.

As he walked past Koda's room towards Kaminari's room, he took a moment to enjoy the silence as opposed to the constant screaming of Battle Royale. It seemed like every few minutes someone was either killing or being killed, and a lot of the shots were surprisingly bloody and gruesome. To just be walking through the halls late at night when no one else was awake was felt much better when the only sounds were his own footsteps and the whispering of the wind.

Suddenly, Sero stopped. The whispering of the wind? He was pretty sure the window for floor three was closed. Eyebrows furrowing together, Sero squinted his eyes to the end of the hall where the hallway window for floor three sat. Sure enough, the window was closed and locked tight, locking out any outside noises.

Then what was that whispering noise? Checking his phone, Sero realized that it was 11:45 at night. He was pretty sure no one except Kaminari was awake, but he didn't see why Kaminari would be whispering considering there was no one else to whisper to right now.

Now more quietly, Sero crept past Ojiro's and Iida's rooms but heard nothing except the steady breathing that indicated sleeping. He figured that if it wasn't Kaminari, it was probably an invasion of privacy, but Sero couldn't help himself. The whole thing seemed weird to him; especially since he was used to him and Kaminari usually being the ones to wake everyone up and have Iida scold them for doing so at a time like this. The fact that someone was awake right now just seemed weird to him.

Just as he was about to check out Jirou's room, he stopped. The whispering had turned to more of a whisper-shout where Sero could actually make out a few angry words. "No, I can't, dammit! Get it through your fucking skull!"

Sero froze. Despite what he had told himself before, the voice sounded strangely like Kaminari's. Treading as lightly as he could, Sero hovered in front of Kaminari's door, pressing his ear against the wood. He had no idea what he was doing; maybe arguing with his uncle? But then again, Kaminari didn't seem like the type to cuss out his own uncle.

"I told you before, I told you a thousand times!" Kaminari's voice said, now back down to somewhat of a whisper. The only reason Sero could hear was that his ear was pressed up against the door.

"I. Can't. Get. Past. The. Mother. FUCKING. Firewall! The only way I can is by downloading a few things, and that would probably cause a virus." There was silence for a few moments. "I CARE because if there's a virus on Yaoyorozu's computer, she would notice and look into it. She would see what I was trying to do, and since I was the last one to use her computer, she would figure it out. There are some pretty stupid people at this school, but she's not one of them. I have to be careful what I do around her."

As he listened in, Sero's stomach churned with the same uneasiness he had felt when watching the movie. Something was obviously off. This sounded like Kaminari but...at the same time, didn't really sound like him, if that made any sense. His voice was too hard and serious, lacking its usual light-hearted joking demeanor. It was like it was raw with anger and frustration, cold and calculating rather than warm and fun-loving. Underneath it all, there was a weird darkness to it that Sero just couldn't imagine Kaminari ever having. Hearing it made him feel uneasy, like hearing a deep voice come out of a baby. It just sounded wrong.

For a few moments, Sero thought Kaminari was pulling a prank on him. He couldn't see any other reason why he would be acting like this, but as it went on, Kaminari's behavior started to scare him a little bit. He had no idea what was going on, and he didn't like it either.

After a few moments of silence, Kaminari spoke again. "Like you have much room to talk! You can't keep calling me like this. This is way too much; people are going to notice something is off."

Another moment of silence passed. "Well if you keep calling like this, they will. Shigaraki, I swear, if you would just leave me the FUCK alone and let me figure this out, then maybe I might ACTUALLY GET SHIT DONE instead of dealing with your BULLSHIT."

Sero didn't hear whatever Kaminari said next, whether it was good or bad, because as soon as the words slipped out of Kaminari's mouth, it felt like a hand had come and slapped him across the face. There was one name in that sentence that had stuck out, gotten caught in Sero's mind like a bur: Shigaraki. Wasn't he that one hand villain? The closest thing Sero had ever had to contact with him was when he led the attack on USJ back in his first semester at U.A. However, from the way people like Midoriya and Asui talked about him and from what he did to Mr. Aizawa's face, he was glad he never had any direct contact with him.

Apparently, he could make whatever he touched decay instantly and had threatened Midoriya when the class had gone to the mall right before the Summer Training Camp. He had a long list of crimes behind him, and with All for One now arrested, there were rumors that he was now the one running the League of Villains.

Suddenly, it felt as if several shots of fear-based adrenaline had been pumped into Sero's heart as his heartbeat sped up. There was probably another Shigaraki out there, right? Or maybe he was just messing with him and as soon as the door opened he would be there with a camera laughing his head off at Sero's stupidity. Still, despite what he told himself, Sero found that for some reason he just couldn't make himself knock on the door.

Feeling uncertain, Sero started to take a few steps back, questions racing through his mind as he tried to decipher what was happening. As much as he tried, he couldn't find a way to explain away the Shigaraki thing that he would believe himself, but he didn't want to confront Kaminari about it. Come on Sero, a voice at the back of his head whispered. This is Kaminari. Your friend since the beginning of the year. You know him, and you know that he's a hero. You're being ridiculous. For a few moments, Sero was torn, wondering if he should ask Kaminari what was going on or keep on listening.

And then he sneezed.

If there was a contest for worst timing, Sero felt like he should have won the grand prize. It wasn't super loud like when Kirishima sneezed, but then again, it wasn't exactly quiet. When Sero sneezed, it echoed through the quiet hallway, sounding out of place in a room that had been quiet for so long, resounding off the walls and back into his ears. The silence that followed was almost deafening, but the most terrifying part, Sero realized, was that Kaminari had suddenly stopped talking too.

"Shigaraki," he whispered, his voice suddenly much quieter. "I'm gonna have to call you back."

A few seconds of silence passed, Sero's heart beating so fast he believed it was a legitimate concern that it would pop out of his chest and sprawl out onto the floor. After a few moments, Sero heard the lock click as Kaminari's door slowly creaked open, revealing his friend behind it.

As he stood, Kaminari looked the same as he always did. His messy electric blonde hair stuck out in all directions, the black stripe zig-zagging through his single bang. His clothes were simple, nothing more than a plain yellow t-shirt with a black battery icon on the front and light colored shorts. Behind him, his room was messy as ever, random patterns and objects spread about everywhere.

His face had that same blissfully confused look to it as if he were just barely comprehending everything around him, but now, as Sero looked at him, he saw something else. Despite his confused look, his eyes had a sort of dark glint to them. He couldn't place his finger on it, but something about the way Kaminari was looking at him right then made him feel uneasy.

"Oh, hey Sero," Kaminari greeted, sounding surprised. "I thought you were watching that movie with Kirishima and Bakugou."

"Uh, yeah, but apparently that movie that Bakugou wanted to watch, Battle Royale? SUPER bloody," Sero said with a light laugh. "Thought I would just come and hang out with you for the rest of the night."As Sero spoke, he could feel sweat beading on his forehead. 

"Heh, yeah," Kaminari replied, giving what sounded like a small forced laugh. "Listen, uh...how long were you standing there?"

Sero swallowed the small lump forming in his throat, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to calm his nerves. He didn't like what was happening. Although Kaminari's face said "regular Kaminari", the way he looked at Sero said otherwise. His gaze was too intense, glaring at Sero with eyes that seemed a lot more focused than they usually were. He noticed a small droplet of sweat on his neck, almost like he was nervous about something.

"Oh, not long, not long at all," Sero said, trying to sound more calm and casual than he actually was.

Kaminari's eyebrows lowered slightly. "Really...like, you didn't hear anything inside or anything like that?"

"No, nope, not at all," Sero said, flashing a slightly nervous grin. Sticking his hands in his pockets, he rocked back and forth on his heels, feeling more sweat on his forehead the longer Kaminari looked at him. "Totally did not hear anything out of the ordinary, or weird, or anything like that! Nope! No-sir-ree-bob!"

As soon as the words had left Sero's lips, a deep silence filled the hallway as the two of them stood there, Kaminari's eyes squinted as if he were studying Sero. What is with you today? Sero wanted to ask, but for some reason, he couldn't seem to make his voice work. Still, Kaminari's off behavior was so unsettling that he was starting to wonder if he should have toughed it out in Battle Royale. 

Sero was reluctant to believe that the Shigaraki he had been talking to was the actual villain, but after the phone call, Kaminari was definitely acting strangely. In fact, it was almost disturbing. For the longest time, he stood there just staring at him, but it wasn't the same uncomprehending gaze he had seen so often. As the long silence went on, sweat beaded on his forehead as Kaminari's eyes darkened, his eyebrows lowering.

"You know Sero," he finally said, breaking the silence. "You've never been the best liar."

It happened in all of three seconds. Later on, several ideas as to why he didn't react would cross Sero's mind. There was the idea that it all happened too fast for him to do anything. Perhaps it was the fact that Kaminari's odd behavior had kind of put him off guard where his reflexes weren't fast enough.

But Sero thought that the main reason was that he couldn't wrap his head around why Kaminari, one of, if not his best friend since the start of the school year, would use his quirk against him.

Sero had been electrocuted by Kaminari's quirk before. Oftentimes it was a small, accidental zap, but during the cavalry battle at the Sports Festival, Kaminari had used his quirk to electrocute the entire field. It had been from long distance and had really been more of an elongated shock, but it hadn't been enough to cause any permanent damage.

This was nothing like that.

As he felt Kaminari's fingertips touch the side of his head, Sero felt one of the worst pains he had ever experienced in his life. There was a strong, painful burning sensation where Kaminari's fingers made contact with his skin, making him feel as if his head had literally caught on fire. A horrible, crushing pain shot across his entire body, making him feel as if a thousand tiny, hot metal weights were being pressed all over his body.

And then, it was suddenly over as Sero was soon met with darkness.

Chapter Text

Shit.

Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit. Of all the ways things could go wrong, it had to be this way. 

He had panicked. That was the only way to put it. As soon Kaminari had heard someone outside his door, a million thoughts had started racing through his head. He knew Shigaraki shouldn't have been calling him so much. Kaminari was upset that All for One had been arrested, but the way Shigaraki was taking it, it was only making things harder for him.

Combined with living in the dorms and being around the students 24/7, it was only a matter of time.

He could have kicked himself right then. Already, reasons for what had led up to this starting formulating in his head. When Shigaraki had decided to call him at the end of the study session, right when everyone was still there, Kaminari wanted to cuss him out right then. Sensei, or All for One, had been smart about the whole thing before he was imprisoned: only come into contact with him once or twice a month to check in, and Kaminari would keep slowly feeding them information.

However, now with Sensei under close police watch in prison, there were two problems. Shigaraki was in charge, and he was bent on revenge with no idea how to be discreet. Despite what Kaminari kept telling him, calling him this much would lead to problems. When Shigaraki had called, everyone had been milling around, talking, and he had to rush out. He could have only imagined how suspicious he looked when he was supposed to be super-social and everything.

He knew that had been one of the reasons Sero had come; if he had more time to think about it he probably would have been able to figure out exactly why. Right now though, his usually sharp thoughts were muddled with anger and frustration.

As he looked down at Sero's crumpled body, he wanted to mentally kick himself. How could he be so stupid? Blocking radio transmissions at USJ and giving information about the Summer Training Camp was one thing, but this was an entirely different level.

He knew the effects electricity had on the body better than anyone else. Whether or not it actually killed them all came down to certain factors, such as if they were wearing thick shoes to absorb the electricity or something like that. He had been trying not to kill him because he knew that killing a student in the dorms could lead to severe consequences, including elevated security on this dorm system, and after being taken to the hospital, tests would reveal electrocution, which would make him the obvious suspect.

Still, if Sero wasn't dead, he would know. Electric shocks without death didn't last forever, and soon, he would wake up. He would know. Instantly, a million possibilities raced through Kaminari's head. Maybe he could take him as a hostage and have him taken back to base if he called Kurogiri? No, after the whole Bakugo incident, hostages were out of the question. Blackmail? Sero didn't have anything bad enough about him to blackmail with. He was a pretty open book with nothing to hide, and even if Kaminari did have any dirt on him, there was always the possibility that he would squeal. And in this case, even a possibility was enough to turn everything upside-down; a risk that he couldn't take.

Shit. He felt trapped. He didn't know how he could have done something so stupid. He had managed to be careful while working undercover at U.A. for the last two years. He had purposely failed the exams right before the Summer Training Camp so he could go into the summer school protocol and avoid any fighting. He had been able to successfully deliver information back to home base, all without raising suspicions towards him. And then, he had to go and panic, which led to this.

Kneeling down, Kaminari pressed two fingers against the side of Sero's neck, feeling for the usual beating that indicated a pulse. As soon as he felt the familiar pumping of blood against his fingers, he felt as if his stomach had turned inside out with dread. Before, it had been just a gut feeling, but now it was officially confirmed. If Sero was still alive, then that meant everything had taken a turn for the worst. There was no way he could get him out of the building before he woke up or continuing to knock him out, which would ultimately kill him.

Besides, if Sero fully woke up than there was no way Kaminari could take him down again without causing a commotion. If there was no definite cause for the death other than something like assault or electrocution, then Kaminari was virtually screwed.

A definite cause for the death.

Almost instantly, thoughts began swirling around in Kaminari's head. Dark thoughts. Thoughts that should have scared him, but instead only edged him on.

Suddenly, it felt as if a light bulb had turned on in Kaminari's head. Pressing his lips into a tight line, Kaminari glanced over to the end of the hallway towards the window. The glass pane was currently locked shut, looking out onto a cloudy night sky. However, if you really needed to, it wouldn't exactly be the hardest thing in the world to unlock.

Say Sero was to quote "fall" out a window. A fall from this height would almost certainly cause some damage, and if fallen in the right position, certain factors like internal bleeding and punctured organs could get rid of any indications or evidence of electrocution. As of right now, they were on the third floor. Typically the median height for a fall to the death was four stories, and with students training in U.A. High's hero course for two years it would probably take more than that, but the ceilings in the dorms were relatively high and surpassed the average height of most stories. And besides, Sero's body was already weakened from electrocution. Even if he did live or Recovery Girl got to him in time, he would almost definitely be put into a vegetative state or coma on impact.

Kaminari had killed before. Not humans, but instead animals he would find purely for fun. He would kill things like rabbits, mice, moles, even though his mother hated it when he did that. She had never understood why, and always yelled at him, saying how he was "being unnecessarily cruel", but even so he still continued to do it.

One time, he had taken the neighbor's cat from their yard and taken it into the woods behind their house, where he had repeatedly stabbed it to death. He remembered how the cat's spasms and cries of pain had slowly become weaker until finally dying out, and the odd rush of pleasure he had gotten as it happened. When he had been found, the neighbor had screamed and demanded to know why he did it, to which he responded with, "I just felt like it. It's fun."

When questioned more, he had gone on to say things like, "it's funny when they twitch and scream," much to the neighbor's horror. The neighbor had then yelled at him and his mother, saying things like "that child is psychotic!" and how his mother had to have him examined or locked up or something.

The memory at this point had burned itself into his brain, and while Kaminari had never been examined, he still remembered the rush he had gotten when killing the cat instead of something like guilt or shame.

He wondered if killing a person would be the same. Of course, it would be harder, considering people would actually look into the death of an actual human and if he were caught the consequences would be much more severe, and in this case, he couldn't make it obvious that he had been murdered. If he had the time, he might be able to frame someone, but he didn't have the luxury of time right now.

Glancing over, he saw Sero stirring just a little bit. It was faint, but it was enough to kick-start Kaminari's sense of urgency. If he was going to do it, he had to do it now. Lifting Sero up so that one arm hung around his neck, Kaminari got to his feet, dragging Sero across the hallway towards the window. He could feel his heartbeat slowly becoming stronger in his chest, and his slowly quickening breaths. He didn't have long.

Setting Sero back down, Kaminari leaned down, pulling a paperclip he had gotten from the study session out of his pocket. All the windows in the building had been made bulletproof, so if he was going to get Sero through he would have to open the window.

Once there was the satisfying click of a lock being unlocked, Kaminari threw open the window, feeling the cool night breeze rush over his face. He looked at the ground three stories down; the grass rippling in the wind and the hard cement below.

Grabbing Sero again, Kaminari adjusted the boy, placing him on the windowsill just as he could feel him stirring again. After a few seconds, his black eyes blinked open, still foggy and glazed over. "K-Kaminari? What happened..." he muttered, though Kaminari wasn't worried that he was awake. He knew how electrocution worked. There was most likely still ringing in his head and everything would probably still seem blurry and far away.

There was a high chance that he would experience severe issues in the few moments following the electrocution, including possible death. If he did live, it would take another few moments for him to fully come to consciousness, but unfortunately for him, he didn't have a few more moments.

"Nothing you'll be able to remember," Kaminari said simply, and with a final shove, he finally saw Sero fly over the edge.

"Okay, okay, um...lemme think...ah, I've got one! Never have I ever not had pink hair!"

 "Mina, that's all of us," Tsu croaked, placing a finger against her chin.

 "Yeah, don't you have anything better?" Jirou added as she arched an eyebrow skeptically.

 "Well sorry! This game is hard! I can't think of anything else," Mina huffed, crossing her arms as she gave a pouty lip.

 "Well I've got one," Tsu said. "Never have I ever made a duck face while taking a selfie.

 "Oh, three!" Mina cried in relief at the same time Uraraka said "five," which didn't really surprise Jirou. Out of the six girls in their class, Mina and Uraraka, along with Hagakure, were probably among some of the more frivolous girls, so it wasn't hard to see why they would make a duck face in their selfies.

 Jirou had always thought that something like that looked ridiculous, which is why she had never made a duck face on the few occasions when she did take a selfie. Right now, she still had seven points in their game, while Tsu was down to six. Mina was currently in the lead, which Jirou figured was probably because she had done some of the craziest things out of all of them. In fact, when Uraraka had said, "Never have I ever spent the night in jail," Mina had actually called out "five!"

She had explained that it was because she had bought illegally scalped tickets for a Gazette concert that was at the mall theater that she hadn't known were illegal and had spent a few hours in mall jail, but she claimed it still counted.

Honestly, Jirou had been debating coming over to hang out with them. Since her mind had been preoccupied for half the time Momo was tutoring, she had stayed in the kitchen after the session had ended to continue studying, while Mina and Uraraka had called Tsu and gone to the living area of the commons just on the other side of the room.

Hagakure had walked off to talk with Ojiro after her pep talk with Mina and Uraraka, eventually going up to his room. If it was anyone else, Jirou would have been glad they included locks on the doors, but knowing sensitive, responsible Ojiro, the dirtiest thing they would be doing would probably be cleaning off his windows.

"Okay, whose turn is it now?" Uraraka asked, snapping Jirou out of her thoughts. Mina's eyebrows scrunched together as she looked around the small circle, the gears practically clicking in her head as she tried to remember.

"Um...Jirou, I think it was your turn," she said, turning to the purple haired girl.

Jirou only shrugged, looking down to pick and her cuticle. "You guys can just skip me," she said absent-mindedly. She hadn't really been 100% into the game as they played; and anyways, she was starting to get tired. She was pretty sure it was almost midnight, so after this round, she was probably going to just go to bed.

"Aw, c'mon Jirou!" Uraraka moaned, tilting her head to one side. "You have to ask at least one question before the game ends."

"Yeah Jirou, come on! Don't be such a downer; lighten up a little bit!" Mina insisted, nudging her friend in the shoulder with her fist. Jirou winced a little bit as she did, grabbing her arm. Even when she was playing, that girl was strong.

"What? I haven't been a downer," Jirou insisted, but Tsu only shrugged.

"I dunno, Jirou," she said. "You have been kind of putting a damper on the mood."

"Come on; ask a question! Ask a question! Ask a question!" Mina started chanting, and soon enough Uraraka joined in.

"Ask a question! Ask a question! Ask a question! Ask a quest—"

"Alright, dammit," Jirou muttered, scowling at the two of them. "I'll ask a question; just get off my back about it."

"Yay!" Mina cheered, throwing her arms into the air as Uraraka clapped her hands together, her face breaking out in a delighted grin. Jirou rolled her eyes; she couldn't see how anyone could get so excited over something so small.

Then again, there was the way Momo always got whenever she was about to tutor a study session, and Jirou always found that adorable, so maybe she wasn't one to judge.

Still, she couldn't help but be just a little bit amused by their reactions to something so small; so she couldn't help a tiny smirk at the corner of her mouth.

"Okay, um...never have I ever—" she began, using the first thing that came to her mind when suddenly, she stopped.

She had heard something. The sound that she had heard had come outside was loud enough for everyone to hear, but when Jirou heard it, she was able to pick up things everyone else didn't.

It was a dull thud, coming from just outside the building, causing Uraraka to jump a little bit in surprise. "Did you guys hear that?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowed together as she held a clasped hand over her chest.

"It was probably a tanuki¹ or something," Tsu replied simply, glancing over at Uraraka. Mina, hardly seeming concerned at all, turned back to Jirou, eager for her to continue her question. "All right, so never have I ever..." she supplied, waving her hand in a go-on motion.

Still, Jirou ignored her. At this point in her hero studies, she wasn't at the top of the class, and she wasn't at the bottom. She hadn't done anything to particularly stand out as much as she wanted. She was ranked 17th out of 20 students in the Quirk Apprehension test and only been in the top 42 in the U.A. Sports Festival. So far, the way she managed to get by was by using her intelligence—such as when she figured out how to beat Present Mic in her and Koda's final exam—and her instinct.

And right now, her instinct was screaming at her that something wasn't right.

Her quirk had always allowed her to be able to hear things that everyone else was physically incapable of picking up on; if she wanted to, she could easily eavesdrop on anyone in the building right now. Oftentimes though, it came in handy in day-to-day situations, just being something cool to have around.

However, right now it was sure was helpful being the only one to hear things that the other girls weren't able to hear.

"It's not a tanuki," she said adamantly. "It's too heavy."

Instantly, the room went silent. Jirou assumed it was the solemn, clipped way she said it that made everyone go silent. Uraraka hugged her pink cloud pajama knees to her chest.

"Do you think it's a burglar? Or a villain?" She whimpered, already jumping to worst case scenarios. Tsu leaned over and pat her friend on the head comfortingly.

"Don't be ridiculous; they couldn't have gotten past the security system," Mina said, waving her hand dismissively.

"Well yeah, but remember that breach in security in the first semester?" Tsu pointed out, despite her efforts to comfort Uraraka. "It wouldn't be the first time someone managed to get past the security system."

"Nice going, Tsu," Jirou muttered as Uraraka released another whimper, hugging her legs closer to her chest.

"I'm just saying it's not completely out of the question, ribbit." 

"Well, that doesn't mean you have to say it!" Jirou hissed in response, her earbuds lashing back and forth. She didn't get why Tsu had to be so blunt all the time.

"Okay, guys, you know what? If it's causing this much trouble, I'll go check." Mina interjected, holding up her hands to signal everyone to stop. "What did you say? That it's bigger than a tanuki? Well, I don't know, what's bigger than a tanuki?"

"A dog?" Tsu supplied.

"Yeah, a dog. It's probably just a dog out there or something," she continued, getting to her feet. "Honestly, you guys, it's probably not that big of a deal." She said, slipping on her neon pink zebra-striped slippers back on as she headed for the door. "Trust me Uraraka, it's not a villain or anything like that. You guys don't have to go to worst-case scenarios. As soon as I come back, we're going right back to the game," she said with a shrug, opening the door and stepping outside into the cold night air.

Mina's confidence seemed to have calmed Uraraka, at least for the moment as she allowed to let her legs sprawl back out. "Besides, it's almost winter break anyway," Tsu said, placing a finger to her chin. "We should really be focusing on our tests—"

Then, just as Tsu was speaking, a loud shriek split the air.

It wasn't the kind of scream you give when you're startled, like if someone jumps out at you or if you burn yourselves; often those screams were short and clipped. This scream was long and loud, overflowing with fear as if someone was screaming bloody murder. It was enough to make Jirou's blood curdle, causing her to suddenly sit up straighter as her earbuds bounced in surprise.

Suddenly, the whole room went silent as everyone went still as statues. "Mina?" Jirou said warily, leaping to her feet. Tsu quickly followed behind her, Uraraka soon coming reluctantly.

The feeling of wrongness quickly blossomed inside Jirou again, the kind of wrongness that made her feel sick to her stomach. She didn't know what was going on, but whatever it was, it had been enough to make Mina scream like that.

Anxiety racking her whole body, Jirou threw open the door, the cool early December night air washing over her. Typically she enjoyed this kind of weather; it was like it was marking the change between autumn and winter, acting as that odd middle ground that has always seemed kind of cool to Jirou.

Right now, though, she wasn't paying any attention to the weather. A few feet ahead of her, Mina stood, her back turned to the rest of them as she looked at something none of them could see at the moment.

"Mina! What's wrong?" Uraraka cried in concern, racing forward with Jirou and Tsu following closely behind. Mina didn't say anything, only pointed ahead of her with a trembling finger. The pink girl's face had paled, and her eyes were so wide Jirou could see all around her irises. Following the girl's gaze, Jirou looked in the direction Mina had indicated to, and it was then that Jirou saw what it was that Mina had screamed about.

There, sprawled out on the grass before them, was Sero. First of all, Sero just laying outside in the middle of the night was weird enough, but it was obvious that something was wrong.

As he laid, his eyes were closed, his body positioned at an odd angle. His arms and legs were in weird positions, all sprawled out and twisted like they had just been put at random angles, and his back was bent at a sickening angle that made Jirou want to throw up. And there, just below him seemed to be a slowly growing puddle of crimson...was that blood? Jirou wasn't even sure if he was breathing or not.

"What the hell...!" she muttered to herself, the color quickly draining from her face as Uraraka let loose a loud, terrified shriek that echoed through the night air.

"I don't know what happened!" Mina cried, tears starting to glisten in her eyes as a sob built up in her throat. It was then that Jirou remembered that Mina and Sero were fairly close, hanging out together in their small group of friends. And now, Mina had just found Sero laying outside, with no idea of if he were alive or dead. "He was just like this when I came outside!"

"He must have fallen," Tsu croaked, her voice raw with shock. "That would explain the thud noise."

"Well from how far? Is he...?" Jirou managed to get out but, her voice soon trailed off. She couldn't make herself finish the sentence; for if she did that would be like facing the heavy reality of the situation.

However, what she said did it for Mina. The sobs bubbling in the girl's throat finally made their way to the surface, coming out a gasping cry as she covered her mouth with her hands, sinking down to the ground.

Quickly, Tsu rushed forward, the frog girl placing two fingers against Sero's neck. A moment passed, which had to be one of the longest moments of Jirou's life.

"He's alive," Tsu said, and Jirou released a breath she hadn't even know she had been holding.

However, Tsu wasn't finished. "But barely. His pulse is very faint; he doesn't have very long."

"W-What should we do?" Uraraka stuttered, her eyes wide.

"Call an ambulance, dammit!" Jirou cried in response, hoping her face didn't reveal how shocked and scared she really was. Damn, she wished it was during school hours; then they would at least be able to get Recovery Girl over here, but they didn't have that luxury right now. Whipping out her phone, Jirou opened the emergency dialer; which she had honestly thought she would never have to use and punched in three numbers. It was only two rings before a person picked up.

"Hello, 119²! What's your emergency?" An overly cheerful woman's voice said on the other side of the receiver.

"Hello, 119? It's my friend; I think he fell..."

It wouldn't be until later—much, much, later—that Jirou realized there was another pair of ears listening on the emergency below.

And as he did, a small smirk crossed his face.

⁽¹⁾Tanuki—A small kind of wild Japanese raccoon dog quite common throughout all of Japan (basically a raccoon but it's brown and black instead of gray and black and lives in Japan)

⁽²⁾119—The Japanese equivalent of 911

Chapter Text

His heart stopped.

That was the only way to put it. Kirishima didn't know how to explain what he felt any other way; the whole thing had just felt like one big, heart-stopping moment. The kind that left you light-headed, grasping for air no matter how much it escaped your lungs, but still unable to breathe. He just didn't know how to take it all in.

Friday night had seemed like one big blur. He had first heard about Sero a little past midnight when Battle Royale was almost over and Kirishima had passed out on Bakugo's couch. After Sero hadn't come back after he had gone to check on Kaminari, Kirishima had told himself that he was probably just not eager to come back after watching the movie, but even so, his sleep was still restless and fitful.

He had woken when he felt Bakugo's hand shaking his shoulder, his harsh voice whispering in his ear.
"Hey, get up. Something's happening.

The first thing he noticed was the sirens. They were loud and blaring, wailing in the previously quiet nighttime and draining out the sounds of the movie. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Kirishima slowly woke, but as soon as he registered the sirens, he was up.

After that, it was like his brain had subconsciously blocked out most of the events so that he could handle it. He vaguely remembered certain events: racing out of Bakugo's dorm and into the hallway, feeling anxious as the elevator slid down to the commons, the sheer amount of people milling about. Mr. Aizawa might have shown up, but he wasn't really paying too much attention to any of that.

The one thing that he remembered in vivid detail though was the sense of numbness that had overtaken his body when he realized what had happened.

There was yellow police tape marking off a corner of the courtyard right below the windows, and Kirishima got there just in time to be Sero being pulled away on a stretcher.

It felt like all the air had been sucked out of Kirishima's chest when he saw how his friend's eyes were locked shut, an air mask placed over his ashen face as several paramedics rolled him to a waiting ambulance.

There might have been people speaking, with police officers talking to students and a few people trying to comfort him, but if they did, he couldn't hear it. The blood was roaring too loudly in his ears, his heart pumping too fast.

Kirishima had experienced a lot of the things that full grown adults had never gone through. Ever since the start of his time at U.A. back in April, he had been in the U.A. Sports Festival broadcast to the world, gone through several villain attacks, fought against pro hero Cementoss, and almost gotten expelled to save his friend from being kidnapped. And yet, in all those situations he had actually been able to do something. He had never felt this helpless in his life, and he hated it.

He didn't even know how this could happen. He remembered the first time he had actually interacted with Sero was at the very beginning of the year when they had been paired up as the villain team in the Battle Trials, and he was actually really impressed by Sero's skill. Ever since then, he and Sero, as well Kaminari, had hung out as an inseparable threesome, which had been one of the best experiences of Kirishima's life. Even when they started hanging out a little more with Bakugo and Ashido, the three of them had stayed close, and it killed Kirishima to see his friend being taken away in an ambulance.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him: Kaminari. Even though the three of them had technically all hung out together, Kirishima had started to get particularly close to Bakugo, while Sero and Kaminari could probably be considered best friends. If what Kirishima was going through was this bad, he had no idea what Kaminari was going through.

Eyes scanning the courtyard, Kirishima looked for his friend as Bakugo caught up to him. "Have you seen Kaminari?" He asked, the panic slowly creeping into his voice. However, Bakugo didn't need to answer; a few moments later, Kirishima saw the doors to the commons swing open as Kaminari stepped outside, still wearing his black pajama pants and a neon yellow t-shirt.

"Woah...Kirishima, Bakugo, what's going on?" He exclaimed, racing through the courtyard. As he did, a few people gave him pitying looks; by this point, it was common knowledge in the class that Kaminari and Sero were good, if not best friends. Kirishima wasn't sure if he could be the one to tell him without breaking down himself.

"Kaminari...I'm sorry..." he managed, and though he could never fully read Bakugo well, he thought he saw something flash in his eyes. Anger? Pity? Remorse? He had no idea how Bakugo was feeling in this situation, but he knew that if anyone was going to break the news to Kaminari, it had to be him.

As he went on explaining what he had been told by a crying Ashido and several police officers, he could feel the weight in his own chest slowly getting heavier as he heard it said through his own lips.

However, the look on Kaminari's face was almost unbearable. As Kirishima continued, he saw his friend's face slowly go from confusion to disbelief, to horror.

"No...no, you're lying," Kaminari stuttered, his golden eyes widening as he took a few steps back. Just seeing him like this was almost as bad as seeing Sero pulled away on a stretcher; the look of pain in Kaminari's eyes so unbearable Kirishima was starting to tear up. "Sero...that could never happen to him..."

"Dude, I'm sorry, but—" Kirishima began, trying to place his hand on Kaminari's shoulder, but before he could he felt Kaminari's hand swat it away, a small zap of electricity shocking his hand.

Oh yeah. Quirks are harder to control when you're emotionally unstable, he thought, rubbing the shocked spot on his hand.

"Don't touch me! Alright, just don't touch me!" Kaminari yelled, tears glistening in his eyes. Typically he was usually very sympathetic and apologetic whenever he shocked anyone without meaning to, but right now he didn't seem to care. Kirishima couldn't blame him; in fact, seeing him do that made this so much harder.

"Kaminari—" he had begun, feeling a choked sob build up in his own throat, but Kaminari had stopped him.

"No, don't Kaminari me right now, alright?" he had exclaimed in response, now drawing the attention of a few people in the courtyard, but he was obviously ignoring them. Tears were starting to spill over the edges, tracing his cheeks in tiny streams. "Now is not the time to fucking Kaminari me, or fucking bro me, or call me fucking manly, or anything fucking like that!" He had shouted, balling his hands into fists at his sides, and for a moment Kirishima was stunned silent. Kaminari wasn't one to curse very often, so the one time he did, in the intensity of the situation, Kirishima wasn't sure what to say.

When Kirishima didn't say anything, more tears spilled over Kaminari's cheeks as he bit his lip, glaring at him. "Just leave me alone!" He had cried, and with that, turned and ran back inside, slamming the door in his wake.

Kirishima thought that seeing Sero like that would be enough to make him feel sick, but after seeing Kaminari, he was actually ready to cry himself. He had thought his own pain was bad, but seeing his friend like that...it was one of the worst experiences of his life. He was so used to seeing upbeat, energetic Kaminari that seeing him reduced to that had felt like a kick in the gut. He never, never, wanted to feel like that again. Never.

The ambulance left around 12:45, and Mr. Aizawa ordered everyone back to their dorms soon after that, but Kirishima was pretty sure he didn't go to sleep until three. At one point, he stopped by Kaminari's dorm to check on him, but just as he was about to knock on the door, Bakugo had placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. If it had been any other situation, Kirishima might have laughed; he had never taken Bakugo for the sympathetic type. Then again, his time living in the dorms had changed him, and with the whole Sero situation, Kirishima was pretty sure he was a bit more empathetic.

"I mean...I just want to make sure he's okay," Kirishima had said, but Bakugo hadn't bent.

"Just give him a minute," he said. "This is probably a lot for his tiny brain to handle, so just let him do his thing, alright?" Even in his own weird, harsh way, Kirishima could tell that Bakugo was showing concern. He's actually worried about him, Kirishima had realized, and with a sigh, had finally lowered his hand away from the door. Glancing back one more time, he had then looked at Bakugo, and he must have looked as dejected as he felt, because, after that, Bakugo's gaze softened a little bit.

"C'mon, Shitty Hair; let's go to bed," he had sighed, leading Kirishima out of the hallway towards the elevator.

For a moment, Kirishima had hesitated, then allowed himself to follow Bakugo, sticking his hands in his pockets as he walked. Would I be more upset if this happened to Bakugo? He thought for a moment, then quickly pushed the thought out of his mind. He didn't like to think like that; comparing his friends to his other friends. Still, he remembered how upset he had been when Bakugo had been taken by the League of Villains. It had felt like an actual piece of him had been taken, and if he didn't try to get that piece back, then he had to blame himself for that.

Well, yeah, cause he's my friend, he thought to himself, trudging towards the elevator, but even he felt there was a little more to it than that.

Kirishima quickly shook his head. Now wasn't the time for that. With one last glance towards Kaminari's room, Kirishima gave a small, sad sigh and stepped inside the elevator, pressing the button for floor four so that he could go to bed.

But even so, he had a feeling that it would be a long time before he went to sleep.

"Alright, alright, so tell me what happened again?"

"Honestly, Hagakure, I really don't feel like talking about it," Jirou sighed, stirring her cornflakes absentmindedly. For some reason, Hagakure kept asking her to retell over and over again what happened when she, Asui, Ashido and Uraraka had found Sero like it was some crime story on TV. Right now, she just wanted to forget it happened at the moment and eat her breakfast.

Jirou didn't see what was so interesting about it. People kept asking her again and again about what happened, but living it once was enough. A week later, and people still wanted to hear about it from the perspective of someone "up close and personal", which Jirou didn't get at all. Seeing Sero laying, his body all broken in a puddle of blood had been traumatizing. The last thing she wanted to do was tell people about it again and again, and she hadn't even been that close with Sero. Mina and Sero had been friends for a while, and Jirou could swear she was about to throw up seeing him laying like that.

Everyone was taken by surprise by Sero's accident, especially Kirishima, Mina, and Kaminari. Jirou wasn't really sure about Bakugo, but even he had been acting just a little bit softer since the incident. Mina had been acting a little more nervous recently, and Jirou had recently heard from Uraraka that she had been waking up during the night with nightmares. Uraraka had mentioned she thought it was because of the trauma that came with seeing her friend's body like that.

With the police tape up for a few days after the incident, the news of what happened to Sero had quickly spread to other classes. There were even a few ideas or conspiracy theories that he had jumped or been pushed, which had ultimately pissed Kirishima off. At one point, there had been some students from class 1-H talking about it, and Kirishima had completely gone off at them, yelling things like, "He fell by accident! You don't need to turn it into some sort of crime story!"

However, Jirou was pretty sure the one that was affected the most was Kaminari. The fact that he and Sero were very close was common knowledge at this point; no one had doubted that they were best friends or something along those lines. Jirou had been regaling what had happened when Sero fell to a police officer when Kirishima told Kaminari; she was pretty sure the whole courtyard saw it.

There hadn't exactly been any measures made to be discreet about it; telling Kaminari what had happened might as well have been the equivalent of setting off a bomb in the middle of the courtyard. He certainly hadn't taken it well; Jirou could swear she saw tears rolling down his cheeks. Usually, Kaminari was so ridiculous and outgoing that it was kind of weird to see him like that; Jirou wasn't really sure how to react.

During class, he wasn't much better. Jirou sat in a corner of what she called "The Triangle": the arrangement of where Kaminari, Kirishima, and Sero all sat that formed a triangle shape, and she was so used to hearing them whispering and joking around that for once, it was kind of weird to hear silence. In fact, she was pretty sure this was the first week in a long time—no, in forever—that Mr. Aizawa hadn't had to discipline anyone for passing notes or shooting a spitball or something like that.

Jirou sat right next to Kaminari in class, and she could swear this had been the quietest week of her entire time at U.A. Oftentimes, he was whispering to her, asking about something he didn't understand or having a big reaction if she poked a little fun at him. This week, though, every time she looked over at him, he was looking down at his desk or carving something into it with a look dejected look on his face or staring vacantly into space.

After class ended, Kaminari used to hang around the classroom for a few minutes talking to people or trying to hit on girls, but now he would just shoulder his way out of the classroom as quickly as he could without looking at anyone. Yesterday, just as he was about to leave for the weekend, Ojiro stopped him, placing his hand on his shoulder. It had been a quiet week for him too, considering how Kaminari oftentimes played with his tail like a cat playing with a toy, and now he was just kind of silent.

"Hey Kaminari, are you okay?" He asked, concern etched in his voice as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"What do you think?" Kaminari had grumbled in response, shouldering his hand away and trying to make it the rest of the way to the door.

However, Ojiro hadn't stopped there. "I just wanted to say, if you need someone to talk to—" he had continued, trying again to touch his shoulder, but Kaminari whipped around, his eyes blazing as he smacked Ojiro's hand out of the way, a small spark flashing between them.

"Ow!" Ojiro cried, grabbing his hand. Where Kaminari had shocked him, there was a small red mark indicated where he had been burned.

Kaminari, however, hadn't shown any remorse. "Dammit, Ojiro, would you just leave me the hell alone?" He snapped, the fury in his voice almost palpable.

"Hey! He was only trying to help!" Hagakure had cried, stepping to Ojiro's defense as he stood there, tears welling his eyes. Whether it was from the pain of being burned or Kaminari's words, Jirou wasn't sure; the guy had always been surprisingly sensitive.

Kaminari hadn't said anything in response, only shot one last glare before shooting out of the classroom, leaving a shocked silence behind him.

If she was being honest, Jirou was worried about him.

"Hagakure, if Jirou doesn't want to talk about it, then she doesn't want to talk about it. Let it be," Momo said, snapping Jirou back to reality.

Hagakure sighed, tracing her finger on the ingrained markings of the table. "I know. I just want to know if it was as bad as everyone's been talking about. He must have been pretty messed up for the hospital to not allow visitors or for Kaminari to be all mad like that."

"Well, anger is pretty normal when it comes to the early stages of grief," Momo explained, shoving her chopsticks of rice into her mouth. "And he and Sero were pretty close, so it's only natural for him to be a little testy with everyone."

"Still, did you see how he lashed out at Ojiro like that? I mean, that was pretty harsh," Hagakure insisted, taking another bite of her shokupan¹. "I talked to Ojiro about it this morning, and personally I think he forgave him a little too quickly. I mean, he's still got that burn! If he wasn't such a sweetheart, I think it would have taken a little more time," she said with a sigh, shoving the last of her shokupan into her mouth.

"Come on, Hagakure, cut him a little slack," Jirou replied, placing her head on her hands. "I mean, his best friend is in the hospital. We have no idea what kind of state he's in; he could be on death's doorstep right now for all we know. I think he deserves a little bit of room or something."

Glancing across the dining hall, Jirou saw the table where Kirishima, Mina, Kaminari, Sero, and sometimes Bakugo sat if Kirishima could get him to sit with them. This week, there had been an empty seat, which everyone had expertly avoided mentioning, and the four of them ate in silence. Kaminari had been sleeping in a lot later, and during the first few days, Kirishima let him do it, but now he would go and get him up saying that he had to eat, so there was still a lot of food on Kaminari's plate.

All of them ate in silence, which was odd, considering just last week Sero and Kaminari had been having a contest to see who could fit the most spoons in their mouth while Kirishima and Mina laughed and Bakugo continuously called them "dumbasses."

So it was kind of weird to see them all eating in stony silence, each if then looking like they were in their own world.

Jirou pressed her lips into a tight line, turning back to Momo and Hagakure. "Besides, I heard the hospital opened up visitor rights today, and they're going to visit him. I thought I would go with them or something," she said, standing up to put her plate in the dishwasher.

"I don't think I'll come," Hagakure decided, stacking up her own plates to take them to the dishwasher with Jirou. "Hospitals make me nervous. Ojiro might want to come, though. He hung out with Sero a little bit while he was hanging out with Kaminari, but I think that's because he would just hang around Kaminari whenever he's with his friends. He might want to go to support him, though, even after he burned him," she continued, and Jirou was starting to think that Hagakure was more protective of Ojiro than he was of himself.

"It's fine; I'm pretty sure Ojiro and I will be the only ones to go with them, anyways," Jirou said with a shrug, carrying her plates to the dishwasher and placing them inside.

"Well, have fun," Hagakure was saying, then stopped herself. "Well, I mean, as much fun as you can have at a hospital."

Jirou only shrugged again, then started off to the elevators to get dressed. She figured it was going to be a long day. 

The walk to the hospital was a silent one.

Of course, Kaminari was fine with that. It was too cold to do much talking anyway, since even though it was December, Kirishima had insisted on going out as early as possible. Even though it was freezing, Kirishima had wanted to see what state Sero was in, and Kaminari did too, but with entirely different intentions.

At first, Kaminari had actually thought that he killed him. When he saw Sero's broken body lying on the cement stairs below, the puddle of blood pooling underneath him, he had actually felt a rush of something that could only be described as exhilaration. It felt good. Really fucking good. When he saw the girls freaking out below, he had given a small smirk of satisfaction, thinking that they had discovered his dead body.

When he discovered that Sero wasn't dead yet, it had felt like a kick to the teeth. Combined with the hospital getting there very quickly, along with extensive measures to preserve brain function, Sero had actually survived the fall. Later that night, when he was alone in his room, he had punched the wall out of pure anger and frustration at his own slip-up.

Now, he had to go to the hospital just to get a feel for what state Sero was in. The best he could hope for was that he was on life support, unable to breathe on his own and the hospital would have to turn it off soon. Worst-case scenario...well, Kaminari didn't want to think about the worst case scenario right now.

Keeping up the impression of the grieving friend wasn't so hard, though. According to psychology, there were five distinguishable phases that recognized the pattern for human grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

When his mom and sister had died, Kaminari hadn't allowed himself to feel any of those. It was the first time he had actually felt something strong, and it was too strong. Too intense. Too much of everything. He hated it. Instead, he had chosen to push his feelings deep, deep down inside of him, until he had gone back to being stony and cold. It was the only way to cope and having the nature he did, it was easier for him than it would probably be for most people.

Right now, though, Kaminari had to at least pretend to be grieving. During his time at U.A, he had managed to build a particularly close relationship with Sero, and everyone knew it. Everyone would expect him of all people to be completely destroyed over his incident, so of course, he had to act like he actually was. He couldn't just go on acting like his usual self; everyone would expect him to be a complete mess. So of course, he had to play the part.

He had no idea what actual grief felt like, so the only idea he had for this certain scenario was the five stages of grief, and what they should look like thanks to this one kid. Back in fifth grade, about a month before the fire, there was this kid in his class who's mom's car had gone off a bridge. Before, he had been a pretty nice guy, but after the incident, he had been a completely different person for a little while. At first, he had been super angry and would lash out at everyone who came close to him, but then after that, he had slipped into a deep depression.

Kaminari was pretty sure he had done the denial and bargaining parts in private, but just to be sure, he had gone through the internet one more time to check over the five stages of grief again.

He was pretty sure he had covered the denial part. When Kirishima had told him about Sero's accident, Kaminari had been sure to plaster a look of disbelief across his face. He had acted like he just couldn't accept what was happening, and had gotten angry and upset when Kirishima had tried to reason with him and explain what happened. He had thought it would be hard to cry like that, but if he really tried hard enough, he found it wasn't as hard as he thought it might be.

Plus, what made it even better was that everyone in the courtyard had seen it. They would all think that Kaminari was completely torn over Sero, and not only would that make all this more believable, it would also make it harder to consider him a suspect if the police ever did come to a conclusion that Sero had been pushed.

He was pretty sure his favorite part about grief was the anger part, though. For once he could finally lash out at all these people that he had been forced to endure this whole time and no one would think twice about it. Dealing with everyone in this class for nine months had been straight-up hell, and the fact that he could just avoid them and hit them if they tried to bother him was pretty great so far.

He wasn't sure when it should end; maybe some emotional closure thing or something. Knowing Kirishima, he would get fed up with Kaminari's behavior soon enough and maybe Kaminari could break down or something, and that would lead to the depression stage. As much as he wanted this anger stage to keep going, he knew he would have to move on eventually.

Kaminari was pretty sure internal bleeding had pretty much covered signs of electrocution, but there as a high chance there would still be burns on his body. Of course, even if it was traced back to a student, the burns would widen it more to people with heat or light based quirks as opposed to just him, which would make people like Todoroki and Bakugo suspects as well. If he acted distraught enough, then it would probably lower people's thoughts of it being him, and he would be in the clear.

Besides, when people looked at him they didn't see "murderous." They saw idiotic and ridiculous, too stupid to figure out how a lot of things worked. They would probably never suspect him for something of this degree. So altogether, if he played his cards right, he figured he would be pretty much in the clear. He just had to keep his guard up, make sure to cover up any holes, and most important of all, not get caught.

"Hey Kaminari, we're here," Mina said gently, jolting Kaminari out of his thoughts. Looking up, Kaminari saw the large white building looming before them, looking surprisingly gloomy against the gray December sky.

Taking a deep breath, Kaminari fell into line behind everyone else, and stepped inside.

⁽¹⁾Shokupan—a type of Japanese toast, typically thicker than average bread and very fluffy

Chapter Text

Bakugou didn't have anything against hospitals.

He never had any reason to. He had heard of people who were for whatever reason afraid of hospitals or just felt uneasy in them, and he never understood them. He had always thought of them as nothing more than big buildings with a bunch of sick or injured people inside; in fact, he would be lying if he said he had never put anyone in here.

But now, as he sat on the uncomfortable teal couch of the hospital waiting room, the whirring air conditioner one of the only noises in the quiet white room as he was surrounded by the faces of sad, tired looking people, he could admit he was beginning to feel a little uneasy.

Crossing his arms, Bakugou slid down in his seat, giving a small huff. Now that he was here, he wasn't entirely sure why he had agreed to come. When Kirishima had come to him about visiting Sero last night, he had seemed so different from his usual boisterous and outgoing self. His eyes looked tired and strained, his voice sounding dull and quiet. Bakugou had partly agreed to go so that he could keep an eye on him; it was clear he wasn't taking Sero's incident well.

In fact, no one had exactly taken the whole "Sero Incident" as they were now calling it super well. Glancing over at Ashido, his eyebrows furrowed together. The pink gremlin sat on a couch alongside Kaminari, though from the looks of it neither of them had any intentions of talking. It didn't look like she was really in any condition to talk anyway; even from the other side of the waiting room, it was obvious how nervous and anxious she was. Her eyes couldn't seem to rest; they always seemed to be darting back and forth as if she were constantly watching for something that might sneak up on her. Her posture was stiff and rigid, unlike the slouched and relaxed way she sat a week ago, and every now and then her breathing would randomly quicken. For some reason, she kept on rubbing her arms as if she were cold, even though she was still wearing her coat.

From sharing a floor with her, he had quickly found out about her nightmares; every night she seemed to be waking up crying, and one time she had actually woken up screaming and woken up the whole floor. Bakugou didn't care if she was a girl, he had wanted to beat her ass right then for waking him up at two in the morning. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SCREAMING FOR? IT'S TWO IN THE MORNING YOU FUCKING BITCH!" He had yelled, slamming open his door. By that point, everyone else had woken up to Mina's screaming, the girl now sitting in the hallway with Uraraka and Kirishima on either side of her.

The fear in her eyes was undeniable; it gleamed as plain as the sun as she sat there, breathing quickly as Kirishima and Uraraka tried to comfort her. As Bakugou shot out of his room, Ashido suddenly just completely broke down, her body shaking as she started sobbing uncontrollably. For a moment, Bakugou didn't say anything. Typically, Ashido was very tough and bouncy; if he yelled at her like that any other time she would usually just laugh it off, but tonight she just seemed unable to take anything in.

As he did so, Kirishima shot Bakugou a glare, mouthing "what the hell, dude?" before going back to trying to comfort Ashido. Bakugou was pretty sure they were cutting her a bit too much slack, considering she had just woken up fucking screaming, but he found that he couldn't make his voice say it. Maybe it was staying in the dorms making him soft, but for some reason he found himself feeling just a little bit bad for her. Rather than screaming some more, Bakugou only released a huff and went back to his dorm, slamming the door in his wake.

Now, as he gazed at her from across the hospital waiting room, looking like she was constantly afraid of something, Bakugou realized that he was pretty sure seeing Sero's body had been too much for her and had actually traumatized her. That would explain her nervous, almost paranoid attitude and constant nightmares. If it wasn't handled quickly, it could turn into something bigger, like PTSD.

Of course, Kirishima wasn't faring much better. He had taken this whole week to make sure Mina and Kaminari were keeping their heads above water that he hadn't taken any time to care for himself. Dark eye bags were starting to become a normal part of his face, and he had been getting so little sleep that he was starting to doze off in class a lot more than he used to. Not only that, but while he was making sure everyone else was doing alright, he was dealing with his own worry and grief. This whole time they had no idea if Sero was going to even live or not, and that had resulted in endless frustration and uncertainty from Kirishima.

Bakugou knew how Kirishima worked. If there was a problem, he wanted to be able to do something about it. All this sitting and waiting for a response from the hospital was making him anxious and angry. A few times, Bakugou would hear loud yells of and thumping noises from Kirishima's dorm next door as the redhead took out his frustration and anger at being so helpless out on his punching bag, and from the sound of it he wasn't taking it easy and avoiding using his quirk, either.

If he was being honest, Bakugou was a little worried about him, even if he would never say it. Between neglecting to take care of himself so that he could make sure everyone else was doing okay and constantly being angry and worried, the idiot was going to kill himself. And he had told him that too, but even when he said things like, "idiot, calm down. You're gonna kill yourself," Kirishima would only brush it off like it was a fly buzzing near his ear.

Then again, Kaminari was on an entirely different level altogether. Eyebrows furrowing together, Bakugou glanced at Kaminari, who, despite he was sharing a couch with Ashido, had barricaded himself in a corner away from everyone else. Honestly, the guy was so simpleminded Bakugou didn't know he had it in him to act that way, but damn. The guy had been so badass this entire week that everyone had just started to kind of avoid him. He was snapping at and lashing out at everyone who tried to comfort him or get close to him, and the rest of the time he would just hang out by himself with this angry look on his face.

Honestly, it was all kind of weird to Bakugou. He understood that Kaminari was upset, but it seemed like he was just angry. Nothing else. He had heard of the five stages of grief, but still. Kirishima was angry, but he wasn't a complete asshole to everyone. In fact, Kaminari was basically that guy that was "everyone's friend". He just really couldn't see him becoming a completely different person and acting like a complete asshole to everyone. He couldn't explain it; the whole thing just seemed...off to him.

"Hey guys, we can go to Sero's room now," Kirishima suddenly said, stepping away from the front desk and jolting Bakugou out of his thoughts. With a huff, Bakugou stood up, grabbing his coat and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Let's get this over with," he grumbled, brushing past Ashido and Kaminari as he headed towards Kirishima. As he did though, he felt a small stone of anxiety settle in his stomach. He wasn't really sure how he felt about Sero's Incident; maybe a few months ago if anyone had asked him, he would have said he didn't give a shit what happened to tape boy. But recently, these last few months had been...weird.

It was mainly Kirishima dragging him into it, but recently he had been hanging out with Ashido, Kaminari, and Sero a lot more. At first, it was just annoying as fuck, but now he wouldn't call them friends per say. He just actually knew who they were and didn't make threats to blow them all to hell if when annoyed him. Still, when he heard about Sero, it had felt like someone had squeezed his gut, leaving him with just this deep feeling of raw anger that he couldn't really explain. Not that he would admit it, though.

Tapping his foot impatiently, Bakugou watched as everyone slowly got to their feet, Jirou helping Mina up. At one point, Ojiro tried to help Kaminari up, which Bakugou thought was a really stupid thing to do. You would think a guy would learn his lesson after being burned, but apparently, Ojiro still thought that helping was a good idea. However, at least he didn't look quite as surprised when Kaminari expectantly slapped his hand away, just a little hurt. Well, what did he expect? Bakugou thought, rolling his eyes. Still, the cold look Kaminari regarded him with afterward made Bakugou regard him with a suspicious look.

As Kirishima walked over to the group, Bakugou noticed something was off about him. Looking closely, he noticed the prominent dark bags under his red-rimmed eyes and the way they looked slightly glazed over as if he was still half asleep. His posture was slightly slouched over like there was a weight tied to his back but he was doing his best to stand up straight, and his speech was peppered with exhausted yawns.

"Hey, Weird Hair," Bakugou grumbled, nudging him as everyone got to their feet. "You look like shit. Have you been sleeping lately?"

"What? Oh, uh, yeah. Sure," he replied absentmindedly, rubbing his eyes as he gave a small yawn. "Yeah, yeah, um, I've been sleeping alot. Don't worry about it."

Bakugou only glared as Kirishima unsuccessfully tried to stifle another yawn. The fact that he was lying was about as obvious as his eye bags.

"You're gonna fucking kill yourself. How long did you even sleep last night?" He grumbled, looking Kirishima dead in the eye.

For a few moments, Kirishima didn't say anything, only stared at the ground. "Long enough," he finally muttered, trying to dodge the question.

"How long, dammit?"

"I dunno...maybe two or three hours?"

"The hell, idiot...just go to sleep already," Bakugou grumbled, smacking Kirishima upside the head. This whole Sero business was starting to take a serious toll on him. He was pretty sure the redhead was going off of that same amount of sleep every night; probably a little less some nights. He wasn't even sure how he had made it from the dorms to the hospital. Bakugou swore he would hold him down by the neck in the bed if that was what it took to get him to actually get some decent rest.

"Look, dude, can we talk about this later?" Kirishima mumbled, waving his hand dismissively as everyone started to gather around. His frown deepening, Bakugou shot Kirishima one last glare, but still backed off. Right now they were here to see Sero, and Bakugou could understand that, but he was damned if he didn't tear into Kirishima's ass about this whole thing later.

Besides, even if he was exhausted, Bakugou could tell that something else was bothering him. He didn't know what it was, but after that talk with the receptionist at the front desk and going through all that paperwork, his steps seemed heavier than they were on the way to the hospital. It was like there was an extra set of weights tied to his shoulders, making it harder for him to walk. Even when he was talking to Bakugou, his voice had cracked a little as he asked if they could talk about this later. As he realized this, a stone of anxiety settled in Bakugou's stomach. Oh shit...what the hell happened?

"Okay guys...before we go in, there are a few things you guys should know about Sero's condition." Kirishima went on, sitting down on the nearest chair. "You guys can sit down." Glancing around, Bakugou reluctantly sat back down, and everyone else soon did the same until they were sitting in a sort of makeshift circle in the hospital waiting room.

"Alright, so...you guys know that up until now, they haven't told us what Sero's condition is, right?" Kirishima finally said, twining his fingers together nervously.

"Yeah," Ashido piped up, squeezing Jirou's shoulder a little tighter.

"Well...uh...while I was filling out the paperwork, they told me, and um..." suddenly, Kirishima stopped, his voice shaking as he tried to recompose himself. Bakugou felt his stomach twist into a knot. Kirishima hardly ever got choked up like that. Something was wrong.

For a few moments, the only sound was the whirring of the air conditioner and quiet talking of the receptionists at the front desk as Kirishima got ahold of himself, then turned to face everyone again and went on.

"So...yeah, they told me what Sero's condition was and um...he's not doing so great." Kirishima managed to go on, looking down at his lap rather than meeting everyone's gaze. Suddenly, it felt as if the temperature in the room had dropped a few degrees, leaving everyone in stone cold silence. For some reason, Bakugou found that he wasn't quite sure he wanted to hear what Kirishima had to say next. He watched as Ojiro tensed up a little bit, and Mina clenched her fists as a look of worry crossed over her face. Kaminari...he wasn't quite sure what Kaminari was feeling. He looked like he was worried, or maybe in disbelief, but under that, there was an emotion that Bakugou couldn't quite place his finger on.

"Well? What's wrong with him?" Jirou pried, though she obviously looked uncomfortable as well.

"Come on, just spit it out already," Bakugou grumbled, though even he was a little bit nervous.

Glancing over at Bakugou, Kirishima took a deep breath and finally continued. "Well, when the ambulance got there, Sero was pretty close to death at that point. They had to give him two adrenaline shots to restart his heart, and they had to act right away to make sure his brain still functioned and stuff. But um...they couldn't do everything, and Sero...um...well, Sero still hasn't woken up yet."

"He hasn't woken up yet? But it's been like, week!" Ashido cried in disbelief, her eyebrows shooting up a mile.

Kirishima gave a small nod, refusing to look up. As he spoke, he twiddled his fingers together nervously, as if he needed something to distract himself from what he was saying. "Yeah...he's been pretty much unresponsive to everything. He hasn't even woken up a little bit, and his condition hasn't really improved, so the doctors think that he's in...I mean, for now anyway, until his condition probably improves, or he shows signs of response, or I mean—"

"Spit it out, dammit." Bakugou hissed, already getting impatient as anxiety twisted around like a knot in his stomach.

Kirishima glanced at Bakugou one more time, then bit his lip and looked back down. "I mean, they're pretty sure that...that Sero is in a coma."

It was like a blanket of shock had suddenly been draped over the room. Kirishima was trying to hold it together, but between not getting enough sleep and neglecting caring for himself to make sure everyone else was alright, Bakugou could tell that this was a lot for him to handle. Small tears dotted the corner of his eyes, and his voice cracked as he spoke.

For Bakugou himself, it felt as if all the air had been sucked out of his lungs. A coma...for some reason, he found that harder to wrap his head around than he expected. With Sero being in the hospital with no word on him for so long, he had figured something was wrong, but he hadn't imagined this. Instantly, he thought of people in media like books or movies who went into comas for months or years at a time, and in some cases where the patient never woke up.

Not like I care about the little shit or anything,  Bakugou quickly thought, but his hands slowly balling into fists told him otherwise.

However, compared to everyone else his reaction was minor. As soon as the words slipped past Kirishima's lips, a gasp escaped Ashido as her hands flew to her mouth. Tears almost instantly started streaming down her face in sort of a soundless crying, which somehow made it harder to watch than if she was loudly making a scene. Turning away, she buried her face in Jirou's shoulder, while Jirou herself sort of just stared ahead as if she were trying to comprehend what Kirishima had said.

Ojiro didn't say anything, but as his expression morphed to disbelief and he pressed his lips into a tight line, looking down at the floor as if he couldn't meet anyone's eyes, he didn't really have to.

Bakugou tried to look over at Kaminari, but he didn't get the chance to. The only thing he caught was a glimpse of panic cross over his face before he sprang up from the couch, racing over to the front desk.

"Kaminari!" Kirishima suddenly cried, snapping awake, but Kaminari was already at the desk, hurriedly asking the lady at the front, "which room is Hanta Sero in?" In no time at all, the electric blond was racing through the hall, his sneakers slapping on the tile flooring as Kirishima leaped up from his seat, quickly racing after him.

"Dammit..." Bakugou mumbled, feeling his heart pounding in his chest as he instinctively threw himself up from his own chair. Sprinting out of the waiting room, Bakugou raced down the hallway Kirishima and Kaminari had taken trying to track down the two of them. He had no idea what the hell was going on with Kaminari, but he could swear the guy was on the verge of an emotional breakdown, and Kirishima had pretty much taken it upon himself to watch out for him. But then again, Kirishima recently hadn't been so stable himself. With one on the verge of an emotional breakdown and the other on the verge of a physical one, Bakugou had no idea what would happen.

Racing past closed doors and carts through the blindingly white halls, Bakugou thought he heard Mina, Ojiro, and Jirou rounding up behind him, but he wasn't sure, and even if he was, he didn't really care. Right now, his brain was honed in on tracking down Kirishima and Kaminari. Right now, the only way he knew which direction they were going in was the echoes of footsteps and Kirishima occasionally calling out Kaminari's name.

It felt like his mind was racing in a million directions at once, each one screaming at him and drowning out his own thoughts. In fact, that was probably for the best. If he allowed himself to think, even for a moment, to just digest what was happening...nevermind that. Feet pounding on the floor, Bakugou rounded a corner and flew up a small flight of stairs into another hallway, before finally, sweaty and out of breath, he found Kirishima, disappearing into an open doorway.

As soon as he realized he was fine, Bakugou released a breath he didn't even know was having. However, as soon as he had a minute to process what had happened, he quickly felt that relief dissipate into white-hot rage.

"YOU DUMBASS! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, JUST RUNNING THROUGH THE FUCKING HOSPITAL LIKE THAT!" He exclaimed, already spiraling into an angry rage as he marched towards the door. Feeling explosions crackling in his palms of his hands, stormed into the room, already preparing how he was going to tear into Kirishima, before stopping short.

As he stepped into the room, he felt the explosions in his hands quickly stopped as soon as they had started. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of his chest by a high-pressure vacuum, leaving him only with this crushing feeling of rage in his chest. But oddly enough, this wasn't the kind of rage he had felt at Kirishima only moments ago. This was a different rage, a kind of rage that made him not quite sure who he was angry at, but still filled his head all the same, made him want to kick or punch something. But oddly enough, he felt that this time, kicking a few walls wouldn't help.

There, laying on a hospital bed in the middle of the room, was Sero.

Only thing is, it wasn't really  Sero. If you had come up to Bakugou and told him that that was a cousin or a sibling or anything along those lines, he wouldn't have batted an eye. The person before him was so different from the guy who had only a week ago been trying to build a tower that reached the ceiling out of Popsicle sticks and his tape or coming up with different pranks to pull on Kaminari and Kirishima.

His body was a patchwork of tubes and wires, everything seeming to be hooked up to something big and beeping. His face was a ghostly pale, his black eyes locked shut as an air mask provided air to his nose and mouth. He almost looked like he was already dead; in fact, if it wasn't for the beeping machine showing his heartbeat, Bakugou would have had absolutely no problem believing he was dead.

The way he laid on the hospital bed, he just looked so peaceful and quiet, as if he were only sleeping. Somehow, knowing the truth only made it worse, like it was some kind of cruel joke.

At the foot of his bed, Kaminari stood, looking as if he had just seen a ghost. His fingers clasped the plastic foot of the bed, wrapped so tight around it that his knuckles were starting to turn white as if he were using it just to keep himself standing. His golden eyes were so wide that you could easily see the white around his irises, and small tears dotted the corners, threatening to spill over.

At the side of the bed was Kirishima, and while he didn't look like he was about to cry, his eyes were wide and his hand covered his mouth in an unreadable expression, but no doubt it wasn't exactly good.

As Ojiro, Jirou, and Mina finally burst through the door, the silence was quickly broken as soon as they stepped into the room. The second Mina saw Sero, she let out a loud yelp before covering her mouth with her hands, tears brimming in her eyes.

As soon as Jirou saw him, she released a small gasp. "Oh my gosh..." she muttered, placing a shocked hand over her chest.

As he saw Sero, Ojiro stiffened, his expression taking on one of horror.

As the three of them entered, it seemed to break whatever spell had been over the room, and Kaminari's chest starting rising and falling rapidly as his breaths quickened, still clasping the footboard of the bed. Tears finally started to fall from his eyes, running down his cheeks in rivers.

Hearing his heavy breathing, Kirishima glanced over at Kaminari, his expression falling into one of pity as he looked at him. "Oh, Kaminari..."

He didn't get to finish, though. Before he could complete whatever he had been saying, Kaminari lunged over, wrapping his arms around him in a large embrace. For a moment, Kirishima stiffened, obviously surprised from the change in Kaminari's attitude of "just wanting to be left alone," but as his friend started to shake with quiet sobs, he finally hugged him back, allowing his own tears to fall.

If Bakugou hadn't been feeling that something was weird about these past few days, he would have missed it.

Had he just ignored the odd pattern of Kaminari's behavior, he wouldn't have watched the sudden hug closely, just to watch.

But he did. And as he did, he saw a small smirk on the corner of Kaminari's lips.

It wasn't a sad smirk or a smirk of finally being hugged by a friend. It was kind of smug smirk, a kind of smirk that went with something Bakugou couldn't place his finger on.

And for reasons he couldn't explain, seeing it sent shivers down his spine.

Chapter Text

"Kirishima. Kirishima!"

It took a few moments before Mr. Aizawa's words finally registered in Kirishima's ears. If it was any other teacher, Kirishima probably would have woken up to maybe a strong shake on the shoulder or someone yelling in his ear. Those were normal, rational approaches to the situation. He had little time to comprehend what Mr. Aizawa was even saying before he felt a strong whip on his back, causing him to shoot up in surprise.

Instantly, the redhead's eyes flew open as he felt the painful smack, instantly sitting up straight in his chair. What the hell? He thought, his mind suddenly shooting in a million directions at once, but as he saw his teacher's scarf slinking away from him like a snake and the way Mr. Aizawa's eyes burned into him, he realized with a pang of embarrassment what had happened.

Damn it,  he thought, feeling his face flush red as silence filled the classroom, the gazes of his classmates sinking into him. The only noise seemed to be the loud pounding of his heart in his chest, drowning out any rational thoughts as he clutched the pencil tighter in his fist.

He had told himself he was going to stop falling asleep in class. Up until now, he had tried to never be that kid. He remembered back in middle school, there had always been a few kids at the back of the class who would always try to sneak in a nap and never actually pay attention, always trying out these new methods like hiding their face behind a textbook or covering their eyes with their hands.

He would be lying if he said he hadn't tried out a few himself, but recently it had gotten a whole lot worse. He had never slept in class that much, but for the past week it had gotten a lot worse. Ever since the Sero Incident and he had started to get less and less sleep, staying awake in general was becoming more and more difficult. However, sitting through lecture after lecture sitting in the same place for hours on end was starting to make staying awake in class nearly impossible.

"Kirishima, we've been over this." Mr. Aizawa hissed, his voice having the sharp edge of someone who was on the verge of snapping at him out of sheer frustration.

Stomach churning, Kirishima winced as he stared down at his empty notebook, his face burning with embarrassment. "S-Sorry, Mr. Aizawa," he stuttered, trying his best to speak over the lump in his throat. He typically wasn't this timid when speaking out in class, but recently his brain felt like Kaminari after he short-circuited himself.

Glowering a little bit, Mr. Aizawa shot one last glance at Kirishima, before turning back to the board, his voice once again filling the classroom as everyone slowly returned their attention to the teacher.

Biting his lip, Kirishima grabbed his pencil, trying to shift his attention back to the board. Right then, he just wanted to kick himself. He couldn't afford to be dozing off in class, especially not at a time like this. With the end of semester exams creeping up on him, the last thing he needed to be doing right now was to stop paying attention. He already wasn't doing super hot school-wise, considering he was ranked in the bottom five of the class grade system. These exams were just what he needed to boost his GPA right about now, and while he wasn't really sure if they would be doing the same thing as last time for the practical, the least he could do was try to ace the written part of the exam.

He knew that he wasn't going to do as well as say, Yaoyorozu or Bakugou, but he at least wanted to do better than he did last time. Scoring number 15 in a class of 20 students may not have been as bad as Kaminari or Ashido, but even so, it was still pretty bad. Still, as Mr. Aizawa went on talking, he could already feel his eyelids growing heavier as his brain wavered between consciousness.

Come on dude, wake up!  He scolded himself, stabbing the back of his hand with the pencil. As soon as he did, a sharp jolt of pain shot through it, instinctively causing him to harden his hand, but not after the pencil had caused him a little bit of pain. Even if it warranted a strange look from Asui beside him, it was enough to keep him up at least a little bit.

Was it weird that he was more exhausted after he woke up than he was before he had fallen asleep? Recently, his meals had consisted mostly of coffee and Red Bulls, which he figured wasn't the best way to do things, but it was better than nothing. Right after drinking a Red Bull, he would feel this surge of energy which would allow him to be more alert and focused, for at least a few hours, which was probably why he kept chugging it so much. However, after two or four hours he would start to feel even more exhausted than he was before he drank it, which was why he was starting to drink it more and more often.

Between studying for exams and trying to watch out for Ashido and Kaminari, he had been cutting back on sleep to make more time for more important things. He had never really been into caffeinated energy drinks, but at this point, it was the only thing keeping him functioning.

He would be lying if he said that he and Sero hadn't been pretty close. Kirishima was friends with pretty much most of the people he came across, but Sero was different. Along with people like Kaminari, Bakugou, and Ashido, Sero had been—was one of the few close friends that Kirishima could count on. His outgoing and optimistic personality made him easy to talk to, to a point where he could make anything Kirishima had been stressing out about seem not as important, and a little bit easier to think about.

He was usually pretty mischevious, but he had some top-notch skill when it came to training to be a hero, and Kirishima knew that he wanted to be a hero more than anything. The whole Sero incident had almost forced him to think about this, and made him realize how good of a friend Sero had been to him. When he fell out the window, it hurt as if he had been the one who had fallen.

He still remembered the night Sero had been taken to the hospital. Kirishima had gone to bed a little past midnight, but even then he didn't go to sleep. His brain had been too active. There was too much to think about, too much to comprehend. To think about how something this bad could happen to Sero so soon after he had just spoken to him seemed...almost surreal. Sero was a good person. Something like this couldn't just happen. There had to be a reason, something or someone to blame for this. To just live without some sort of verdict or reason was going to cost him his sanity.

He had tried to think through everyone who came to mind, but Kirishima couldn't blame any of them if he wanted to. Bakugou had been the one who picked out the movie Battle Royale, which had already made Sero uncomfortable to begin with, but that was his movie that he had chosen to pick out. Kirishima couldn't get mad at him for that. Kaminari had failed to answer any of Ashido's texts, which had ultimately led up to Sero's Incident, but sometimes Kaminari was just like that. Kirishima had to admit that his friend's intelligence was a bit below-par, so of course, it shouldn't have surprised him that he hadn't picked up the texts.

No, it wasn't manly at all to blame anyone else for what happened. If he wanted to think about what could have gone differently, he had to think about what he could have done

And then it hit him.

He  was the one who made a big deal about Kaminari not answering his texts. He was the one who insisted someone go to check on him, even after Bakugou had told him that it was fine. He was paranoid, and he couldn't let it go.

And Sero had paid the price for it.

He came to the conclusion that this was his fault. He didn't care if he was being rational or not. There was something that he could have done to prevent what had happened, something that he could have done. And he didn't.

The thought of that was like a train hitting him straight in the chest. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't see straight. It was as if every atom in his body was being violently ripped apart, leaving only this shell of himself behind. He was the reason Sero was in a coma, the reason Ashido and Kaminari were barely coping. He had to shoulder the blame for it. Him and him alone.

Kirishima didn't think he had gotten any sleep. He had spent the rest of the night slamming his fists into his punching bag over and over again, tears stinging his eyes. The rage and frustration he felt at himself seemed endless, as he just stood there, punching his punching bag, again and again, hating himself every minute of it.

No matter what he did, he couldn't stop thinking that Sero's Incident was his fault. The thought that it was his fault that someone, his friend was hospitalized and in a coma was almost too much for him. Ever since then, it had been all he could to make up for it. It had consumed his every thought, becoming the one thing he could think about. Only thing was, Sero was in the hospital. His fate was in the hands of doctors and nurses and other people who were qualified for that kind of stuff. There was nothing he could do to help.

And the thought of that was tearing him apart. There was no way he could just live with that. He had to do something. He started trading sleep for Red Bulls in order to be there for and look out for people like Ashido and Kaminari. He was pretty sure Ashido was having some sort of a nervous breakdown, which made him feel like his heart was about to explode every time he looked at her. It was all he could to do try and help her out.

Ashido and Sero were pretty close, but right before Sero had fallen they had been hanging out together a lot more often. He had started to make her laugh more than anyone else, and after a conversation with her, Sero would be smiling like he was on cloud 9. It just seemed like they were, plainly put, happier around each other. Kirishima couldn't quite place his finger on it, but he had a feeling that something unseen had changed between them.

After the incident, Ashido seemed like she was barely able to cope, night terrors waking her up every night, always looking some mixture of sad and scared at the same time. Seeing it would always remind Kirishima of the guilt he had chosen to harbor deep inside of him, which was why he had spent so much time with her over the past few days.

Of course, Kaminari wasn't faring much better. Of course, he and Kirishima had always been close, but Sero had seemed like his partner-in-crime. Oftentimes, if you saw one of them, the other probably wasn't far behind. The two of them were always joking, coming up with pranks to pull on everyone in the dorms or doing something else that was probably against the rules. Even if Mr. Aizawa reprimanded them for it or Iida told them exactly why they shouldn't, doing that weird hand-chopping thing the entire time, they would always laugh about it afterward and go to get burgers or talk about their next scheme.

Kirishima still remembered the moment that he had to be the one to tell Kaminari what happened, and the look of disbelief that had crossed his face, the tears that had stung his eyes as fled. After that, it had almost seemed like Kaminari would crumble. His usual smile was gone, his eyes looking dull and tired. For the longest time, he refused to talk to anyone, just pushing everyone who tried to away. In fact, it was only recently, right after seeing Sero yesterday that he had finally broken down and accepted help.

Compared to those things, sleep just didn't seem as important. He had started to trade in hours of sleep for Red Bull in order to have more time to try and help, to do anything. And even if he didn't, he doubted he would be able to sleep anyways.

Kirishima didn't even realize he had started to doze off again until he felt a strong hand roughly shaking his shoulder, jolting him awake.

"Hey shitty hair, wake up," Bakugou grumbled in his ear. "School's over."

"What? Oh, um, yeah, I know," he muttered, trying to clear the fog from his brain as he stood up from his seat. Slinging his backpack onto his shoulder, Kirishima turned to look at Bakugou, forcing a small smile. In all honesty, the last thing he felt like doing was smiling right now. However, for the past few days, he had been trying to put on a brave face. Trying to hide how he felt like he was dying from the inside out.

Looking around, he now saw that the classroom was emptying out, with only about half the class still there. Damn it, he thought, trying to shrink into himself as a few of his classmates glanced at him. Maybe he should just stock up on energy drinks. "Did Ashido and Kaminari...?"

"They left," Bakugou interrupted, not looking at Kirishima as he shrugged his own backpack onto his shoulders. As he spoke, his tone was short and clipped, his eyes staring down at the floor rather than meeting Kirishima. Biting his lip, Kirishima furrowed his eyebrows together.

Over this past week, Kirishima hadn't really been sure what to make of Bakugou in this situation. He was pretty sure he had Bakugou figured out for the most part, but recently he had just been kind of uncertain. He was pretty sure Bakugou only hung out with people like Ashido, Kaminari, and Sero because Kirishima always dragged him into it, not by choice. Maybe he had a slightly higher opinion of them than most of the other people in Class 1-A, but that wasn't saying much considering he still called some of their classmates "extras."

He hadn't really expected him to be completely phased by Sero's hospitalization, not in the way Kaminari and Ashido were. And technically speaking, he wasn't, but it seemed like he was taking it a different way. When Sero had fallen, Bakugou didn't cry or take to a punching bag or anything like that. He just got quiet. Like, really quiet. Kirishima hadn't realized how used he was to Bakugou's constant yelling and cursing until he finally stopped, and he noticed how quiet it was without him constantly yelling. Of course, he still spoke, but it was like he had just forgotten how to talk when unprompted or anything like that. Instead, it was just kind of this silent anger, like he was quietly seething.

However, ever since they had gone to visit Sero at the hospital, it seemed like Bakugou had taken on a different kind of quiet. Kirishima knew how weird that sounded, but it was the only way he could think to describe it. It seemed like he had gone from angry to...Kirishima didn't even know. Of course, he still always seemed angry, being Bakugou and all, but it was like ever since they had left the hospital, his mind had been preoccupied with something else that Kirishima couldn't quite place his finger on.

He barely remembered what had happened at the hospital after they had left. He was already exhausted on the way to the hospital, but with the added guilt that he had chosen to put on himself after seeing what happened to Sero, it was like his body had chosen to shut down. He had practically fallen asleep on the way out. He vaguely remembered walking into a door, and he thought it was then that Bakugou had just decided to buy bus tickets for everyone instead of walking the rest of the way back to campus.

Kirishima didn't exactly protest, but as the bus rumbled over the newly salted roads, Kirishima struggling to stay awake, he noticed that Bakugou had seemed oddly quiet. The ash blonde hadn't said a word, didn't give any indication of anything, just stared out the window, his eyebrows furrowed together as if he were lost in thought. Kirishima would almost describe it as calm, but there was something uneasy about it that made calm not exactly seem like the right word. More like angrily anxious, was the best term he could use to describe it.

He had harbored that feeling with him ever since they had left the hospital, which, although it had seemed a little odd, Kirishima had decided to not address at the moment. Still, as the two of them stepped outside U.A's doors and into the frigid December air, Kirishima spared another glance back at Bakugou, a mixture of curiosity and worry poking at him.

He had no idea how Bakugou would take seeing Sero. At the time, he had been focused mainly on Kaminari and Ashido since they seemed to be the ones phased the most by it, but after visiting Sero, something was definitely bugging Bakugou.

"Hey, uh, Bakugou...are you doing alright? You've seemed kind of quiet, lately," Kirishima asked, forcing another small smile that he hoped didn't look as fake as it felt.

At first, Bakugou didn't say anything, only gave a small huff. As his breath hit the cold air, it billowed out in front of him like a cloud, staying only for a moment or two before ultimately evaporating around them as if it had never been there in the first place. For a moment, his eyes flashed as if he wanted to say something, but apparently decided against it for the moment.

"I'm fine. I've just been thinking about stuff," he grumbled, his voice low and husky as he shoved his hands deeper into his pockets almost defensively.

Kirishima bit the inside of his cheek, giving a small exasperated sigh. He didn't know why Bakugou had to put his guard up all the time; it just made it that much harder to talk to him. Still, he wasn't about to let the topic drop.

"Huh. What kind of stuff?" He continued, trying to sound nonchalant as he kicked a half-frozen rock with the toe of his boot.

Bakugou's frown deepened, though whether that was from anger or thought Kirishima couldn't tell.

"Tape Arms stuff. The hell did you think it was?" He muttered, causing Kirishima's to blush slightly.

"...oh. No, I mean, I figured, I just..." Kirishima stuttered, trying for a small laugh, but when he did it sounded forced and unnatural, feeling wrong even to him. Dropping it, Kirishima looked down at his feet, walking in silence for a moment longer.

"Um...what—what about Sero?" He managed to sputter out, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously.

Bakugou gave a huff from his nose, his breath billowing out in front of him. "The whole thing just seems weird, don't you think?"

Curiously, Kirishima glanced up at Bakugou. To actually have a conversation with him after he had chosen to be quiet for so long felt like a big relief, but at the same time, he couldn't help wondering what he had been thinking about this whole time. After feeling like he had been living in his own head with nothing but his own thoughts for so long, he knew how much that could tend to wear down on you.
"Like...what do you mean by weird?" He inquired, kicking another rock out of the pathway.

"Weird like a lot of stuff doesn't make sense," Bakugou grumbled in response, his eyebrows still locked in a glare. His gaze remained fixed on the frozen ground as they walked as if he were deep in thought.

He didn't give Kirishima time to reply. "Soy Sauce face is annoying as hell, but he's got some pretty good reflexes. Not to mention his quirk is literally built for long range stuff, so I don't see why he didn't just shoot out some tape and grab the window sill or the edge of the roof or something when he fell out," he went on, a sharp edge hinting at his voice.

Kirishima was silent for a moment as they walked. It was true that Sero had pretty fast reflexes; he remembered during the Cavalry Battle at the Sports Festival, Sero had been able to snatch Bakugou out of the air and keep him going without much warning, almost like he instinctively reacted. Plus, there was that time during the final exams when Sero had been paired with Mineta to fight Midnight, and even though he had ended up failing, he had been quick enough to fling Mineta out of the way.

Sighing, Kirishima rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb. "Look Bakugou...I'm not sure why what happened did—" he muttered, trying to keep his voice from cracking. Come on, Eijiro, that's so unmanly, he thought, but even so, he couldn't stop the small squeeze on his heart. However, he couldn't break down now. Especially not in front of Bakugou, when he was just starting to open up. He had to seem like something stable that Bakugou could talk to, and that was the manliest thing he could think of right now. Still, he figured he would be having a session with his punching bag when they arrived at the dorms.

However, before he could finish, Bakugou interrupted him again. "And if he fell, why were all the windows shut? He couldn't just shut the window behind him if he fell out a fucking building," he went on, his voice slowly rising.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Kirishima moved his flat palm downwards to indicate a calming motion. Maybe Bakugou had been more affected than he thought; he was obviously getting a little worked up over this. "Hey dude, calm down—maybe someone just shut the window when they saw it was open but didn't see Sero fall," he said, trying to calm him down a bit, but Bakugou wasn't done yet.

"And how did he even fall out the damned window in the first place? He went to go check on Kaminari, so why the hell would he stick his head out the window or whatever the hell he was doing? " he growled, shaking his head.

"Look, dude, I don't know," Kirishima insisted, facing Bakugou with wide eyes. He had no idea why Bakugou was choosing to overthink all of this now, but if he was honest, Kirishima was starting to get a little worried about him. He didn't know if this was his way of coping or something, but whatever it was, it probably wasn't healthy. He had thought about all the other possible outcomes for this situation over and over again, and each time it never ended well. He couldn't change the past, no matter how much he wanted to. No matter how much it hurt.

"I...I've thought about this more than you know." He managed to get out, trying to sound manly and stable, but even so, his voice cracked a little bit. Unable to meet Bakugou's eyes, Kirishima chose to focus on his bright red boots, but even so, he could feel Bakugou's eyes burning into his neck. For some reason, he got a feeling that he didn't doubt him.

"I wish...I wish that I could change what happened, but I can't. I wish I could understand what happened, but I don't. All I know is that what happened happened, and thinking about it is only going to drive you crazy. So please, just stop." He finally said, burying half his face in his scarf.

"Are you even listening to me? I just feel like there's something weird going on," Bakugou insisted, shooting Kirishima a look. "I mean, yesterday at the hospital, Kaminari was crying, and then he just gave this really creepy smile out of nowhere. Doesn't that seem weird to you?"

For a moment, Kirishima wasn't quite sure he heard him right. In all the stress of the moment, he was starting to just clump everything he said together as some sort of way of him coping with what happened to Sero, but when he mentioned Kaminari, it suddenly stuck out like a sore thumb, unable to miss.

"Wait, Kaminari?" Kirishima asked as if to be certain, but as he looked at Bakugou, he knew that he hadn't misheard him. The look of frustration on his face was undeniable. Frowning, Kirishima's eyebrows wrinkled together, the tears quickly evaporating from his eyes as he looked at Bakugou. Was he seriously dragging Kaminari into this?

"Look, I know what I saw, and I swear this look that Kaminari had—" Bakugou started, but this time it was Kirishima's turn to interrupt him. The sense of worry he had felt for Bakugou had quickly morphed into a feeling of protectiveness for Kaminari as soon as the subject had come up. He still remembered the way his heart felt like it was about to burst when Kaminari flung himself into his arms, the tears streaming down his face. He could never unsee that. He could never ease the pain that Kaminari had felt in that moment, and in the direction Bakugou was going, it was like he was completely ignoring that fact.

"Okay, dude, no. Stop," he said, suddenly stopping in his tracks to glare at Bakugou."You can say what you want about me, about whatever you think should have happened, but leave Kaminari out of this," he growled, his eyes flashing dangerously. He had to nix this now, right now before it escalated.

For a moment, Bakugou went quiet at Kirishima's sudden change of attitude, but he recovered quickly. "Look, I don't care whatever you feel about the moron, because what I saw was this really—"

"Are you KIDDING me?" Kirishima interrupted, feeling his anger quickly rising. Was he being serious right now? "You saw the way he reacted when he found out about Sero's coma! He's still coping with it! And now you're just going to drag him into all your paranoia as if it just didn't happen?"

Glaring, Bakugou met Kirishima's eyes, his lava-colored eyes flashing. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Are you that heartless?" Kirishima countered. Without thinking, it all happened in a flash. He wasn't sure why he did it. Typically, it wasn't very manly to put your hands on one of your friends like this out of anger, but before he could think it though, Kirishima felt himself shoving his hands against Bakugou's chest. He didn't use his quirk or anything like that, but it was enough to push Bakugou backward, startling him.

Wordlessly, Kirishima quickly went ahead of Bakugou, rushing the rest of the way to the dorms. He didn't know why he did it. He hadn't bothered to think it through, but the thought of someone just completely acting like what Kaminari felt didn't matter...it pissed him off. He knew if someone had said the same thing about Ashido, or if Sero felt the same way and someone said that, he would have acted the same way.

He didn't realize how mad he was until he reached out to open the front doors to the dormitory and saw in his reflection in the glass the same cracks and edges that indicated his quirk had worked their way onto his face. Scowling, Kirishima brushed past it and threw open the doors, making a beeline through the commons to the elevator.

He chose to ignore the curious looks that followed him as he stomped across the commons. Right now, he didn't want to pay attention to them. He didn't want to pay attention to anything. His rage at Bakugou clouded his vision right now as he stood, trembling with rage in the elevator. He could admit now that maybe he had overreacted little bit, but right now he didn't care. It was just...after seeing Kaminari so upset like that, he didn't see how Bakugou could still go around calling him a moron and dragging him into whatever thing he had next. Normally, Kirishima could put up with Bakugou's constant picking on Kaminari, but right now, at a time like this...

Hands trembling, Kirishima ran to his dorm as soon as the elevator doors opened, and started to punch his punching bag. Again and again, each time knocking it back further, as if every punch would erase one day until he got back to the day before it happened.

But he couldn't go back.

Tears stinging his eyes, Kirishima only punched harder.

Chapter Text

Sometimes, Kaminari tried to empathize with people. He really did.

He would take a moment to just stand there, try and take in what they were feeling, and really understand it just so he could get a brief bit of knowledge as to why they acted the way they did.

Usually, that didn't really work out in the end.

Kaminari knew that everyone wasn't going to take the Sero Incident, as they were now calling it, very well. He had spent enough time with everyone in Class 1-A, especially Kirishima, Bakugou, Ashido, and of course Sero, to know that they were going to be fairly upset about Sero. The tape guy hadn't exactly been the strongest, but he had managed to actually be nice to people. Personally, Kaminari thought that was kind of dumb since they didn't come to U.A to make friends, and if it had been him in Sero's shoes, he would have pushed all the "glittery rainbows and friendship" to the side and actually gotten down to business.

Of course, he also had Sero to thank. The reaction most people had gotten to Sero's Incident had been so severe that they had actually left Kaminari alone for the most part. Better yet, he could just hitch onto them and try to act like a more severe version of what they were feeling, because according to everyone else he and Sero had been "as close as could be", even if Kaminari couldn't have cared one way or the other.

Even so, it wasn't as if anyone else knew that. For the past few days, everyone had been acting like they had placed Kaminari on a silver pillow. Whenever he thought about it, he almost snickered a little bit at how they were always tip-toeing around him, like they were afraid he would suddenly break down or something. All he had to do was walk all slumped and maybe shed a few tears here and there and suddenly, they were all eating out of his hand.

The amount of sympathy had been endless. Most of it had been from Kirishima, as apparently the guy had chosen to channel his stress about the situation into helping him and Ashido out. Sometimes, Kaminari would "be too distraught to go to dinner" or something like that if he really didn't feel like eating with the dumbasses, and Kirishima would be up there in a second to bring his dinner to him.

However, the dark bags under his eyes spoke volumes, and a lot of times Kaminari would hear him beating his punching bag to a pulp beneath his floor. He remembered one time he had been doing it so loudly that Mr. Aizawa had to march in and tell him to knock it off, but from the sound of it, he was taking it easy on him. Kaminari hadn't been able to read the pro-hero as well as he had been able to read a lot of other people, but he was pretty sure he was being sympathetic towards him. Apparently, Kirishima had absolutely no coping skills, and he didn't bother to make it any secret either. The guy had continuously fallen asleep in class, which Kaminari thought was kind of pathetic.

Of course, Ashido wasn't faring much better. After just one talk with her, he had figured she was pretty much out of the picture for the moment. After finding Sero's body, she was shaken up pretty badly. How someone could be so soft as to let something as small as that get to them so much was beyond him, but he had managed to keep his mouth shut.

Even so, it was pretty obvious she had developed PTSD. He was actually appalled that no one else had come to that conclusion yet. It was almost amusing to watch her, like watching videos of those cats freak out and jump away from cucumbers. She always seemed to be on edge, like she just couldn't relax at any moment. Even when she was sitting down, she always sat on the edge of her seat, like she was ready to bolt and run at any moment, and she always had this undertone of nervousness on her face. There would also be times when she would just start hyperventilating out of nowhere. A few times she had started without warning in class, and she would have to leave the room it got so bad.

She was even starting to lash out a little bit; though not as much as Kaminari had, which made him wonder if he had overdone it. Even if he did, no one seemed to notice, and anyways he enjoyed it quite a bit, so it had all worked out. But Ashido was doing it in much smaller ways, such as one time when Kirishima would sometimes ask her if she was doing alright and peppering her with questions, and out of nowhere she had just snapped and said, "I'm fine, alright?"

When she said it, it came out harsh and raw, as if she was just agitated he was asking her these questions. Her temper was getting shorter and shorter and she would lash out more frequently, though whenever she did Kirishima seemed to leave it at that like he was afraid she might splash him with her acid the way Kaminari had shocked him.

Observing her actually been very helpful to Kaminari. He wasn't really sure how to act in this situation, considering he wasn't really sure how to grieve properly. So instead, he just tried to imitate Ashido. Of course, he couldn't imitate everything she did, in case people got suspicious, but he made sure to try and keep to the same guidelines. It was almost as if he had a trauma reference, which had helped him out in more ways than he could imagine.

He tried to take on Ashido's irritability, which wasn't very hard, since now if he just didn't feel like talking with anyone, he could just snap, "I'm fine," harshly, and everyone would just leave him alone like that. If he was being honest, the irritability and anger were most of what he had chosen to use, but every now and then he would try to throw in some tears here and there.

And for the most part, it had worked. The amount of sympathy he had received was endless, from various students. However, the one he found the most interesting results in through all of this was Jirou.

If he was being honest, he had never really thought particularly highly of her. She was basically one of those punk-rock kids Kaminari always found annoying who listened to things like Panic! At the Disco and wore a lot of black and fishnet stockings thinking it made them look 'dark and edgy' for no apparent reason. She was smart, but not that smart, being ranked at about a seven in class 1-A's grades, and needed a bit of help herself when it came to studying. When Mr. Aizawa had analyzed everyone's quirks at the beginning of the year, she had been ranked at seventeen out of twenty students, so she wasn't even all that powerful.

She seemed to like hanging out with him but had a weird way of showing it, considering she always acted like an ass to him. Most of the time their interactions included her making fun of him and his intelligence, which Kaminari chose not to worry about since it meant he was succeeding in maintaining his cover, but either way she was still kind of an asshole to him.

It was only over the past few days that her behavior had unexpectedly changed. Ever since Sero had been hospitalized, Kaminari had been trying to act all traumatized and depressed and shit like everyone else was, which apparently had caused Jirou to act...not as harsh as she normally was. She was being a lot gentler if you could call it that like she was actually worried about him. The concern in her eyes whenever she spoke to him was impossible to miss, which always Kaminari feel a surge of triumph.

However, it wasn't until the day they had gone to visit Sero at the hospital that Kaminari had noticed something else about Jirou's behavior. After they had arrived back at the dorms, everyone apparently had their own way of dealing with it. Ashido had decided to go straight to her room to do hell knows what, probably start crying again or something. Kirishima had fallen asleep on the bus, which didn't really surprise Kaminari since he was already half asleep just standing in the hospital.

When the bus pulled up, he didn't show any signs of waking up, and Bakugou didn't seem to have any intentions of waking him. Instead, he only put the redhead wordlessly on his back so that Kirishima's head rested against his, his legs crossed over his stomach. "Dumbass needs to sleep for once," he had explained when they all gave him a few looks as they stepped inside the elevator.

Kaminari had remained mostly quiet during all this, his hands tucked inside the pockets of his hoodie as he tried to look as upset as possible. He had forced himself to cry so that his eyes were red and glassy, and he kept his eyes focused on the floor.

When the elevator finally shuddered to a stop, and the doors opened with a small ding, Kaminari quickly stepped out into the hallway, Ojiro and Jirou following close behind him. Ojiro had looked at him as if he wanted to say something, then sighed sadly and stepped into his own room. Soon enough it was only Kaminari and Jirou left in the hallway.

If he was being honest, Jirou had intrigued Kaminari during their hospital visit. Not enough to make her the center of his attention, but still enough to grab it. The whole time she had kept glancing at him as if she were studying him, and when he had broken down crying in Sero's hospital room, she had this distraught look across her face that he couldn't quite place.

Now, as Kaminari walked down the hall towards his dorm room, and the elevator doors closed behind them, Jirou stood in the middle of the hallway, not moving a muscle. Her dark pixie bob hair framed her face, a Fleetwood Mac jacket that was obviously too big for her hanging unzipped off of her shoulders, the too-long sleeves covering up her hands. With her petite frame and still posture, she almost looked like a china doll, able to break at any moment.

"Hey...Kaminari?" She finally managed to get out. Her voice was shaky, uncertain. Kaminari stopped, his hand hovering about his doorknob.

"What is it?" Kaminari had asked, feeling slight annoyance prick at him. Really, he didn't feel like talking with her right now, but he managed to make his voice sound dejected enough to hide it.

Jirou looked up, her onyx eyes swirling. It had almost taken him by surprise; he was so used to her being bitter and tense that for a moment, he felt his curiosity pricked. Crossing her too-long sleeves over her too-small chest, she slowly approached him, her boots making soft thumps with each footfall on the thin carpet. Kaminari was about four inches taller than her, so she had to look up, but as soon as she did her face flushed red and she looked back down at her feet.

For a while, she just stood there, looking at her boots in complete silence, until Kaminari rolled his eyes. This was stupid; he really didn't have time for it.

He turned back around, reached for his doorknob. "Look, Jirou, I don't feel like standing here forever, so if you—"

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

Her words came out so fast, it took a moment for Kaminari to register them. And when he did, he still wasn't sure he heard them right. "Wait...what?"

Jirou's face flushed even redder, still refusing to meet his eyes. "Dammit, dumbass, I said I'm sorry, alright?"

There was a moment of silence as Kaminari stood there, staring at her. He heard what she said, of course, but the words seemed to be a million miles away, something that could never be possible. For some reason, Kaminari would have never linked this Jirou, standing here like this in the hallway, with the Jirou making fun of his grades in the commons a week ago. They just didn't fit the same picture.

"I...I'm sorry for like...making fun of you and stuff. It probably didn't feel...you know, great, and...if you ever need to...you know, talk or something..."

Then, Jirou did something completely unexpected. In a single quick, fluid motion, the young girl lunged forward, wrapping her arms around Kaminari as she pressed her cheek into his chest. He felt her warm face press against the Pikachu face on his hoodie, her heart thumping so quickly in her chest that it seemed like it would pop onto the floor.

As quickly as she had done it, Jirou released him, and with a final nod, raced down the hall back to own dorm, leaving Kaminari standing in the hall for a moment longer. And that's when it hit him. It was as if everything had fallen into place like he had finally found the last piece to finish the puzzle. It was so obvious, he was appalled he didn't see it sooner. Apparently, Jirou had developed a crush on him.

As soon as he realized it, and he was alone in the hallway, he gave a small smirk.

He himself had never allowed himself to fall in love, and he wasn't even sure he could if he wanted to. He had done the research though, and he was pretty sure being in love was like some sort of emotional drug, and statistically speaking, it hardly ever worked out in the end. Especially with short, teenage love. The thing with Jirou seemed ridiculous, but if he thought about it, depending on how strong he was, he might be able to use it to his advantage.

He thought it was almost hilarious how it had worked out. He had been worried that this Sero Incident would be what forced him to abandon his job, but in all actuality, it was going better than expected. Everyone around him was in no condition emotionally to look out for anything suspicious. He had been believable enough to get someone to develop feelings for him—or rather, this fake version of him. Better yet, he was in a position where everyone was caught up with him feeling sad and miserable that they would have never thought that he could have done something like that.

Then again, Sero probably would have thought that too. And he had been able to find out the truth.

Eyebrows scrunching together, Kaminari sat up on his bed, jolted back to reality. Sunlight streamed in from his open curtains, creating floating dust moats throughout his dorm room. The leopard-print striped sheets on his bed wrinkled as he adjusted himself so that his back was resting against the wall. He scowled as he looked around; as soon as he left, this tacky bedroom was one thing he wasn't going to miss. He wasn't sure how long Shigaraki wanted him to stay here, but it certainly didn't help that he had to look at a bunch of eye-sore decorations all day.

As he sat on a bed, he tossed a small metal sphere from one hand to the other, the ball making a dull thudding noise as it landed in his palms. It was a tedious, small task that didn't offer much stimulation, like the usual excitement that came with poking at animals with pins or blades, but it allowed him to think. These past few days, he had been thinking. A lot. Typically, he didn't tend to worry about things too much; he found that oftentimes, things played right into his hands. He had never really needed to worry about anything much. However, this past week it had felt like a ball of nervous stress had knotted itself in his stomach.

So far, Sero hadn't woken up yet. The doctor had no update on his current status: he showed no signs of waking up, at least for now. However, Kaminari knew that when he did, everything would go to hell. He wished he could say that Sero wouldn't remember any of what happened that night, but in all actuality, many electrocutions and trauma victims remembered everything up until the moment they blacked out.

Besides, as soon as he woke up and was fully conscious, he would be wrapped up in a hoard of questionings: what had happened that night, what had led to him falling out the window, anything that would basically allow everything to be completely placed together so they could deduce exactly what had happened that night, and understand what kind of damage they were dealing with.

Kaminari had this tiny sliver of hope that if that did happen, Sero wouldn't rat him out. He would think that whatever happened was a hallucination or anything along those lines, or even better he would die as soon as he came out of the coma, but of course, that was just a hope. In these scenarios, nothing could be left to chance.

The time that comas lasted typically tended to vary. Of course, there were cases of comas lasting years and years, but those were very rare and didn't happen as often as most people thought. In fact, most comatose victims woke up after maybe one or two weeks, sometimes five.

The bottom line was that there was someone out there who knew what Kaminari was doing. If he had his doubts before, they had surely been put in check after Kaminari had electrocuted him. He knew what was happening. And that was something Kaminari couldn't let happen. If Sero ratted on him, then this whole operation would be over before he even had the time to gain as much information as possible.

No, if he was going to keep this charade up, he had to take matters into his own hands. This entire thing seemed like a game, and if he was going to win, he had to simply take one of the variables off the table.

He had been thinking about this for a while, and at this point, he knew exactly what he was going to do. He may not have been able to knock Sero off once before, but he wouldn't let it happen again.

He hadn't let all this time he had been able to spend by himself go to waste. Not only was he building upon the "traumatized friend" idea by choosing to spend so much time by himself, he had also been spending this time doing quite a bit of research. He wouldn't be able to just go in there and simply stab him in the chest if he wanted Sero off the table. No, what he had to do had to be sleek, quiet, and most importantly of all, undetectable.

It had taken him a minute to actually come up with something. He was so used to thinking about big, much more violent ways to kill someone ever since he had started living with the League of Villains, such as how to properly slit a throat or how much force to apply in order to snap their spine. Thinking of quieter ways to knock someone off didn't seem nearly as exciting, but it was all he had to work with.

He had done a lot of research over the past few days, comparing notes from previous murders and suicides, and how hard it was to determine the cause. It had taken a while, but he finally thought he had an answer. It was simple: poison. Depending on what he used, it was much cleaner and quicker than instigating an accident and didn't require much need for a thorough police investigation. Of course, these days there was no such thing as undetectable poisons anymore. If Sero happened to pass away without any reasoning, then that would lead to an autopsy, where it would be revealed that he would be poisoned.

No, the best kinds of poisons were the ones where they broke down into elements that occurred naturally in the human body. A simple injection of a serum comprised of say, succinylcholine, which contained succinic acid that occurred naturally in human, plant, and animal tissues, or even something as small as potassium chloride, which of course contained both potassium and chloride and was common in heart attack victims, and the whole "Sero variable" would be off the table.

As Kaminari looked out the window at the cold December sky, tossing the ball back and forth in his hands, he felt a glimmer of pride as he smirked, feeling a bit smug with himself. In just a few simple steps, he would be able to regain control of the situation, and everything would once again be playing as attuned to exactly how he wanted it.

A cold smile crept across his face. He loved this feeling of being in control. It was as if he was puppetmaster and everyone else were his puppets to be yanked around on invisible strings. No matter what happened, he had complete control over it, and no one could do anything to stop him. Feeling prideful, he tossed the ball from his right hand back to his left, where it landed with a soft thud.

And that's when he heard a loud pounding at his door.

Hair-brained dumbass.

Teeth grinding together in rage, Bakugou slammed the door shut with a loud bang that rattled throughout the building, knocking a good amount of icicles off of the awning outside. It was almost satisfying to hear them shattering on the cement steps below, mostly because as of right now, he just felt like being destructive. He didn't care if a few extras in the commons stared at him a little bit; that was their problem.

His conversation with Kirishima still ran clear through his head, replaying it over and over again like a VHS tape stuck on repeat. And the more the thought about it, the more he wanted to go outside and blow up every icicle on the damned building, as well every building around this one.

He just didn't see how the idiot could be so fucking dense. It was so frustrating to try and talk to him; it was like he was trying to have a conversation with a brick wall. Bakugou had given him all the facts, all the evidence that something wasn't right, and still, he refused to listen to him. The thought of was so frustrating, that he couldn't have a decent conversation

Releasing a guttural cry of rage, Bakugou turned around and summoned an explosion in his hand, slamming his fist straight through the wall.

The reaction wasn't anything he didn't expect. On the couch Uraraka, still wearing her school uniform, let out a cry of surprise as the plaster buckled and was blown to smithereens under his knuckles and the force of his small explosion. Somewhere in the kitchen, Tokoyami muttered a shocked curse as he choked a little bit on an apple he was eating, and from the counter, Jirou emitted small yelp as she jumped at the sudden noise. Some of whatever she was drinking splashed out of a purple mug with the words Deep Dope written in white, splashing onto the floor. "What the hell?!" She exclaimed as soon as the saw the gaping hole Bakugou had left in the side of the wall.

Bakugou whipped around to face Jirou, his bright red eyes flashing. "Yeah? What are you gonna do about it, Cord Ears?" He barked, small explosions crackling in the palms of his hands. Recently, he hadn't been lashing out as much as he usually did. Over the past week or so, he had been too lost in thought and trying to come to grips with what was going on to be able to still show the same fire whenever someone did something that annoyed him.

However, after the argument with Kirishima, he suddenly felt as if a shot of anger had spiked right through him. Right now, all he wanted to do was punch everything he saw. The last thing he wanted to deal with right now was other people's bullshit, and certainly not from a bunch of extras.

Just as Jirou was about to give a presumably sharp-tongued reply, she was interrupted as Iida shot up from his seat on the couch, his glasses glinting the fluorescent lighting.

"BAKUGOU!" He exclaimed, slicing the air with various hand-chopping motions as he advanced towards the student. As he walked, the engines on his legs gave small, furious putters, and the class rep's face was flushed bright red with rage. Bakugou's scowl only deepened. He had always found Iida's paternalistic style of being class rep annoying and unnecessary, but right now just the sight of him heading towards him and doing that weird hand chop motion with his hand only made Bakugou want to shove his plaster covered fist right on the bridge of his glasses

"TO INFLICT SUCH DAMAGE TO THE DORMS THAT U.A. HAS PROVIDED FOR US IS EXTREMELY WRECKLESS AND UNORTHODOX BEHAVIOR THAT—"

"AH, CAN IT, FOUR-EYES!" Bakugou roared, already fed up with Iida before he even finished his sentence. "If U.A. can afford to spend millions of dollars build bat-shit insane cities for just for training and shit, then they can afford to fix a damned hole in the wall," he spat, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders as he set his sights on the elevator. He hadn't even been inside five minutes, and already he wanted to blow another hole in the wall. Right now, he was just so pissed at Kirishima that right now he didn't feel like he had the time or bandwidth to deal with anyone else.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT—" Iida started, but Bakugou had already tuned him out, stepping inside the elevator as it opened with a soft ding. As the doors closed, he flashed a middle finger at the room before the doors locked shut, and the sound of the elevator moving upwards filled the tiny space.

Finally having a moment alone, Bakugou leaned his head back against the wall, allowing his breathing to return to normal. Maybe he acted a little rashly. Maybe he did a few things that didn't need to be done, but quite frankly, he didn't care right now. Angry adrenaline still pumped through his entire body, but punching a hole in the hall had helped. He would definitely be reprimanded by Mr. Aizawa for it later, but right now, he didn't feel like worrying about it. He had much bigger problems to deal with, anyhow.

He didn't know why it bugged him so much. It was little things that he had noticed, just small things that he had been thinking about constantly over the past day, but those small things added up to a bigger picture. There were too many holes, too many things that had been left unsolved about what happened that still poked at Bakugou, but still, he never felt the need to voice it.

It was only until after the hospital that something seemed off.

The quick change in expressions from Kaminari...Bakugou didn't know how to describe it, but it was just sort of cold like there was this kind of wrongness to it that shouldn't be there. It had made his stomach churn, sent shivers down his spine.

He knew how small it was. Little things here and there that didn't seem to match up all the way, and with that creepy thing that Kaminari had done at the hospital...Bakugou had no idea what that was, but it wasn't right. It just seemed like there was too much to be a coincidence.

Of course, Kirishima had refused to believe any of this. Bakugou figured he was still shellshocked about Sero or something like that, and pretty protective of Kaminari since he was apparently not taking this so well, but damn it. If he would just listen to him for a second...

As the elevator doors dinged open on floor four, Bakugou stepped out, heading instinctively heading straight for Kirishima's room, letting his anger slowly build up again. If the little bitch thought that he could run away like that for no reason without hearing something about it from Bakugou later, he had another thing coming. Hell, he would blow the door down if he had to. He had already punched a hole in the wall; might as well add a door to the list.

Just as Bakugou was about to grab the brass doorknob, demanding that he "open the damned door before he blasted a fucking hole in it," he froze. There, inside of Kirishima's room, he heard something. It wasn't anything he wasn't used to; by now, the same sound had been going on constantly for the past week, but it was still there all the same. The sound of it was enough to make Bakugou's hand freeze over the doorknob.

There, behind his door, was the sound of Kirishima pounding away at his punching bag. Kirishima taking out all his pent-up rage and frustration out on a bag of sand, the dull thudding sounds of fists meeting the sack mixed in with Kirishima's low grunts.

He's doing it again, Bakugou thought, feeling his scowl deepen on his face. It seemed like every day since the Sero Incident, Kirishima would beat on his punching bag more and more frequently, the sounds coming from his room so angry and frustrated that sometimes it was almost disturbing just to listen to him. However, at this point, it had become sort of an outlet for him, like a way to just try and cope with the bigger picture at hand.

Slowly, Bakugou pulled his hand away from the door. At this point, dealing with Kirishima was like dealing with a child who didn't know what was good for them. Lack of sleep and stress had been taking its toll on him in obvious ways; he had lost count of how many times someone had to wake Kirishima up during class. If there was some way to channel all that into something that could help him instead of just focusing on everyone else, then Bakugou figured hell, let him do it. As of right now, he was willing to let the idiot get whatever kind of help for himself he could get. It was the same reason he had carried him in on his back after they had gotten back from the hospital, and even though he had woken up not long after that, it had still helped at least a little bit.

Besides, if Bakugou wanted to get anywhere, he couldn't focus on someone who wouldn't listen to a word of what he would say right now. Pressing his lips into a tight line, Bakugou glanced across the hall at the door with the words "Ashido" sprawled across it in kanji. He had no idea what was up with the pink gremlin at this point, but recently she only came out of her room if she had to go to school or someone came and dragged her out. Kirishima was obviously worried about her, and although he would never admit it, Bakugou was starting to feel a little anxious about her too.

Everyone was dealing with this in their own way, and instantly Bakugou's mind went to Kaminari, but as soon as he did, the thought of the smile and all the holes came to mind too, and a small frown crossed his face.

Swiveling around on his heel, Bakugou turned back around and marched to the elevator. Before he spoke to Kirishima, he had some other business to attend to.

Only a few moments later, the ash blonde stood outside a door on the floor below his with a single name scrawled into the plaque: Kaminari.

After a little banging on the door, it finally swung open, and as soon as Kaminari stepped into the doorway and saw Bakugou, a look of surprise crossed over his face. "Oh, Bakugou! I—"

"Cut to the chase, idiot," Bakugou said, sticking his hands in his pockets and as he met Kaminari's gaze intently. "We need to talk."

Chapter Text

The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

For a moment, Bakugou stood in Kaminari's doorway, his arms folded over his chest. His crimson-colored eyes glinted in the dim lighting of Kaminari's dorm, squinted down to slits and glistening like shards of glass as if they could cut something at any moment.

Kaminari just stood there, golden eyes meeting Bakugou's own red ones. When he opened the door, he had appeared hunched over, like he was carrying the weight of something unseen on his shoulders, but as soon as he saw Bakugou, he straightened up, his posture becoming stiff and rigid. Something glinted in his eyes that Bakugou couldn't quite figure out, but whatever it was, it was gone just as soon as it had appeared.

As soon as he saw him, Bakugou instinctively tensed up. He had never considered himself really close to Kaminari, but for some reason, the dumbass had always thought he was close with him. Every time they ran into each other, he would always try to smile at him and punch him in the arm as if had known him forever, which annoyed Bakugou to an extent. The guy was too friendly with everyone, acting as if every person he ran into was someone he had known all his life, even if it was irritating as shit. Kirishima had told him it was because he was just nice that way, but Bakugou suspected it was just because Kaminari was too clueless to know where to draw the line.

And still, no matter what he did, everyone just seemed to naturally like him. It didn't matter how crazy and loud and he acted or how obvious he made his empty-headedness; he just seemed to have a natural pull of someone to be friends with. Bakugou didn't believe in charisma, but if it did exist he felt that Kaminari would have it. For some reason, that whole fact had just made him all the more annoying to deal with.

Recently though, Bakugou had grown much more tolerant of Kaminari's behavior. He wouldn't consider him a 'friend' by any means; more like nowadays he just didn't feel the need to blow him up every time he opened his mouth. He would let him punch him in the arm and call him "Kacchan" or "Bakubro" or whatever half-assed nickname he had for him at the time. Once, Sero had teased him about it, saying that he was "getting soft", which Bakugou had quickly put a stop to by threatening to "beat his ass" until Kirishima calmed him down.

Even if he did find him a little bit amusing, he wouldn't admit it to anyone, let alone himself. Still, when he saw Kaminari in the doorway, he instinctively prepared himself for a weirdly big smile or a punch to the arm, or to be called "Kacchan" or something. Anything other than the blank stare Kaminari had given him would have been fine. For a moment, he just stood there nervously, shoving his hands into the pockets of his blue hoodie, his mouth pulled down into a small frown.

It was almost like a slap to the face. He would never say he was worried or anything along those lines, even to himself, but for some reason seeing Kaminari acting so...not like himself made Bakugou feel things he would rather not feel. So instead, he deepened his glare, choosing to get angry and annoyed over Kaminari allowing himself to get so bent out of shape by something like this as opposed to...the other option.

Besides, he reminded himself why he was here. He wasn't completely sure what was going on, but every time he played the events of what had happened over the past week over again in his mind, there were just things that didn't seem to completely match up. It was like everything was a piece from a different puzzle, but someone had taken them and forced them to go together despite the obvious. Still, everyone just went with it, ignoring the fact that the picture it created made absolutely no sense or how there were all these other unused pieces lying scattered around.

The whole thing was too weird to ignore. Even after Kirishima's blow up, he was sure that Kaminari somehow played into this. He wasn't sure how yet, but he couldn't forget that creepy, cold smile he had seen at the hospital amidst all his tears, like some sort of a crack in a dam that had only just become visible at that moment.

He wasn't sure what he expected to gain by talking to him. He wasn't even sure what Kaminari's place in all of this was; all he hoped for was just some sort of insight, some chance to ask all the questions that had been building up in his mind. Or rather, it wasn't really talking. More like confronting. Ever since the hospital, there was something else about Kaminari that Bakugou noticed. Something he didn't trust. He didn't know what it was, but every time he thought about it that same cold feeling ran down his spine, like long ghostly fingers pricking him from behind. At this point, he wasn't sure what was true and wasn't true, so for now, this was what he knew. Sero fell out the window. He fell into a coma, with no signs of waking up. Everyone close to him was shaken. Kaminari was affected the most and was especially fragile right now. And unless (or until) one of those was proven to be false, that was all he had to go off of.

However, now he wasn't even sure if that last one was true. This was his chance to see if it was true or not.

"You. We need to talk," Bakugou said gruffly, looking down at Kaminari.

Giving a small sigh, Kaminari rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger as he leaned against the doorframe. He didn't have bags under his eyes like Kirishima, but for some reason, he still seemed tired. "Kirishima's not in here. I think I heard him in his room or something—"

"I know where he is," Bakugou grumbled, stepping farther inside. "I came to talk to you, dumbass. What the hell do you think 'we need to talk' means?"

"O-Oh!" Kaminari stuttered, blinking in surprise as his brain slowly worked to register what Bakugou had said. Bakugou released a small grunt of annoyance; sometimes Kaminari was so slow it was almost painful to deal with.

Without waiting for an invitation, Bakugou slipped past Kaminari into his dorm, cringing at the look of it. He had only bothered to go to his dorm five or six times, and during all their time in the dorms, Kaminari had never once thought to fix his room so it didn't look like everything came straight out of the bad section of Craigslist. Huffing, he made the conscious decision to stand rather than sit down as Kaminari closed the door behind him, delving the two in complete silence.

Wordlessly, Kaminari crossed the room over to his bed, setting himself down on the leopard-print striped covers. Without meeting Bakugou's eyes, the young student seated himself in the far corner of his bed by the headboard, sitting on his legs and wrapping his arms around his stomach as if he were protecting himself. It was almost pathetic to watch, like observing an injured kitten on the side of the road. Completely vulnerable, looking small and helpless, where one look at it would make anybody want to run over and give it a hug.

Bakugou, however, knew very well by now that he wasn't anybody. And for some reason, when he looked at him he didn't feel sympathetic or anything like that. Only angry.

"Stop that," he growled, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Startled, Kaminari's head shot up, his golden eyes wide. "Huh? Stop what?"

"That,"  Bakugou repeated, nodding his head forward at Kaminari, his arms in his too-big hoodie sleeves still wrapped around himself. "What you're doing right now. It's pathetic. Show some damn dignity, will you?" At first, when the Sero Incident had happened, Bakugou might not have been so harsh, maybe even felt a little bad for him. But with everything that had happened recently, he was fed up with padding around him. However, he still had to compensate for the possibility that maybe Kaminari was upset about Sero, which was why he couldn't go too overboard.

As soon as the words slipped past his lips, Kaminari looked up at Bakugou, as if making sure he had heard him right. When he was certain Bakugou had meant what he said, he seemed to crumple a little bit, as if someone had just chipped off another section of him.

"Oh..." he muttered, looking down at the floor. For a second, he hugged himself a little tighter so that he looked even smaller than he already did as his face fell, his bottom lip quivering a little bit. If it was possible to look even more pitiful, he had definitely achieved it.

He looked so upset, so broken, that for a moment Bakugou wondered if this was a good idea. He wasn't typically one to second-guess himself, but the hurt on Kaminari's face was so real, so miserable, that for a moment he felt a small pinprick of a doubt at the back of his mind. It was tiny, but it was there, just barely breaking the surface. Still, he pushed the thought out of his mind, glowering. He still wasn't sure what was going on with Kaminari, or if these feelings were as extreme as he was making them out to be. He wasn't about to go soft now; Kaminari would just have to toughen the fuck up.

His gaze unwavering, Bakugou crossed his arms over his chest as Kaminari sat there for a minute longer. For a second, he thought he saw him glance up at him, as if seeing if he were still watching him, but Bakugou couldn't be sure.

"Right. Um...sorry about that," Kaminari muttered, adjusting himself so that he sat up straighter and his arms were resting at his sides. His face still looked sullen, but Bakugou figured there wasn't much he could do about that. "I don't mean to be like...pathetic or anything like that." Kaminari went on with a shrug.

"Then stop acting so fucking helpless, dammit. I came here to talk to you, not listen to you bitch about everything."

Kaminari's entire body tensed up as if Bakugou had physically struck him. He looked like he wanted to bolt, but Bakugou blocked the entrance to the door, making it impossible to get out without getting past him. And that wasn't happening any time soon. He wasn't letting him leave until he got some answers. He didn't care if Kaminari broke down sobbing; unless he got a little bit of insight as to what was going on, he wasn't going anywhere. Whatever was going on here, Kaminari knew something about it. And Bakugou wasn't leaving until he managed to squeeze those answers out of him.

"Look, I'm sorry Bakugou. I'm really sorry. It's just...stuff's been really weird lately, with all that...you know..." Kaminari said, sounding as if he was trying to defend himself, but his voice trailed off when it started to crack, and he looked down again, refusing to meet Bakugou's eyes as his hands curled into fists at his sides.

Bakugou's glare deepened, taking a few steps towards Kaminari's bed. "Yeah, I know, dumbass. That's why I need to talk to you, so shut up and listen, will you?"

Kaminari glanced up again, now fiddling with the ends of his hoodie strings. Just the mention of it, his entire body froze. When he looked up, Bakugou saw that his pupils had constricted, and his chest rose and fell quickly as if his breathing a lot faster. "A-About Sero?" He stuttered, a slight edge to his voice as if he was already getting nervous.

No, the fucking emperor of Japan,  Bakugou thought, tempted to say it, but managed to hold his tongue. Kaminari was obviously starting to get upset, and if Bakugou wanted to get any information out of him, he couldn't let him have a full-blown meltdown before he got anything. He had to at least try and make an effort to keep him calm.

"Yeah, about Sero, alright?" He muttered, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall. Instantly, Kaminari's breath quickened as his pupils constricted a little bit more.

"Hey, don't lose your shit," Bakugou growled, trying to prevent a meltdown. "I've just been thinking about it, and there's a lot of stuff that hasn't made sense to me."

"L-Like what?" Kaminari mumbled, fiddling with his hoodie strings again.

"Like why weren't you answering Kirishima's texts that night?" Bakugou finally asked, tilting his head slightly to the side. It was a simple question, phrased and said like an innocent inquiry, something to be curious of. Yet as he said it, his eyes narrowed together, glinting dangerously as he gazed at Kaminari with a fiery intensity.

His question obviously caught Kaminari off guard. Alarmed, he suddenly looked up to face Bakugou, his hands frozen with his hoodie strings still locked in his grasp. "What?" He asked as if he wasn't sure he understood what Bakugou had said.

"I mean, it just seems kind of weird to me," Bakugou went on as casually as he could, now straightening himself up and taking another step closer to Kaminari's bed. Outside, a cloud passed over the sun, and for a moment, the room was delved in shadow. Bakugou's crimson-colored eyes glinted in the new shade, and for just a split second, he thought he saw Kaminari's golden eyes flash. Bakugou narrowed his eyes.

"Was something bothering you or something? 'Cause according to Racoon Eyes you just went straight to your room after that study session," he went on, looking Kaminari straight in the face.

Kaminari swallowed, his voice cracking. "What, so I'm just expected to go and hang out with you guys 24/7? Maybe I just didn't feel like it," he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Bakugou's glare deepened. He expected Kaminari to look away, refuse to meet Bakugou's gaze. Possible because he was upset talking about this and wanted to avoid it at all costs, or maybe because he didn't want to admit something. If he was lying about something, a red flag would definitely be not being able to meet his eyes.

But to his surprise, Kaminari met Bakugou's gaze head-on, his stare unwavering and intense. Much more intense than Bakugou had expected. For once, he was caught a little off guard but recovered just as quickly. His expression hardened and he crossed his arms over his chest again.

"Yeah, maybe you didn't feel like it. But I'm just saying, you usually come to hang out with Kirishima and Sero and shit," he went on. Suddenly, Bakugou's voice volume dropped, now speaking much quieter. For some reason, that just made it all the more menacing.

"So why didn't you? What exactly were you doing?"

The question lingered in the air for a moment longer, hanging above their heads like a boulder dangling precariously on a thread. There were a thousand more things catching in Bakugou's throat that he wanted to say, but for the moment he managed to stay quiet, letting the silence fill the space.

Kaminari blinked at Bakugou as if he were just barely comprehending what he was saying, or why he was saying it. But this time there was something else there. Something Bakugou wouldn't have noticed unless he looked closely, but he did. This time, talking to Kaminari, it wasn't like talking to a brick wall. It was like there was a storm brewing just below the surface, glistening in the back of his eyes. It was small, but it was there, just below the surface, something dark. Almost like a venomous snake, holding back it's dripping talons, despite being ready to strike at any moment.

However, just as soon as it appeared, it was gone again. Or rather, buried again, so that Bakugou couldn't see it, and Kaminari's face went back to being a ring of stress and sadness as if it hadn't happened at all. A twinge of unease pricked at Bakugou, something he never liked to admit, but he couldn't really deny that it was there either. It was like witnessing something that wasn't supposed to happen, something that wasn't natural, yet still existed.

Something was wrong here. Something was very, very wrong.

Still, Kaminari drew his legs close to his chest as if he hadn't done anything, seemingly too distraught to care if Bakugou thought it was pathetic or not. "Look, Bakugou...that night was really crazy. A lot of it just kind of seems like a blur. I don't really remember most of it, and I...I'm not really sure I want to..." On last part Kaminari sort of choked on his words a little bit, then just stopped and placed his head on his knees.

However, at this point, Bakugou was fed up with this game of playing cat-and-mouse. This whole time he had been scrambling for answers, and now he was being met with a dead end. Just because Kaminari "didn't want to talk about it" or some half-assed reason, Bakugou was being left with an unsolved puzzle because of one little thing. Besides, after thinking about some of the odd changes with Kaminari recently, that just made him even angrier with the result right now.

Letting his anger boil up inside of him, Bakugou balled his hands into fists at his sides. "The hell kind of vague-ass answer is that?" He growled through clenched teeth, using every last bit of his restraint not to pounce on Kaminari. "You do remember, just fucking try harder."

"Bakugou, I-I just can't—" Kaminari stuttered, tears now threatening to spill on his cheeks as his breath quickened, which only made Bakugou even angrier. Everything about this was wrong. Kaminari's blow-ups were too extreme. His reasons for all this shit was vague as fuck. And now, whatever was going on, he was going to let it slip away again just because of this one little thing.

Throwing all reason to the wind, Bakugou allowed explosions to crackle and pop in his hands, crossing the room over to Kaminari and grabbing his hoodie by the collar with a single hand. He was fed up with all of this. "DAMMIT, ASSHOLE!" He roared, infuriated, letting his explosions boom in his other hand. "JUST FUCKING COOPERATE WITH ME AND QUIT WHATEVER FUCKED-UP CHARADE YOU'RE PULLING IN THIS DAMN THING SO THIS HELLHOLE CAN BE DONE AND OVER WITH AND WE CAN ACTUALLY GET SOME SHIT DONE!"

Tears now spilling over his cheeks, Kaminari looked up at Bakugou, his breathing quick and sharp. "Bakugou, just...just LEAVE ME ALONE!" He cried, which only made Bakugou even angrier. Furious, Bakugou took his other hand and balled it into a fist, raised above Kaminari's face. He didn't care what he did at this point. He was so pissed off, so damn fed up with everything, that right now he only let his rage blind him.

However, just as he was about to punch Kaminari right in his nose, something happened. He had been so focused on Kaminari, on his frustration and anger, that he didn't notice. It almost happened in slow motion. As his fist was making its way for Kaminari, the student raised his hand, his face for a moment, just a moment, going cold. At the same time, he was making a move to start punching Kaminari, he raised his hand, almost in slow motion. His index and middle finger were up, something crackling on his fingertips, bright and yellow, burning with heat. He watched as it slowly made a move for the side of his head.

And then, just before they did, something in Kaminari's face shifted. It was small, minute, but it was just enough for Bakugou to notice.

And just at the last moment, before it made contact with his head, it was directed towards his wrist instead.

"GAH! What the FUCK?!" Bakugou exclaimed, leaping backward as he grabbed his wrist, now burning and stinging with heat. Kaminari, however, had already buried his head in curled up knees, hugging his knees close to his chest away from Bakugou.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?" A voice suddenly boomed, and it was at that moment that a single thought went through Bakugou's mind: shit.

Whipping around, Bakugou saw the familiar rectangular shape of class rep Iida standing in the doorway, his glasses glinting as his chest heaved in anger. Rubbing his wrist, Bakugou wished it didn't hurt so much so that he could punch Iida in the jaw. He never liked how seriously he took his duties as class rep, especially when it interfered in his stuff like this when he was so close.

"FUCK OFF, FOUR EYES! IT'S NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!" Bakugou shouted, more explosions crackling in the palms of his hands. Kaminari only whimpered, hugging his knees closer and burying his head deeper.

Throughout the hallway, people slowly started to take notice of what was going on. From around the corner, Bakugou saw Jirou poke her head through, now wearing a different shirt than the one she had spilled her drink on in the kitchen. "What's going on?" She muttered, walking around to Kaminari's room, and it was then that Bakugou saw Hagakure following close behind her.

When she finally poked her head around the corner, Jirou suddenly sucked in a breath, quickly bringing her hand to her mouth in shock. Hagakure poked her head in soon after and immediately gasped. "Oh my gosh..." she muttered.

Bakugou could tell it was obvious what had happened, from all the yelling and Kaminari now in a fetal position, with himself looking furious and explosions booming in his hands. Whatever happened, he knew exactly what they saw.

"What the hell...the hell did you do?!" She exclaimed, suddenly racing into the room. Quickly, she kneeled beside Kaminari's bed, but Kaminari didn't look up, only hugged himself tighter, his breathing fast and shaky. Scowling, Jirou looked up and glared at Bakugou, her eyes crackling with anger.

"BAKUGOU, YOUR BEHAVIOR RECENTLY HAS BEEN ABSOLUTELY VULGAR!" Iida exclaimed, chopping the air with his hand for extra emphasis. By now, Ojiro had poked his head around the corner and was watching with a look of disbelief. "NOT ONLY HAVE YOU DAMAGED U.A. PROPERTY BUT NOW YOU ARE HARASSING YOUR FELLOW CLASSMATES! THIS BEHAVIOR IS COMPLETELY UNCALLED FOR!" Iida went on.

"UNCALLED FOR?" Bakugou exclaimed, his voice rising. "I HAD EVERY DAMN REASON TO BE HERE! And this asshole fucking SHOCKED me, in case you haven't noticed!" An image of Kaminari's face suddenly going gray for a moment, suddenly free of anything for a just a second, a split second, made Bakugou shudder. His fingers had been going for his head, but at the last moment, Kaminari had diverted it to his wrist. Why?

Because he heard them coming,  Bakugou thought, mentally kicking himself for not paying closer attention.

"Well, no shit he electrocuted you! It's no wonder why!" Jirou interrupted, now hovering over a trembling Kaminari. Bakugou hadn't listened to Jirou very many times, but he knew that she wasn't one to curse very often. He wondered how mad she actually was.

Chest heaving, Bakugou looked around. Everyone here was pretty much convinced of what they saw. He didn't have a chance of winning an argument right now before more people showed up, and right now he was fed up with trying to reason with people. Besides, Kaminari's room was right above Kirishima's. No doubt he had heard something and would be up here in a split second. After their argument, something told Bakugou that he wouldn't exactly be very happy.

Growling, Bakugou looked around one more time, then stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Outta my way, four-eyes," he muttered, shouldering past Iida as he made his way for the elevator. He ignored Iida's protesting shouts that followed, or anyone else, for that matter. He didn't have to explain himself to them. They were already sold on what happened. No matter what he said wasn't going to change that.

Huffing, Bakugou let the elevator doors close, riding up to the fourth floor in complete silence. When the elevator finally locked into place, the doors opened to reveal Kirishima standing on the other side, already heading out of the hall.

Huffing, Bakugou only brushed past him, but Kirishima obviously noticed him. Eyebrows furrowing together, he watched Bakugou's urgency to get to his room, his head down, eyes flashing with anger. "Bakugou, were you just up there? What's going on?" He asked, but Bakugou didn't say anything, only brushed past him to his room.

Suddenly, something seemed to click in Kirishima's head. Looking at Bakugou, his gaze hardened, suddenly getting wary. "Bakugou...what did you do this time..."

Scowling, Bakugou opened the door to his dorm, cutting off whatever Kirishima was about to say next. "BAKUGOU—" And then the door slammed.

As he heard Kirishima's now pounding footsteps slowly fade as he entered the elevator, Bakugou finally released a breath when he was sure that he was alone. Reaching into his pocket, he took out a small object—rectangular and flat, able to fit in the entirety of his hand. Something he had managed to swipe on the way out, when no one was looking.

Kaminari's cell phone. No matter what it took, he was going to get some answers, whether Kaminari liked it or not.

Chapter Text

Kirishima wasn't one to get mad very easily.

At this point, it didn't even seem like an opinion; more like just a well-known fact. He hadn't even realized it for himself until a few months ago when Mina had pointed it out after he had talked all day about going around to the park and doing some training, only to have it rained out, and he had merely laughed it off.

After some thought though, he realized that it did kind of make sense. Every time they were all hanging out as a group and an argument was on the verge of popping up (most of the time caused by Bakugo) he would usually be the one to put a stop to it. He had been considered the peacemaker, so to speak. The only things that could actually get him mad where when someone, directly or indirectly, did something to question or insult his manliness, and when someone did something to harm the people he cared about.

When he heard about Kaminari, he was absolutely livid. There was really only one way to put it. In was any other case, Kirishima probably wouldn't have gotten worked up about it in the way that he did. Kaminari didn't have the thickest skin, but he wasn't super sensitive either, and as long as it didn't require too much thinking and intricacies, he could pretty much take care of himself. He could easily put up with Bakugo's casual picking on him, no doubt.

But recently stuff had been crazy. Sero's injury had hurt Kaminari in places that shouldn't be hurt, and now his friend was especially fragile at the moment. At first, he thought that Bakugo understood that, because for a little while after the Sero Incident, his teasing had seemed to have toned down quite a bit. But after the hospital visit, Kirishima didn't know, but something had changed. Bakugo had seemed...different towards Kaminari. Colder. Then, just today during their argument, he seemed to think there was some sort of connection between the Sero Incident and Kaminari.

Kirishima thought he had put some sort of a stop to it. After a few times slamming his fist into his punching bag, he had figured that Bakugo had maybe calmed down too, and they could just go and make up about it or something. It didn't have to be anything more than a bump in the road.

And then he heard the chaos unfolding upstairs.

Kirishima's room was right underneath Kaminari's, so it wasn't exactly hard to hear. For the most part, it was quiet, but if there was talking, he couldn't hear it over the sounds of his punching bag. Then he heard a slam. And yelling. Lots of yelling.

Instantly his mind flew to Bakugo. He knew he had this one crazy idea in his head, but Kirishima figured he had made it perfectly clear to leave Kaminari out of it. He didn't care how mad Bakugo got; whatever he decided to work out to help him deal with what was going on should be on his own terms. He wouldn't just turn around and go up to Kaminari like that right after, right?

He had been out of his dorm in seconds. He caught a glimpse of Ashido poking her head out of her dorm, her eyebrows furrowed together curiously, right around the same time Bakugo emerged from the elevator. His shoulders were hunched, his eyes burning with a sort of rage that Kirishima had to be around to calm down.

But right now, he didn't feel like calming him down. Not yet. He had tried to get his attention, tried to make sure that he hadn't just gone and done what he thought he did. Even so, Bakugo only shouldered past him, slamming his door behind him.

It was then that Kirishima raced into the elevator.

When the doors finally dinged open on the third floor, Kirishima's face was already flushed red, his heart pumping so loud he was worried that other people could hear it. A few people had gathered around outside Kaminari's room, a few voices wafting out from his open door.

Kirishima didn't even take a second to register who was there. All he was thinking of was the crisis on hand, and all the horrible ways it could have gone wrong. Bakugo was pissed at Kaminari. He decided to take it out on him. Normally, that would be bad enough in itself, but Kaminari was in no way ready to deal with Bakugo just yet. Shoving past a few people, Kirishima burst into Kaminari's room, his chest heaving rapidly.

As he peered into Kaminari's room, already expecting the worst, he felt his stomach drop to his feet. There, sitting in the far corner of his bed, was Kaminari, hugging his legs close to his chest. He had his face buried in his knees so that he couldn't see anything, with Ojiro crouching beside his bed, his tail swishing back and forth anxiously.

"Come on, Kaminari—you'll have to talk to us at some point," Ojiro was saying, to which Kaminari only replied with a low whimper.

"Jeez, what did Bakugo do," Hagakure muttered, her arms resting on Ojiro's shoulder. Ojiro didn't reply, only gave a small shrug and continued trying to talk to Kaminari.

Off to the side, Jirou stood, her arms crossed over her chest. She leaned against one wall with her head down, her bangs half covering her eyes as if she were deep in thought. When Kirishima stepped into the room, her head shot up, and it was then that he saw her eyes were burning with rage. She caught him by such surprise that he almost took a step back when he saw her. Normally, he was so used to Jirou being so placid and apathetic, as if she didn't really care about anything. Now though, she blazed with such a silent fury that it was impossible not to notice it; as if it had taken up the whole room. It was almost kind of terrifying.

Still, he quickly recovered as his attention was quickly drawn back to Kaminari, still curled up in a ball as Ojiro tried to coax him out. Watching him, Kirishima felt that same feeling he had felt at the hospital slowly creep over him. It washed over him, stealing the breath from his lungs, enfolding over him like a suffocating blanket, leaving him unable to breathe.

He remembered only a little over a week ago when Kaminari would most likely be laughing over something with him or planning out different ways to prank Bakugo. Now, seeing him sitting on his bed, so fragile, hurt him in more ways than it should. It felt like a metal spike being stabbed through his heart, living with the knowledge that his friends were suffering like this, and no matter how much he tried, he was helpless to do anything. It was this terrible feeling of wanting to help, and not being able to do it, no matter how much he tried.

The sheer reality of it came crashing down just then as he looked at Kaminari curled up in his bed, refusing to talk to anyone. No matter how much he did to try to help, it still wasn't enough.

Only thing was, this time it was a little different from the time at the hospital. This time, he knew there had been a way to prevent this. Before at the hospital, he knew things were out of his hands, but this was completely avoidable. It wasn't exactly a secret that Kaminari wasn't in the "best" place stability-wise. Normally he would be able to put up with Bakugo and things like that on his own, but the whole Sero Incident obviously took a toll on him. Kirishima almost felt as if it were his duty to just watch him and make sure he was okay until things blew over, and Kaminari managed to get himself back together.

The last thing that was needed was for Bakugo to come at him in a furious rage when he was obviously not ready, after—even after Kirishima had tried pounding it in for him to leave Kaminari out of this. And even still Bakugo completely ignored him as if he hadn't even said a word, going and doing whatever he wanted anyway. Whatever he had said had obviously been too much, and had led to all of them being here, trying to comfort Kaminari in the midst of an emotional breakdown that would probably end up backtracking rather than moving forward with Kaminari's mental state.

This, all of this could be avoided if Bakugo had just listened to him for once. He understood that Bakugo didn't really listen, but even so, he knew that Bakugo understood what was going on right now. Right after it happened, Bakugo had been a lot easier on Kaminari, maybe even sympathetic in his own way, but after their visit to the hospital, something changed. For some reason, Bakugo just acted harsher towards Kaminari. Colder.

Kirishima wasn't sure why; it might be because it was his own way of dealing with everything that was happening or some other reason that Kirishima didn't know about. Whatever the reason, Kirishima just wanted Bakugo to keep it to himself. He would still try and help him out, but Bakugo didn't have to inflict it on other people.

Just thinking about it, Kirishima felt his hands clench into fists at his sides, the backs of his palms hardening ever so slightly. He tried to keep his face neutral, but even so, he felt his chest quickly rise and fall as his breath sped up, his anger and frustration bubbling just below the surface as if they were banging to get out.

Save it for the punching bag, he told himself, but even so he felt his muscles clench, his knuckles sharpening and hardening dangerously.

"Kirishima. Kirishima."

"What?" Kirishima suddenly exclaimed, his head jerking up as he was violently yanked back to reality. For a short moment, he had actually forgotten that he was still there. As he took a few shaky breaths, he slowly unclenched his fists, feeling his hands soften. He was still here, which meant everyone could still see him. Besides, Kaminari needed him right now. He couldn't afford to get upset. He still had to keep his cool, at least for now.

Turning around, Kirishima saw Jirou, still glaring at him with eyes that burned with such a ferocity that they reminded Kirishima of a violet fire. Crackling and burning dangerously, ready to burn anyone who got too close.

For a moment, Jirou opened her mouth as if she were going to say something, but then Kaminari gave another whimper, and she shut her mouth again as if remembering that he could still hear them. Wordlessly, she looked over at Ojiro, who only gave a helpless shrug, as if saying I don't know what else to do.

Kirishima felt his heart drop to his stomach. He didn't know what to do. He hated seeing Kaminari like this, but he couldn't just reach back in time and fix everything that had happened. The feeling of helplessness seemed to envelop him, and he hated it. He hated being so completely out of power, unable to really do anything. He had to at least be able to find a way to do something.

Without waiting for approval from Jirou or anyone, Kirishima started forward to Kaminari's bed where Kaminari still sat. No one tried to stop him. Curled up in a ball, whimpering quietly, Kaminari looked so small and fragile, like if someone simply blew on him he would shatter into a million pieces. Just looking at him, Kirishima felt this sadness squeeze his heart.

Gently, Kirishima seated himself on the bed, trying not to disturb him too much as he stuck out his legs in front of him. For a moment, Kaminari seemed to glance up for just a second but instantly buried his face again a moment later.

"Hey dude," Kirishima said gently, trying to sound casual as if they were simply having a conversation. Still, the tension hung thick in the air, and Kirishima was pretty sure everyone could feel it, including Kaminari.

When Kaminari didn't respond, Kirishima took a deep breath and continued. "How've you been holding up? You know, with all this crazy stuff that's been going with Sero and everything..." he went on, trying to stroke Kaminari's back reassuringly.

Kirishima had hoped that he was being helpful, just by letting Kaminari know he was there. But instead, it seemed to have the opposite effect. Instead of helping, as soon as Kirishima's fingers brushed against Kaminari's back, Kaminari instantly jolted as if Kirishima's finger were coated in acid. Kirishima had barely even touched him before Kaminari's suddenly let go of his legs, scrambling backward until he was firmly backed against the wall, his breath coming out in panicked gasps.

It would have hurt less if he had gone and sucker-punched Kirishima in the gut. Quickly yanking his hand back, Kirishima clasped it into a tight fist as if it were no longer a fist, and instead had become a weapon. Everything churned and bubbled inside of him until he felt as though he were going to explode, but even so, he didn't say a word. He just sat there silently, holding Kaminari's gaze.

For a moment, the two of them sat there, each of them gazing into each other's eyes, both of them too afraid to move. Finally, though, Kaminari's face unexpectedly scrunched together, as if he were trying not to cry as tears glistened in his eyes. He let himself relax, losing the tension in his body that kept him pressed against the wall, and instead slumped down, hugging his knees to his chest again, but this time keeping his face up so that everyone could see him.

Glancing over, Kirishima saw Jirou, Ojiro, and Hagakure all watching silently. He had actually forgotten that they were there at all. As Kaminari sat there, curled up with wet eyes, his breath coming out in deep, shuddering gasps, Kirishima finally took a moment to grasp what was going on around him. The three people in the room along with the both of them watched them, eyes locked onto the scene. Just watching, as if they were observing a reality show.

Outside, the hallway slowly grew noisier with voices as the gossip of what had happened slowly spread around, Iida's voice rising above them as he tried to maintain order and explain what was going on. Pretty soon, they were going to have a lot more company. The room would be filled with people, people breathing down their necks, making the room hot and suffocating, almost claustrophobic as they tried to figure out what was going on.

Eyebrows furrowing together, Kirishima glanced back at Kaminari. That was the last thing he needed right now. At the moment, Kaminari looked like he were on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and the added excitement of having everyone in the room clambering over him certainly wouldn't help. His eyes were wet with tears, his breath coming out in quick gasps. He was panicking. He needed a moment to calm down if he was going to tell them anything.

"Hey, what are you—" Jirou protested, feeling Kirishima's hand grasp her shoulder. He already started leading her, Hagakure, and Ojiro to the door.

"Sorry guys, but could you just leave for a moment?" Kirishima asked. He had hoped he would sound professional and in charge like they would have to listen to him, but instead, it came out as more of a plea than an order. "It's just...I kind of want to talk to Kaminari for a sec."

"You are talking to him," Jirou replied, narrowing her eyes dangerously.

Kirishima sucked in a breath. For most of the school year, he really didn't think think that Jirou cared all that much about Kaminari. Of course, she found him funny like a lot of people in the class, but he always figured she just thought he was annoying or a distraction. It kind of surprised him that she cared so much, but he didn't really have the time to address it right now. Right now, he wanted to talk to Kaminari before he had a panic attack, and that involved getting everyone else out of the room.

"Um...alone?" Kirishima muttered, trying to give a small, reassuring smile, but when he did it felt more forced than anything.

Jirou's scowl deepened, and instantly Kirishima felt his entire body tense up. He didn't want to get into a fight. Not here, not now. Everything was chaotic enough without people starting to yell at each other rather than over each other. Still, Jirou didn't look ready to back down anytime soon, and Kirishima wasn't sure she exactly grasped the magnitude of the situation. He saw Jirou clasp her hands together at her sides.

"Jirou."

Just as the situation was about to take a turn into a direction that Kirishima wasn't sure he wanted it to go, he saw Jirou jolt suddenly as the sleeve of Hagakure's school uniform lifted, and he realized she had put her hand on Jirou's shoulder. A long silence lapsed in the room, feeling heavy and thick on Kirishima's chest as the two of them seemed to share some sort of silent understanding. Kirishima didn't understand it, and maybe he never would, but something unseen seemed to pass between the two girls.

Finally, Jirou sighed and looked away from Hagakure, appearing to have given in. "Fine," she was all she said, seeming defeated, but when she looked back at Kirishima, he saw that her eyes blazed with a small fire, barely restrained. Kirishima couldn't see himself backing down any time soon, but he did feel some of the ferocity inside him dip away as Jirou, Ojiro, and Hagakure left the room, Ojiro gently shutting the door behind him and leaving him and Kaminari finally alone.

The school included locks on each student's dorms for privacy reasons, but each one could still be unlocked by a key that teachers had if they had to get in. But Mr. Aizawa wasn't here yet, though Kirishima had a feeling he would show up soon. Even so, he went up to the door anyways, twisting the lock with a satisfying click before looking back at Kaminari. They were finally alone.

Kirishima didn't want to pity him. He knew his friend wouldn't appreciate that. Still, he silently slid in next to him, sitting down on the bed.

There was a moment of hesitation. Kaminari's glanced up Kirishima as if assessing the situation to see if it was okay, before finally releasing a long sigh and moving forward to sit on the edge of the bed. He didn't meet Kirishima's eyes but instead leaned forward, looking down with his elbows placed on his knees. For some reason that hurt Kirishima a little bit more.

"Kaminari. Um...sorry about all that," Kirishima muttered, referring to the incident with Jirou as he gave a small chuckle, trying to lighten the situation.

Kaminari didn't smile back. Instead, he just whimpered a little bit, his head sinking a bit deeper on his shoulders.

Kirishima's smile instantly melted away, and instead his eyebrows furrowed together as he leaned forward, wrapping an arm around Kaminari's shoulder. "Hey hey hey," he said, his voice dropping. He could hear the concern edging his voice, but at this point, he didn't care. He just wanted his friend to feel better. "Come on man, it's alright. It's alright."

"No, it's not," Kaminari finally managed to get out, his voice sounding strangled and choked as though he were trying not to cry. "It's not alright, it's not, it's not, it's not. Its just like Bakugo said."

Kirishima froze. "Wait. What?" He tried to keep his voice steady, but his words came out sounding clipped, almost gruff. A million thoughts swarmed his head, but he tried to keep himself silent, even as his mind suddenly seemed to explode.

He knew that Bakugo had probably been tough on Kaminari. The guy had been pissed. But now, sitting here and talking to Kaminari...before, he seemed at least a little better. He was still upset, of course, but he still seemed to be managing. No, it was as if he had taken a few steps backward. What exactly had Bakugo said to him?

Kaminari continued on as if Kirishima hadn't even spoken. His face was in his hands, and with his arm around him, Kirishima could feel Kaminari trembling. He could see unshed tears glistening softly in his eyes. "I-I mean...Sero still hasn't woken up yet...and B...a-and I know it's stupid to feel this way...I-I mean, Bakugo told me it was...I mean, he said that I needed to like m-man up and...and just-just like...stop acting so pathetic..." Kaminari stuttered, his voice cracking as he spoke.

"A-And I mean he's kinda right...but like, h-he said that Sero probably wasn't going to-to wake-up...and that it...that it was best if we just kinda moved on...b-but, I

"Hey man," Kirishima said, cutting Kaminari off. Normally, he would let him keep speaking since he was finally opening up. As soon as he got him started, it was as if Kirishima had punched a hole in his floodgate and all the words just came tumbling out. However, Kirishima felt that if he went on any longer, Kaminari would start to break down. He could already feel him shaking in the crook of his arm, and his chest rose and fell rapidly.

Besides, right now, he was trying to focus on Kaminari anyways. If he focused on anything else, he was scared he would punch a hole in something. Right now, he felt terrible for Kaminari. Of course, he did. All he wanted to do was help him, and the fact that he couldn't was killing him.

But right now, those feelings were being drowned out by something else. Rage. White hot, searing rage that surged adrenaline through his body, filling his lungs, his head, until it was all he could see. He could feel his heart beating faster in his chest, threatening to pop free and roll out onto the floor. he was trying to comfort Kaminari, but in his hand that wasn't wrapped around his shoulder, he clenched his fist, feeling it harden and sharpen beside him.

Dammit. He told Bakugo. He told him. And he still went and did whatever he wanted to do anyway as if nothing could touch him. As if nothing had consequences.

But they did. As he held Kaminari, with tears now flowing down his cheeks in rivers, Kirishima was painfully reminded of the fact that there were consequences. There were consequences for everything, and no matter what you did, they were all out of your control. Kirishima had been dealing with Bakugo's reckless behavior for a long time, but this time it was different. This time he hurt people. Real people that he was supposed to protect, not a villain he could smash into a wall.

He was mad. Kirishima got that. But he couldn't just start taking it out on people if he didn't get the answers for why what happened did.

And he had to make sure he knew that.

"I've gotta go for a second, but I'll be back soon, alright? Just try to hold up, okay bud?" Kirishima said gently, and finally Kaminari met his eyes, before sighing and slumping his shoulders. Still, he nodded, and Kirishima released a breath. Standing up, he quietly crossed the room over to his door, opening it up and stepping outside.

He didn't see it, but as his back was turned, Kaminari allowed small smile to slip between his lips.

his lips.

Chapter Text

Dammit.

Stepping inside his room, Bakugou slammed his door behind him with a satisfying bang. The room shook and the door vibrated on its hinges, but at this point really Bakugou didn't care. Iida could come in and rant to him about "respecting the dorms" or some shit like that all he wanted and he would slam it again in his face, hard enough to dent the door frame simply to spite him.

It wasn't like anyone would notice at this point. He was pretty sure that at this point everyone was upstairs checking on dumbass Sparky as if Bakugou had tried to blow his head off his fucking shoulders. He didn't. All he did was talk to the guy, and things spiraled out of control from there.

As the room stopped shaking, Bakugou was delved into a deep silence as he stood there in front of his door, chest heaving. He couldn't sit down. His mind was whirring in a million directions, buzzing with thoughts and adrenaline. At one side, his hand was clasped tightly into a fist. In his other, he held Kaminari's cell phone. It felt small and fragile in his hand, and it was all Bakugou could do not to take it and smash it on the floor simply out of rage.

He didn't know why he took it. It was a spur of the moment decision when his brain had been buzzing with too many different ideas of what to do and what might help, and he just acted on one of them before he was able to properly think it through.

All he knew was that his "meeting" with Kaminari hadn't given him the answers he wanted. He could barely even call it a meeting; it was more like an interrogation. An interrogation where Bakugou got too angry too quick when Kaminari pulled the victim card, and of course everyone came rushing in to Kaminari's rescue. It was just fucking perfect; he could only imagine how it must of looked. Kaminari cowered in a corner, shivering, while Bakugou stood over him with explosions in his palms and his voice raised to a yell. It was the perfect attacker-victim seen.

Only that wasn't what it was. At first, Bakugou had just thought that something had been weird about the hospital incident. Something didn't entirely match up. Maybe Kaminari knew something he wasn't supposed to know, or there had been accident or something. But now, something else was tugging at him.

Just before Bakugou grabbed him, something had happened. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kaminari move. His panic-stricken face seized for a moment, and instead there was...something else. Something wrong. He didn't know what it was, but the sheer shock of it caused Bakugou to falter for just a moment. And that movement at the corner of his eye, his arm, continued forward, and Bakugou knew what would have happened. He saw his muscle movements. He saw the direction his arms were going.

His hand was charged with electricity, crackling yellow at the fingertips. Headed straight for his head. Going in for the kill.

And then he stopped.

And then he missed.

But Bakugou saw it. He saw what happened. It happened fast, so fast that maybe if he was anyone else he would have missed it. But he wasn't anyone else. He had enough battle training and intelligence in fighting to know an attack when he saw it. He could have chalked the incident up to an emotional outburst, where Kaminari was just afraid, but he knew it wasn't like that. His movements were too sure, too precise to simply be an accident. There wasn't any flailing or kicking; it was one quick, fluid motion with no hesitation.

Kaminari was going for his head. He was going to attack him. He hadn't imagined it. The change in direction was too abrupt for anything like an accident. He was going to shock him in his head, and Bakugou wasn't exactly an experienced electrician, but he had a feeling that if he was shocked in the head it wouldn't produce the best results.

Huffing, Bakugou reached down to look at his hand. When Kaminari first shocked him, it had been more of a surprise, but it didn't necessarily hurt. Now though, it was beginning to burn. Really burn. It stung so badly that Bakugou grabbed his hand and sat down on his bed, placing Kaminari's phone beside him on the dresser. He didn't have much experience with burns. Despite all his time spent in the kitchen, he had never burned himself, not even once.

But the skin was already turning red and blistering, and damn, it hurt like hell. He had been shocked by Kaminari before, but those were more accidental, annoying zaps. This, though. This was nothing like that. This was an actual attempt to harm someone, and he could tell. It wasn't too bad, maybe a first-degree burn as far as he could tell. Still, it was blistering, and he was pretty sure he had heard somewhere that if it blistered a lot then it could, in fact, turn serious. Quickly, he ran through the checklist for burns in his head.

He was a little light-headed, but he wasn't having any trouble breathing or going into cardiac arrest. The best thing to do would probably be to run cold water on it and put on some ointment, and maybe wrap it up in a bandage if things didn't get better. With a small grunt, Bakugou headed over to his bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet above the sinks, which had been stocked with first-aid supplies at the beginning of the year. Rummaging around, he finally found the burn ointment and set it down on the counter before running the colder water and placing his hand over it, which was actually able to take a lot of the pain away.

With his hand finally starting to feel better, Bakugou found himself able to calm down and think. Now that he thought about it, if Kaminari had ended up going for the head, it would have been a lot stronger than what he did to his hand. In fact, he was pretty sure he just brought it down at the last minute. When Kaminari suddenly changed direction, Bakugou didn't understand why, but then the door swung open, and suddenly it all came crashing down on him.

Kaminari knew they were all coming. He knew they were going to have company soon. He didn't know how or why, but apparently Kaminari had noticed something he didn't, and had changed the direction of his attack so that it was just bad enough to cause Bakugou some troubling damage, but not bad enough to put Kaminari in hot water. It was so perfect it scared him.

Bakugou suddenly sucked in a breath as the realization came crashing into him head-on like a freight train.

This wasn't some spur-of-the-moment thing. This was something well calculated and analyzed, done in a way that was well executed and thought-out. It had been done in the best possible way, and Kaminari had thought upon it and acted it out in the span of a few seconds. And when he did, something changed about him. The look on his face left and was replaced with the something else, something that Bakugou now had a name for. It was cold and calculating, free of any empathy. It was almost mocking.

Only thing was, it didn't make sense. Bakugou couldn't see a way to match up the kid who got amazed by the concept of fidget spinners with a person who had the complex thinking skills to come up with a plan that Bakugou had failed to see through until now, and had been able to take him by such complete and utter surprise.

Something wasn't right here. Something about this whole thing wasn't right, and Bakugou knew it. It was like there was a cold, sinister hand in front of his face, toying with him, dangling in front of him the truth, and it was just out of his reach. He felt like a horse, and Kaminari was holding the carrot out in front of him as bait, leading him and everyone else forward into something else. Bakugou didn't know what that something else was, but he didn't like being toyed with. Especially not by a dumbass like Kaminari. He was done with this. With all of this.

And the answers started with that cell phone.

Reaching over, Bakugou grabbed it off the desk and opened it up, to where a picture of Kaminari grinning in a Pikachu hat given to him by Sero greeted him. Bakugou scowled at Kaminari's obnoxious smile and swiped up.

The lock screen glared out at him, but he wasn't worried about that. Bakugou knew the passes of everyone who regularly hung around him. It was good to be prepared, and he had watched all of them open their lock screens from a distance in case he ever needed to open them for whatever reason. he never liked the idea of someone who had so much information about him and a connection to a world to tell about it and to be completely helpless as to what they did with that power. He had never expected Kaminari to have a passcode, partly because he didn't think it had ever occurred to him to have one and partly because he figured he didn't know how to set one. However, Kaminari did have a lock screen, and when Bakugou saw the password he was surprised it wasn't something simple like 1234.

It was 0813, which seemed kind of interesting to Bakugou. He noticed that lots of people tended to make their passcodes trace in some sort of pattern across their screen, or relate to significant dates like birthdays or something like that. He figured the 08 meant August, since people didn't usually put a zero in front of their codes unless it involved a date, and the rest would mean August 13th. From what he knew, Kaminari's birthday was in June, so he had no idea why he would have any relations to August 13th. Still, it didn't matter, either. All that mattered was that he had the code.

Punching in the passcode, Kaminari's phone opened up, displaying a yellow background decorated with a black lightning bolt pattern. There were basic utility apps at the bottom, featuring Phone, Mail, Safari, and Music, but then there were other apps, like several news stations and sudoku.

Both took Bakugou by surprise. He had never considered Kaminari to be the kind of person to keep up with the news or ever care about that sort of thing, and especially not to play a game like sudoku. It was a game of strategizing and intelligence, being able to find certain patterns, which up until recently, Bakugou had never considered Kaminari to be very good at.

And the news? That was weird. He remembered a while ago, when there had been an explosion in Shimane prefecture due to a gas leak in one of the buildings, someone had turned on the news during breakfast and Kaminari had chosen to bitch and complain about watching the news until Bakugou finally told him to fuck off. He had never considered him the type to care about that sort of thing. To see him have several news stations, including national and prefecture news was...weird, to say the least.

Wondering what could possibly be so interesting to him, Bakugou tapped one of them, opening up the page. After a bit of searching, he finally found history, and when he did, he arched an eyebrow.

It was all crime stuff. But not just stuff like murders and bank robberies. All of it was about crime from villains, but these were villains that he had never heard of, or really anyone had heard of for that matter. It was all back-alley stuff and criminals that no one had never really seen or caught, but were just lurking in the shadows. Hardly anything was known about them, but the damage they did was pretty extensive. There was this one guy who had committed two mass murders, killing about sixteen people in all, and all they knew about him was that his quirk had something to do with disintegration. There was no outer damage to the victims' bodies, but their internal organs had been nearly liquefied, which Bakugou almost found disgusting

The only stuff that wasn't related to back-alley criminals was a surprising amount of stuff about Hero Killer Stain. Most of the hype about him had died down since the Sports Festival, but there were still little things popping up here and there, and Kaminari looked at all of it. Hero Killer Stain sentenced to Life with No Probation. Murders in Furano Now Thought to be Done by Stain Followers. Hero Killer Stain: His Impact on Hero Society.

Reading it sent shivers down his spine. Bakugou remembered a while ago, right after Iida's brother had been attacked by the Hero Killer, Kaminari had said to Ojiro that he thought that Stain was cool. It was pretty common knowledge by now what had happened to Ingenium, so he had basically been openly praising the man who had hospitalized Iida's brother. At the time, Bakugou didn't think much of it. It hadn't surprised him in the least that Kaminari thought Stain was "cool." Any weak-minded person who based their interests based on what was popular on the moment would easily be swayed by something like that. It would probably pass when the next big thing came up. And as for bringing up Stain when they were talking about Iida's brother, he just figured that was Kaminari not thinking before he spoke.

Now though, as he scrolled through more and more Stain results, he began to get a sense of uneasiness. This wasn't some kind of small interest or short fling; this was a borderline obsession and in the creepiest possible way. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to find on Kaminari's phone, but it certainly wasn't this.

Feeling uneasy, Bakugou left the news app and instead went down to Safari, looking through his search history. Again, more Stain and crime stuff. But this time, there was also other searches. The search history was filled with things like "important blood vessels" and "proper flaying techniques." When he looked at that one, Bakugou saw that the most recent ones were accompanied by pictures of small mammals, though he wasn't sure if that eased or worsened the situation.

However, there was also a search where Kaminari asked: "where to acquire dimethylmercury." Bakugou himself didn't even know what dimethylmercury was, so he had no idea how in the hell Kaminari could know. Curiosity pricking at him, he tapped on the search, only to discover after a bit of reading that dimethylmercury was, in fact, a type of highly potent neurotoxin.

"What the hell..." Bakugou muttered, suddenly holding Kaminari's phone as if it were radioactive. He still continued to scroll through Kaminari's searches, but at this point, he wasn't even reading them. His brows snapped together, brain working at lightning-speed as he tried to figure out what all this even was.

His first thought was that this was all a prank. It had to be. It all just seemed like a joke that kept building up until it finally crossed over the edge and became too ridiculous to believe anymore. Some guys thought it would be funny to mess with Bakugou and make all these searches on Kaminari's phone and watch Bakugou get all bent out of shape about it; they were probably laughing at him from behind a corner right now.

But no one in the dorms was really seemed to be in the mood for "jokes," and anyways, this hardly seemed to be funny. Apparently, according to this phone, Kaminari was someone who played Sudoku, had a startlingly creepy obsession with Hero Killer Stain, and had questionable, mildly disturbing search results. That couldn't be further from the truth, and he should know, as he's been putting up with Kaminari for months now.

Now that he thought about it, he probably would have ended up ignoring Kaminari altogether if he wasn't constantly hanging around Kirishima. In fact, Bakugou really only started paying attention to him after the cavalry battle at the Sport's Festival. Up until then, everyone in the class other that Deku, Todoroki, and kind-of Kirishima had just been background characters in his class that he never really paid attention to. But at the cavalry battle, he started to pay a little attention to Kaminari when he realized that the guy could actually be a pretty powerful opponent if he wanted to be.

At the time, Bakugou had formed a team with Kirishima, Sero, and Ashido, while Kaminari had been a supporting member on Todoroki's team along with Iida and Yaoyorozu. Bakugou had hardly given any recognition to half of the teams out there; let alone some guy running around on the bottom of the field.

However, he had been forced to snap to attention when Kaminari finally put his quirk to use. On Todoroki's order, he had been able to electrocute the entire field in one move, thus effectively disabling everyone for a few moments, including Bakugou's own team.

He didn't see where it came from, but he certainly felt it. It snuck up on him like a snake; one moment, he was snatching headbands, and the next, his body was convulsing with electric pulses inside and out. It only lasted a few seconds, but at that moment, it felt like hours. For a few excruciating moments, he lost control of himself entirely. His muscles had been stunted to a stop against his will, tensing up and jolting at random moments. It was as though he was a guest in his own body.

Then, just as soon as it started, it was over. It was as if someone had flipped off a switch, and suddenly the shock covering the entire field just stopped. Bakugou doubled over, gasping for breath as he struggled to recompose himself as quickly as possible. For a few moments after that, the field was in complete disarray, but just out of the corner of his eye, Bakugou caught Todoroki's team moving swiftly though the crowd, snatching headbands from their disarmed opponents as if it were nothing.

It was then that Bakugou finally felt a searing hot rage bubble to the surface, but it wasn't until he saw a small flash of golden hair right beside Todoroki that it all became clear.

"What the hell? Was that fucking SPARKY?" He roared, though whether it was out of rage or disbelief, he wasn't sure. No one answered him, but no one had to. He wasn't even looking for an answer; he was just so furious that someone had managed to disarm him so easily and hindered him from getting back at Monoma that he wasn't thinking clearly. It wasn't until later on, when everyone was taking their lunch break that he was finally able to calm down enough to think it through.

He had sat in a corner by himself to eat from a bento box, watching everyone and thinking over everything that had happened during the cavalry battle. When he saw Kaminari, he stopped. This was the 'whey' guy. The guy who sat two seats over him. Up until then, he hadn't even bothered to learn his name. He only learned it when he saw it beside his picture up on the screen when they were flashing the winners of the cavalry battle.

Kaminari. This guy, who he hadn't even paid attention to until now, had been one of the only ones who was able to attack and disarm half the field in one move. The only other person Bakugou knew who could do that was Todoroki, and he was one of the only people Bakugou considered to be a decent rival to himself. He had never even really paid attention to Kaminari until now, but he was starting to wish he did.

Hell, he even got some of the most hero offers in the class, fifth only to him, Todoroki, Iida, and Tokoyami. The four of them had placed top in the entire Sports Festival, and Kaminari was just after them. Just next to some of the top people participating in the U.A. Sport's Festival. The guy could actually be pretty powerful if he wanted to be, it wasn't for a few unfortunate things holding him back.

First, of course, there was the side effect of his quirk. Having a wattage limit to how much power he could use was a big barrier to himself as a hero, and plus, there was just his intelligence in general. Those two things were probably why Bakugou stopped considering him to be a decent rival to himself.

As he started hanging around Kirishima more, he noticed that Kaminari started to pop up here and there too. First it was little things like butting into their conversations or just happening to be near Kirishima at the same time Bakugou approached him, but soon enough it morphed into actively trying to hang out with Bakugou and attempts to joke around with him, sometimes trying to include him in a lot of the stuff he was doing.

At first, Bakugou thought that he was just flat-out annoying. He would lash out at him, but for some reason Kaminari just kept coming back. He didn't know if he was trying to make him like him or if he was just that oblivious, but he always went on with him like nothing had happened. Eventually, Bakugou just gave up. He hung out with him in the commons and played video games with him, and sometimes even let the occasional "Kacchan" slide by.

However, at one point, Kirishima had said that he was "happy he and Kaminari were finally friends," and that had really irked Bakugou the wrong way. He didn't want to call Kaminari his friend, and he certainly didn't want other people to think that they were friends. He told himself that Kaminari was more like a dog: easily entertained, attention seeking, stupidly loyal, and high-maintenance. He refused to consider him anything more than that.

Even so, he figured he knew Kaminari pretty well, which was why he found this so hard to believe. Because the things he had seen on that phone didn't match up with the image of Kaminari he had in his head. In his mind, Kaminari had always been that ditzy, popular, dumb-fuck of a kid who did reckless things without thinking and put more time into trying to look cool that anything else. Those things didn't exactly go hand-in-hand with searching up various neurotoxins and extensive research on human anatomy. It didn't even match up with sanity. It was unsettling and disturbing and caused Bakugou's mind to race faster than he could scroll.

He continued to look through Kaminari's phone, finally leaving Safari and finding all sorts of things. At one point, he stumbled across a paint app, which confused him until he realized that it was filled with graphs and notes. He clicked one of the graphs, squinting his eyes trying to read it, but eventually, he decided that he just couldn't make sense of it. Lines and dots connected to each other in ways that seemed incoherent, and somewhere along the way Kaminari had started calculating something that Bakugou didn't understand.

Bakugou had always considered himself to be fairly good at math, always being in higher classes than his peers throughout school, but looking at this seemed absolutely ludicrous to him, like he was reading another language. He didn't understand of it, but apparently Kaminari could since apparently he was the one who wrote it.

Bakugou only shook his head. He had taken Kaminari's phone to try and find some idea as to what exactly had happened, not whatever the hell this shit was. He was starting to think that someone had taken Kaminari's phone, or this was someone else's phone altogether. It wasn't completely out of the question for Kaminari to copy someone else's code if he couldn't think of his own, which would explain using similar passcodes, and the yellow-and-black background didn't mean anything.

Of course, he hadn't known Kaminari that long, but he had a feeling he had him pretty figured out. He didn't see how you could possibly mistake getting the lowest grade on every test they had ever done for genius. He wasn't afraid to say that the guy was an idiot, and that was what he had stuck by this

Then again, you didn't do the kind of quick thinking Kaminari did back in his dorm by being an idiot. Bakugou's hand still burned with a ferocious sting, a constant reminder of what had happened. No matter how many times he played the scene over again in his mind, he couldn't deny what had happened. What Kaminari had done was smart, and startlingly so.

Now that he thought about it, this wasn't the first time Kaminari had done something like that. Back at the beginning of the year, on the bus ride to the USJ, he remembered talking to everyone on the bus and how a bunch of them were poking fun at him. He didn't remember the exact details of what had happened, but he remembered that on the way there, Kaminari had said something to him that didn't make a lot of sense.

"It's only been a brief while since our socialization has commenced, and yet we have already been made apologetically cognizant of your personality, redolent as it is of a turd being steamed in a sewer." He had said, a shit-eating smirk on his face. Bakugou understood what he said, but the sudden usage of vocabulary had taken him by such surprise that for a moment he was completely dumbfounded.

However, that was the only time he could really think of where Kaminari had done anything like that. Bakugou knew that Kaminari had a little knowledge in areas like literature and the arts and stuff, as there would be times when he would sometimes use a big word or quote some unknown author that apparently was really important, but he had never thought much of it. Remembering facts and figuring stuff out, which was what intelligence was based on, were two entirely different things.

But now, he was beginning to wonder if they were more connected than he thought. Biting his lip, Bakugou could practically feel the gears turning in his head. At first, all that stuff had seemed like little incidents, too minor to be of any real importance. But with everything that had happened, it was starting to make him think.

Kaminari showed obvious signs of ignorance. That much was clear. But he couldn't possibly be that stupid; part of getting into U.A. was scoring well enough on a written exam, which he had obviously been able to pass, or else he wouldn't even be here. Bakugou figured that if Kaminari had knowledge in areas like that, then he would show the little signs of knowledge consistently and spread out. Instead, they would randomly pop up here and there in little pockets, that was just now starting to seem too random. Too out-of-the-ordinary to be considered normal. Almost like he was trying not to do anything like that.

And then it clicked.

Kaminari played Sudoku. He had a wide array of knowledge in areas such as science, math, literature, and who knew what else. He had just shown that he had the quick thinking skills to be able to do something that Bakugou couldn't see, and it had only shown through for just a moment like he was trying to hide it. But Bakugou had seen it. He had seen the glimmer of arrogant, calculating and unempathetic intelligence that flashed in his eyes, so cold and raw that it was impossible to unsee it or deny it. It was now that it finally made sense.

Kaminari was smart. Really smart. He just didn't want anyone else to know.

It was like someone had finally poked the final hole in the dam, and all the water came rushing in. He found his mind racing with unexplored ideas and wondering and thoughts that all seemed to be screaming out to him at the same time with all this new information. But, above it all, the only thing Bakugou could think was why. Why in the hell would anyone willingly choose to be seen as an idiot?

And besides, by now it wasn't obvious that being smart wasn't the only thing he was hiding. After seeing the sudden change in Kaminari's entire demeanor back in his room, coupled with the new knowledge he had been given, it was obvious that something else was going on here. When Kaminari suddenly changed his attack on Bakgou, something else changed inside of him. It was like the grief and stress he had felt about Sero just turned off, like someone flicking a switch.

But that wasn't what worried Bakugou. What worried him was how he looked so much more comfortable in that than anything else he had ever shown to them.

He had taken Kaminari's phone to look for clues about the whole Sero Incident. Now, it was obvious that something much deeper was going on here. Something sinister.

He only had a few more moments to look through Kaminari's phone before his train of thought was broken by a ding and a bang.

The ding was what he heard first. He felt Kaminari's phone buzz in his hand and looked down to see a notification sliding down from the top of the screen.

💬MESSAGES
Tomurska Aogima
hey kid next report is coming up. you better be ready.

He barely even had time to register who this Tomurska Aogima character was before the knock came.

It was loud and rattled on the door, and almost instinctively, Bakugou felt himself tense up. Right. At the moment, he had been so caught up in the apparent discovery that he had forgotten the crisis at hand, unfolding on the floor above him. However, when he heard someone pounding on the door outside, it all came rushing back to him.

Which was why he had no doubt in his mind about who was at that door.

Chapter Text

"Bakugou."

Kirishima's fist pounded on the door. In the silent hallway, it echoed and boomed like rolls of thunder in the heart of a storm. 

"Bakugou."

Kirishima's voice came clear and harsh through the door, but Bakugou didn't say anything. Instead, he only scowled, looking back down at Kaminari's phone as if he hadn't heard. No. Now wasn't the time. He could deal with Kirishima and all that shit later, but right now he had to work all this out. He didn't have time to be interrupted right now.

"Bakugou. Bakugou, open the door."

"Tch." Bakugou scoffed at Kirishima, just loud enough for him to hear. He knew his classmate wouldn't leave any time soon, but he right now, he was just so irritated that he didn't want to take the time to take him seriously, and he wanted to make sure he knew that.

Kirishima, however, was not pleased. Instead, he only slammed his hand on the door again, this time much more forcefully.

"Bakugou, I'm not kidding. Open the damn door." The fact that he was trying to keep calm was obvious, but just as so was the fact that he was doing a terrible job of it. Bakugou could feel the anger and frustration seeping through his voice, so clear it was almost palpable. For some reason, that only irritated Bakugou even more.

"Fuck off." The words spat from his lips like venom, so sudden and harsh that Bakugou felt them lingering in the air long after they had been said. A brief silence dipped between the two of them, Bakugou's glare only deepening. He knew if he opened that door, the only thing that would happen was more arguing. Kirishima was too blind-sighted at the moment to actually take a second to step back and look at the big picture, and Bakugou didn't have time for that.

Before he could think out any alternative solutions, Kirishima pounded a fist on the door, so hard and forceful that Bakugou felt himself flinch for a moment at the sheer shock of it. The thought of him flinching at Shitty Hair made his face flush red with annoyance, but he didn't even have time to get mad about it before Kirishima's voice rang through the door again, this time much louder.

"Dammit Bakugou, I don't have time for this! Just open the fucking door, will you," he barked, his voice unexpectedly sharp.

It was so surprising that for a quick moment, it was Bakugou's turn to be stunned silent. He knew that Kirishima had a sort of fire inside of him; it was one of the whole reasons he liked him in the first place. He was just so used to him keeping it under wraps. Yeah, he was passionate about shit like fighting and "manliness" or whatever, but that was different. When it came to other stuff like arguments or stuff, he was usually the peacemaker or the diplomat, per se, as he was the one who tried to compromise with everyone and keep everyone happy. He was so used to Kirishima keeping calm in arguments that to hear him get so mad so suddenly was like a slap to the face, almost like when they had just fought outside a few moments ago.

Brows knitting together, Bakugou stole another glance back down at Kaminari's phone. The screen glinted with images stored in Kaminari's cloud, selfies and stuff that he had taken in class and with classmates. But oddly enough, the images were mingled with small snapshots of things like test scores and class rankings, and one photo that looked like it had been taken from under a desk of something Bakugou couldn't quite make out. Pictures of them training, pictures of a bunch of angles of the dorms, pictures of everything. There weren't even any pictures from before the school year started as if he had just appeared right before the enrollment to U.A.

And now, Bakugou couldn't even look at the photos without thinking about everything he had discovered earlier on. Were the smiles he was wearing in those photos just as fake as the look he wore back in his room against Bakugou? And if they were, what was that supposed to mean about this? All of this? The people in these photos were the same people that were hurt when Sero fell out that window, and the mounting evidence was beginning to suggest that Kaminari had a bigger role in that than he was letting on to have.

And that role was starting to have serious effects on people, including Kirishima. Just the thought that what Kaminari did could so easily bend and control how everyone felt around him made Bakugou angry for reasons he didn't understand. He didn't know why, but just thinking about it made his face heat up, his hands curling into fists. He wanted to settle this, one way or another.

Slamming the phone on his nightstand, Bakugou unlocked his door and swung it open with such force that it hit the wall with a loud bang. He and Kirishima were the same height, but at that moment Bakugou felt like a giant, unreachable and untouchable. His eyes blazed with rage, and his heart raced in his chest.

"There! I opened the damn door! Are you fucking happy now," Bakugou roared with such a passion that the words seemed to reverberate throughout his entire body. They rumbled in his chest, built up in his fists, pouring out every last bit of rage and frustration into that single sentence. It felt good. Really fucking good. It felt like he hadn't done anything like that in forever. Maybe he hadn't been talking a lot over the past few days, but this.

This was a satisfying, shaking cry of anger that shook his entire being down to this core, made him feel like whatever came out of his mouth would let anyone know what would happen if they crossed him.

He hadn't been able to realize it until now, but he was mad.

He was mad that no one listened to him or what he had to say. He was mad that there was so much going on that he didn't understand, and whatever was happening, he was being played. Everyone was being played, and he was the only one who actually had an idea that they were being played. He was mad because he felt so fucking helpless to do anything, and there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it. He was mad, and he let all that anger pour out into one sentence, leaving his eyes wild and his blood pumping.

When he finished, Kirishima was silent. He only looked up at Bakugou, his eyes narrowed. His hair was down, as it had been for the past several days, and while he said that he just wanted to try something different for a change, Bakugou had a feeling that he was too tired to be able to do it. His eyes were rimmed with red, dark bags under his eyes. It was obvious he was exhausted, but right now he was trying not to focus on that. He tried to open his mouth to speak, but Bakugou was there before he could get any words out.

"Dammit, Kirishima! What the HELL is your fucking problem? I don't give a shit about if you want me to open my fucking door! It's none of your damn business what I do because unless you actually want to sit down and look at the fucking facts, you can haul ass back to your own fucking room, and get your own damn nose out of my fucking business," Bakugou swore, his voice rising with each moment he spoke. His left hand was placed firmly on his door frame, his other one making wild gestures and jabbing Kirishima in the chest, partly for effect and partly to keep himself from blowing something apart with an explosion.

Kirishima stared at Bakugou for a long time after that, his crimson eyes narrowed together. Something deep inside him was churning, something Bakugou couldn't read, but something told him it was about to be let out.

A long, long silence passed between them. A silence where Bakugou stood there, sweat beading on his forehead and chest heaving with anger and exhaustion, his U.A blazer jacket crumpled around his shoulders. 

"None...none of my business?" Kirishima finally said incredulously, looking at Bakugou as if he couldn't believe the words that had just fallen out of his mouth.

"Did...did you actually just say that? That this is none of my business? Bakugou, do you actually understand what it is that you did here?" Kirishima asked, pressing his hands together as if he were praying and pointing them at Bakugou.

In all honesty, Bakugou had half-expected Kirishima to keep yelling. To show his anger. Instead, when he spoke, his voice was dangerously low, so cold that for a moment, Bakugou felt chills go down his spine. For some reason, it still had just as much of, if not more of an effect than if he had just continued yelling at him.

Of course, he wasn't going to let him know that. Instead, he tried to keep his expression as stone-faced as it was before, his hands clenched together at his sides.

"Of course I fucking understand! I understand that I tried to talk to Kaminari to figure out what the fuck happened, but instead he fucking throws a tantrum and worms out of it while you all go and lose your shit over it like I'm the one who went and tried to fucking attack him!

"Do you see this? Do you fucking see this?" Bakugou exclaimed, holding up his hand so that Kirishima could see the burn where Kaminari had electrocuted him.

At this point, it was beginning to turn red, and the soothing effects of the cold water had long since worn off, leaving it burning with a vengeance. Of course, Bakugou had been electrocuted by his quirk before, but he had never actually been hurt by it. Like, really hurt. He didn't even know Kaminari could do that, and he wasn't sure what to think of it, now that he knew that he could.

Kirishima, however, didn't look phased by it. In fact, he looked even angrier than before, if possible. "Well of course he did! I'm not surprised! Bakugou, you have to understand that what you did wasn't okay."

Yanking his hand down, Bakugou stared daggers at Kirishima, feeling his blood boil as he fought the surge of furious adrenaline urging him to punch another hole in the wall. Was he actually listening to him right now?

"To hell with that! All you want to do is sit in a fucking corner and cry because Soy-Sauce face isn't here to crack dumbass shit, while I'm actually over here trying to fucking work shit out! This entire thing is absolute bullshit, and you're too wrapped up in your own shit to actually look at the big fucking picture here! Get your head out of your ass, Kirishima! This shit is real, not something you can pound into a fucking sack!"

"I've been trying to actually work this damn thing out because whether you want to admit it or not, Sero's 'accident' wasn't a fucking accident! Sparky up there had something to do with it, and I am this close to proving it! Damn it, just look at this!"

Before Kirishima could respond, Bakugou rushed back into his room, swiping Kaminari's phone off the nightstand and rushing back out. Already, millions of ideas were rushing through his head. He didn't care if Kaminari overheard them, or if the whole fucking world heard. He wanted Kirishima to know that the guy he had been trying to protect this whole time was the whole reason Sero was in the hospital, and he wanted to see the look on his face when he found out.

"Bakugou is that Kaminari's phone—" Kirishima began, his face morphing into an expression of disbelief, but before he could get anything else out, Bakugou shoved the phone into his face.

"Yes, it's his phone, dammit! Now shut up and look," Bakugou yelled, feeling his face flush red as a wave of adrenaline rushed through him at the prospect of finally proving himself right. To finally show Kirishima that this all as absolute bullshit, and to see him when he did realize it.

He was so caught up in the idea of being right that he almost didn't notice how Kaminari's phone wasn't opening. How instead of showcasing a picture of Kaminari, there was only a black screen. A single white Apple logo stared out at him, a progress bar moving at a slow pace below it.

"Look at what, Bakugou? What the hell are you doing?" Kirishima muttered, glaring as he shoved himself away from Bakugou.

Sneering, Bakugou turned his attention back to the phone, narrowing his eyes as if he didn't know what he was seeing. He watched the progress bar inch a little bit farther once. Then twice. And then it hit him.

A factory reset.

"DAMN IT!" He roared, and suddenly, his heart sped up as everything slowed down. A wave of adrenaline coursed through his body, led by rage. White-hot rage, flaring up in every muscle, every limb until it was all he could see.

He was so close. Dammit, he was so fucking close. And now everything was just being wiped. Like it didn't even happen. Like Kaminari was still some innocent idiot who did nothing wrong. But he did. He did, and Bakugou had the proof right here.

And something told him that the reset wasn't triggered by a glitch in the phone.

His vision flared red at the edges. His hand gripped the phone so tight he thought it would burst apart in his couldn't see anything else. All he could see was his own anger, building up inside him, screaming at him to do something. Anything.

And then the phone was on the floor, glass scattered everywhere as the screen went dark, before he could even think about what he was doing.

"BAKUGOU!" Kirishima exclaimed, leaping out of the way as glass exploded onto the floor with a sickening crack, sending shards skidding everywhere. "What the hell? Was that Kaminari's phone?"

"YES, it was Kaminari's phone, alright? But he did something—he fucking did something! There were things on his phone that he didn't want us to know, and you want to know why? Because he's hiding something, and I don't know what it is yet, but I am this close to finding it! Everyone in this damn school thinks he's innocent, but innocent people don't look up fucking neurotoxins and other psychotic bullshit! I told you, I told you that there was something messed up about this, and I found it, alright? And he knew that I found it, so he went and he wiped it and he...he fucking knows what he did and...gah, motherfuck!"

Bakugou couldn't take it anymore. It was too much. Kaminari, Kirishima, Sero, the phone, everyone thinking he was the bad guy, all of it. Pure, unbridled rage spit out of him, filling his chest, his lungs, blinding his vision. It was all he could see. 

He hadn't gotten mad like this in a long time. But now he was, and he was pissed. He was pissed at how everything was happening, and before he could think, Bakugou was sprinting into his room, hands wrapping around the swivel chair at his desk.

He couldn't see. He couldn't think. All he could do was feel the rage clouding his head and the adrenaline pulsing in his arms, propelling his thrust forward. There was shattering, and then the chair was gone. Chucked through the sliding door in a fit of rage, and Bakugou watched as the chair sailed over the railing and down below, glass exploding onto the balcony.

"Bakugou!"

Kirishima's voice sliced through the air, so sharp and quick that Bakugou suddenly stopped. By the time he was done, Bakugou was out of breath, his face burning red. He hadn't been working out, but he could feel droplets of sweat beading on his forehead, his breath coming out in raspy gasps as though he had been running for hours. His arms dangled at his sides, left loose and tired from the sudden rush. And Bakugou only stood there, silent and panting.

The silence that followed was absolute. It only lasted a few seconds, but Bakugou could feel it filling the space between them like a thick fog, reaching it's icy fingers down his throat, filling his lungs until it seemed almost palpable.

In the silence, Kirishima stood there, staring at Bakugou. At first, he didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. He leaned down, picking up a piece of what used to be Kaminari's phone, then looked back up at Bakugou. His crimson eyes had narrowed to slits, his eyebrows cutting deep into his head.

"Are..are you serious right now?" He finally managed to get out, his voice as low as a whisper. Even so, it still somehow managed to echo all throughout the hall, as if he had yelled it from the treetops. When Bakugou didn't answer, Kirishima rose to his feet, taking a step closer and raising his voice.

"Bakugou, are you fucking serious right now?" His words rang out in the air, sharp and clear, slicing into Bakugou like a knife. He didn't know Kirishima as one to curse very often, so when he did, it came as a surprise. Still, he didn't want to show it. Bakugou knew where the conversation was going. He knew it was heading in a direction he didn't want it to go, but right then, at that moment, he didn't care. All he wanted to do was to be right. So he stood there, glaring holes into Kirishima's head, but before he could say anything, Kirishima cut him off.

"Look at this! Look at this, Bakugou! Don't tell me you don't see this shit!" Kirishima fumed, throwing his arm in a gesture at Bakugou's now-shattered glass door.

"This isn't a damn investigation. This is life, real life, that we're talking about here, and you're over here, rambling on about how Kaminari is psychotic and Sero falling out the window 'wasn't an accident' like all this is some conspiracy theory! It's. Not. These are people's lives that we're talking about here, and what I don't get is how you don't understand that! Kaminari is upset that Sero is in the hospital. He's not ready to talk about it. I told you that. Dammit, I told you that! And still, you go and act like a fucking maniac about it like I didn't say anything at all! Dammit, if you had just listened to me—"

"Listened to what?" Bakugou exclaimed, abruptly cutting Kirishima off. "Listened to how you can't hold your own shit together so you decide to go and be a fucking helicopter over everyone like they can't handle their own shit? If you could just stop being so fucking pathetic, then you might actually be able to look at this and—"

"WELL, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?" Kirishima finally roared, the sheer emotion in his voice stunning Bakugou silent. He took a moment to look at him. Kirishima's entire body quivered, his voice shaking and trembling. When he yelled, it filled the hall, and Bakugou was certain that they could all hear him upstairs. Kirishima must have known that too, but it was obvious he didn't care. He was just focused on Bakugou, his eyes tearing up, his tough tearing down.

"WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO, BAKUGOU? TELL ME. Am I just supposed to roll over and LET all of this happen? Do you want me to just fucking go and keep watching movies and studying in class and doing whatever the hell I want like nothing happened? Because I can't, Bakugou! Something did happen, and I have to remind myself every time I sit down in class, because there's an empty seat next to me, reminding me what happened!"

At this point, Bakugou was pretty sure that Kirishima was talking more to himself than he was to him. He wasn't even looking at him anymore, but instead down at the floor, his trembling hands clasped into fists.

"I was there that night, and I couldn't do anything! Dammit, I still can't do anything! The last time something like this happened was when you were kidnapped, and that was different! That time, I could act to something! I know we were just supposed to wait, but I could still act!"

"Right now, all it is is waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and hoping things turn out right, and I hate it! I fucking hate it! I hate feeling so damn helpless! I was weak, and I couldn't stop it when I needed to, and now I can't do anything at all Is that what you wanted to hear, Bakugou?"

Bakugou wanted to say something. He really did. He wanted to get mad, to tell him that all of this could be avoided, to scream at him about he was being irrational, or stupid, or anything. But instead, nothing came out. It was as though bricks had filled his lungs, removing all the air and leaving him standing there as the blood slowly drained from his face, taking his anger with it. 

Something hit him while Kirishima was talking. Somewhere, in his endless ramblings, while he finally poured himself out, an arrow had struck him. The gears in his brain started turning, replaying Kirishima's words in his head, over and over again, until finally, it started to make sense. I couldn't stop it when I needed to. I was weak. 

It was as though someone had unlocked a door for Bakugou. There was something familiar about the way he said it. Something that started to ring a bell, but he couldn't quite grasp it.

And then it hit him.

The Kamino Ward. The fight with the League of Villains. Waiting for a train back to the dorms had suddenly seemed far, far less important as the screen in the middle of the city flashed with images of All Might in battle. Broken, bloody All Might, deflated and struggling for his life, his demise on display for the entire country. 

But that was only part of it. Bakugou wouldn't admit it then, but now he knows. He knows all too well that that was only part of it, and from the second it happened, it began to rip him apart from the inside out.

Because knowing that he, the kid who idolized All Might, who always formed his dreams around the vision of the number one hero, who wanted to be just like him, had caused the end of the world's symbol of peace? It was too much. Too much for him to speak, to even think, and it ended up stuffed at the bottom of his gut, never to see the light of day.

But it was there. It was still there every moment of every day that followed, slowly tearing its claws through Bakugou with each passing moment.

Bakugou had tried his best to forget what that feeling was like, but now with Kirishima standing here, shaking and heaving in the hallway, eyes rimmed red and hair falling over his head, it all resurfaced at once.

He got it. At that moment, he got it. He got why Kirishima hadn't been able to bounce back from this as he had from the time Bakugou had been kidnapped.

Because this time, there was nothing he could do. And that was tearing him apart.

Instantly, Bakugou felt the anger he had been feeling only moments ago melt away just as quickly as it had erupted. His mind cleared, his breathing slowed, and all that was left was him, Bakugou Katsuki, standing in the middle of his room.

A long, long moment passed. Too long in Bakugou's opinion, and finally, his face screwed up as his muscles clenched.

"Tch," he muttered. "Dammit, Kirishima—"

He never got the chance to finish whatever it was he was going to say. Kirishima burst in mid-sentence, leering up at Bakugou with eyes blazing.

"No, Bakugou. I don't want to hear it. Whatever you're going to say, I don't want to hear it."

Bakugou had a reply to that. He had a million replies to that, and he could have gone on for hours like this, back and forth yelling until one of them finally caved. But before he could, there was a knock at the door.

The sound was sharp and abrupt, out of place in the sea of tension and words of daggers. Bakugou's eyebrows snapped together, and he peered over at the door, wondering who in the hell had the nerve to come to his door right now—

"Kacchan?"

Of.

Fucking.

Course.

Of fucking course, he would show up right now. Right now, of all times, of all times.

"Fuck off, Deku!" Bakugou barked, already feeling his hands curl up into fists. He didn't know what in the hell Deku wanted, but whatever it was, right now was not the fucking time. He was just about ready to chuck something else out his window.

However, Deku, only partially phased, continued through the door. "Come on, Kacchan! I needed to tell you that Mr. Aizawa wanted to see you in his office."

Dammit. In the heat of all this, of everything, Bakugou forgot that he had a fucking audience to watch what he had just done. An audience that was all on Kaminari's side, and now that he thought about it, he was certain that blasting a hole in the commons wall didn't help.

For a brief moment, Bakugou spared a single, flaming glance at Kirishima, but he couldn't meet his eyes. Instead, he turned away and looked at his shoes.

"I think you should go," Kirishima muttered.

With that, Kirishima stepped outside into the brightly lit hallway, leaving Bakugou alone in his dark room.

 Midoriya hadn't been able to witness what happened, but he got there just in time to witness the aftermath.

It was chaos. Pure, unbridled, absolute chaos. No one really explained to him what happened, but when he saw the hole in the wall bearing black scorch marks similar to Bakugou's explosions and everyone crowding around Kaminari's room, he was able to get a pretty good idea.

Now, he stepped to the side as Kirishima stepped out of Bakugou's room, head down and eyes dark. Midoriya hadn't even known he was in there.

Just from the sight of it, it looked as though Kirishima had just stepped out of hurricane. His eyes were bloodshot the color of his hair, deep purple bags sagging underneath them. His shoulders hung down loosely, and as soon as he stepped out of Bakugou's room he let out a low groan, cupping his face in his hands and leaning against the wall.

"Hey, Kirishima!" Midoriya exclaimed, walking over to lean next to him on the wall. "You okay?"

Midoriya knew that Kirishima wasn't doing too well. He was pretty sure everyone in the class knew by now. It was a commonly known fact by now, and Midoriya had tried to approach him once or twice, but each time he was brushed off as though he never asked.

This time though, Kirishima didn't push him away. Instead, he sighed. It was a long, deep one, tired but holding much more than lack of sleep. Removing his hands from his face, he slumped down so that he was sitting on the floor, tilting his head up so that he was looking at the ceiling.

"Midoriya, you've known Bakugou since you were kids, right?" 

It seemed like an odd question, so random that for just a moment, it caught Midoriya off guard.

"What? I-I mean, yeah I guess so," Midoriya replied, quickly getting over his initial shock. "We grew up in the same neighborhood and everything." Sighing, Midoriya slid down on the wall to sit down to sit beside Kirishima in the hallway.

"Do you know why he...does the stuff he does?" Kirishima mumbled, then must have realized how broad his statement was because as soon as the words slipped past his lips he scoffed. "Gah, I mean like...has he always been this stubborn and difficult? Cause like...I don't know, just..." Kirishima stammered and tripped over his words, before seeming to give up altogether.

However, it's enough for Midoriya to understand what he's trying to say. As his eyebrows furrowed together, Midoriya glanced at Bakugou's room, where he can hear scuffling and cursing coming from inside. Glancing back, Midoriya saw Kirishima, exhausted and flustered beside him on the wall with his bloodshot eyes and sagging eye bags.

What exactly went on in there?

Before he can reply, Bakugou emerged from his room, glaring hostility etched upon his face as he completely brushed past Kirishima and Midoriya.

Kirishima, however, takes no notice of Bakugou. "I mean, come on—you know what I mean! Talking all about how the thing with Sero wasn't an accident, calling Kaminari psychotic—it's crazy!"

There was a thin space before Midoriya replied. It was thin enough so that Kirishima didn't notice, but it was there, clear as day. A space where instead of agreeing with what Kirishima said, Midoriya watched Bakugou step into the elevator, shoulders hunched as the doors slid shut behind him.

And during that space, Midoriya thinks. He thinks of the excessive and exaggerated trembling and whimpering from Kaminari as everyone in the building comforted him. He thinks of all the holes in the investigation during the night that Sero fell, and how some of them still haven't added up even now. 

He thinks about how strange everything about this whole situation seems to be.

Midoriya watched Bakugou storm off to the elevator with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah..." Midoriya finally muttered.

"Crazy."

Chapter Text

Kaminari didn't get cold very easily.

He remembers when he was younger, his mom used to joke that he was cold-blooded. He was always the kid walking into school and a t-shirt and basketball shorts. He never really thought much of it. Now though, cold wind wafted into the relative peacefulness of the alleyway, and the shadows that lurked between run-down buildings grew longer and darker under the blankets of cloud hiding the sun.

Leaning against the alley wall, Kaminari felt the cold that had seeped into the bricks now press through his jean jacket and deep in between his shoulder blades. It was almost refreshing. Exhaling a small breath, Kaminari watched his breath stand in front of him. He always liked the cold. It kept him sharp and dulled anyone who couldn't take it.

But he could enjoy the cold from the dorms. There was a reason Kaminari rode the forty-minute bus to get here. These were the parts of the city where parents didn't let their kids walk and police tape was as common as the cracks in the sidewalk.

Kaminari stared down at his hand, watching yellow bolts arch out of the fingertips exposed by his fingerless gloves. It was a way to bide his time without drawing too much attention to himself. And as a dark figure strolled into the alleyway, donned in nothing but a t-shirt and varying types of leather, Kaminari knew his waiting had paid off.

At first, Kaminari didn't look up at his guest. Instead, as soon as he heard the sound of boots slapping against the sidewalk and smelled a scent like smoke, he smirked down at his fingers. Closing his hand, Kaminari twisted it into a fist. He let his fingers dig into his palm and the fingerless leather glove, essentially extinguishing the electricity. "So I see you got my little letter."

The man didn't say anything. Instead, he only walked over to Kaminari, leaning against the wall beside him. "Y'know Shigaraki would wring your neck out if anyone caught you out here talking to me, right? It'd be all over the news in an instant." The man dug into his pocket, pulling out a box of cigarettes and fishing one out. Silently, he brought it up to his mouth before lighting it softly. For a moment, his face was awash in blue light before the head died down to a harsh orange.

Kaminari scoffed, shaking his head. "If you could find a way to secretly slide that fucked up face of yours into the nicer part of town with all the heroes and businessmen, then maybe we'd have ourselves the luxury of options, now wouldn't we? Besides, I didn't peg you as one of Shigaraki's dogs."

And there, in the middle of the alleyway, behind all the police tape and siren wails, shrouded by the dark of the alleyway, the man looked up. Scarred purple lips wrapping around the white of his cigarette, Dabi took in a long, hard suck. His chest expanded with smoke like an ashen balloon. Kaminari could practically see the cinders disappearing down his throat. For a single moment, his eyes flickered, and Kaminari could imagine the dark things creeping behind them.

But instead of acting on them, Dabi only blew a ring of smoke, which broke against Kaminari's face.

Immediately, Kaminari's nose hitched up from the fumes. Knitting his brow together, Kaminari waved away the smoke as he coughed into his fist. "God. You're an idiot for pumping that shit into your lungs. You know that, right?" He shot a glare towards the villain.

At that, Dabi opened his eyes. Blowing out a loopy ring, he stared out at the sidewalk just outside the alleyway with an absent look on his face and said, "Please. If anything in this world kills me, it sure as hell isn't gonna be cancer."

Kaminari only rolled his eyes. "Save the reflective bullshit for someone who actually cares. I didn't call you here to muse about your lifestyle, Dabi." Pushing himself off the wall, Kaminari walked in front of Dabi. Unfortunately, he didn't have the advantage of height on his side, but Kaminari knew he commanded authority in other ways.

Dabi pulled his gaze away from the sidewalk, looking Kaminari up and down with a look of near apathy. "Our lifestyle," he said with a puff as he pulled the cigarette from his mouth, letting it dangle in between his fingertips. "Being up at that fancy hero school sure as hell hasn't made you into one."

Kaminari furrowed his brows together, drawing a hand to his chest in mock pain. "You don't think I'm a good person?" For a moment, Kaminari kept his face locked in injury for a beat or two longer than he should have. He clenched his fist in front of his chest; cinched his eyebrows together. He waited until Dabi noticed; until he could see that he thought he really meant it.

Once he had his attention, Kaminari relaxed his face, letting a smile creep across his lips. With a chuckle, he walked over, slapping Dabi in the arm with the back of his hand. "I got you there, didn't I? Looks like Shigaraki picked the right guy for the job."

Once Dabi registered that Kaminari was messing with him, he scoffed, glancing away. "You're fucking crazy, kid," he murmured, taking another puff of his cigarette.

Kaminari stuck his hands in his jean jacket pockets and shrugged. Deceiving people always gave one the upper hand. They knew more than the one being deceived, which left them open to more fluidity than others. "Twice is crazy. I prefer the term morally-independent genius."

"Oh yeah?" Dabi glanced at Kaminari, flicking ash off the end of his cigarette. "And what does this genius have that's so important to tell me about? I could run back to headquarters right now and rat your ass out for talking with me during your mission." Dabi waved his cigarette at Kaminari like he was picking out a target.

At that, Kaminari smirked. Reaching down, he licked his thumb before bringing it up to the corner of his mouth and wiping away a crumb from breakfast. "You could, you could," he said, strolling up to Dabi with all the confidence in Japan. The smirk never left his face. Tapping his electric yellow converse on the ground, he glanced out at the cars whizzing past, taking care to keep his back to the street. "But you won't, will you?"

Kaminari glanced back at Dabi. He saw nothing change in the man's apathetic gaze, but that seemed to edge him on even more. "The thing is, I know you Dabi. I've met guys like you. You don't care about loyalty or any of that shit. You care about your own ass."

"You're saying that like it's original to me," Dabi scoffed.

"If it was, then where would all the sinners be?" Kaminari chuckled before going on. "But the thing is, you're not bound to All For One or Shigaraki or anyone like that. You're bound to yourself. Which makes you a little more...versatile."

Dabi scoffed. The end of his cigarette glowed in the dim winter alleyway.

Kaminari continued, looking Dabi up and down. "Besides, you're smart. Maybe not as smart as me, but—"

"Wow, thanks. And here I was thinking I was on par than a sixteen-year-old," Dabi interrupted impassively.

"—but you've got more brains in your head than half of the villains in that place."

Kaminari sighed, leaning back against the wall. He talked to Dabi like he was an old friend, even if they both knew he was lying. "Look, I never said I was abandoning the little villain club we have going on here. It's good to keep connections."

However, as he spoke, Kaminari gave a knowing smirk. "But, y'know. It's always good to have a backup plan."

At that, Dabi glanced over. A brief moment passed where a fleeting look of interest flickered over his eyes. "A backup plan?"

"Yeah, you know. In case the whole 'anarchy under the regime of a madman' gig doesn't quite work out."

Kaminari caught Dabi's gaze drifting towards him. The smirk on Kaminari's face grew a little wider.

"I mean, ever since All For One was imprisoned, serving under Shigaraki has been like serving a giant man-child." Kaminari shrugged as he said this, as though he was simply laying out the facts. "He's impulsive. Emotional. If he ever does accomplish something other than spreading chaos purely for chaos, then it's going to be by way of a complete and total fluke."

"So yes, Dabi. To answer your question, 'a backup plan.' And what I have in mind requires a bit more than myself in the midst."

Dabi flexed his eyebrows. In that one, single moment, in the shadows of the alleyway behind the shade of crime, Kaminari knew that he got to him. Somewhere in his honeyed words and minced prose, Kaminari had delivered a bug that crawled into Dabi's skin, working its way into the folds of his brain and changing the tides in his favor, even if it was a little bit.

Dabi breathed out a string of smoke, before glancing at Kaminari out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm listening."

It was too cold for a walk.

There was no point in questioning it. Any sane person would have stayed inside at this time of year. All Izuku had to do was step outside and he could feel his eyebrows beginning to frost over and the tip of his nose begin to go numb. It was almost enough to be considered a natural phenomenon. Over the course of three days, the weather had gone from fair and sunny to a total winter wasteland.

He couldn't really complain about the cold, though. It was him who suggested a walk to the ramen bar. And Todoroki, being immune to the cold as he was, barely even took a moment to consider it.

Besides, if asked to pick between -5° C temperatures or staying in the dorms, Izuku would bundle up and brave the outdoors any day. At least, today anyway. However, as he trudged over the remnants of salt on a cold, iceless sidewalk, Izuku had to admit that he didn't see much of a difference.

"Midoriya, the light."

Startled, Izuku looked up, blinking his eyes through the haze of snow flurries. Todoroki stood in the middle of the street, halfway across the crosswalk as the numbers on the light slowly ticked down. Hands in his windbreaker and bicolored hair billowing softly, Todoroki stared at Izuku expectantly.

"Oh! Sorry," Izuku exclaimed, quickly rushing across the street to Todoroki. He hadn't even seen the light change.

Todoroki didn't say anything. He only stood in the middle of the street, waiting until Izuku caught up to start walking. Izuku was used to that. Todoroki didn't talk much, and when he did, it was usually only when he really had something to say. He valued actions over words, and Izuku appreciated that. Hanging out with Todoroki always felt like a nice change from the daily stress factors of life, which is why he tended to do it often. During these walks, Izuku was usually the one who kept up a conversation.

Except for when he didn't feel like talking. Then they walked in silence.

But Izuku didn't mind the silence. He never did well talking when his thoughts were half-occupied, and as of right now, his mind was working a bit faster than it usually did.

"You're distracted." Todoroki's voice suddenly sliced through a five-minute lull.

"Hm?" Izuku glanced up at Todoroki through the snow flurries blurring his vision. "What do you mean—" Just then, Izuku suddenly stopped, frozen in his tracks by something in his path.

"Your foot is in the middle of a snowdrift."

Izuku felt waves of heat rush into his cheeks. "Oh—yeah, I guess it is." Giving a small, nervous laugh, Izuku yanked his foot out of the pile of snow, shaking off clinging bits before he continued walking. Todoroki only stared at him a moment longer, before focusing again on the sidewalk.

They continued walking in the serene quiet until the bright red sign of the ramen bar gleamed neon through the snow. Stepping inside, it was a slap of warmth in the face of the icy nothingness outside the doors.

Izuku allowed himself to give a small contented sigh. This was nice. Nothing in the shop had changed. Izuku wasn't necessarily a creature of habit, but when things went wrong, he liked to keep an eye out for little rocks of comfort. He liked to think of Todoroki as one of them, and in this case, ramen bar could count too.

The bar hadn't been here long; it was only built a few months ago. Izuku only ever came here when Todoroki was with him, but right now, that had to count for something. Chaos was a concept Izuku didn't like to deal with, and now, Todoroki and the ramen bar and everything associated with it was as far away from chaos and evil as possible.

And so, as Izuku sat down with Todoroki in a small booth in the corner of the ramen bar, he took special care to glance over his shoulder and make sure there were no fans. He didn't mind hero fans—in fact, he still considered himself one of the biggest ones—but right now, he didn't feel like dealing with all the attention that came with being at U.A. He just wanted a single moment alone with him and his friend, where no one and nothing could touch him.

It was a shame that that was a lot harder to achieve than it seemed.

"Midoriya, I think you're gonna tear the menu."

Izuku looked up from the menu he hadn't been reading. His eyes had focused on something a bit farther beyond the concept of what kind of noodles to get. He didn't even realize how hard he had been grasping the list of food until he looked down and saw that his knuckles were the same shade as the napkins.

"Oh—sorry," Izuku said, quickly loosening his grip. "It would kind of suck if we were thrown out for tearing up their menus, right?" He gave a small chuckle at his attempt at a joke, but it sounded forced, even to him.

Luckily for him, Todoroki didn't seem to notice. "I don't think they would throw us out. They would probably just get us a new menu," he said, his own menu untouched in the corner of the table. He always got the same thing whenever they went out—cold soba.

Izuku sighed. Suddenly, he threw his menu down on the table, leaning his head forward and placing his face in his hands.

He could practically feel the surprise in Todoroki's voice. "Midoriya, are you alright?" He asked, leaning forward.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine." Izuku surprised himself at how deflated his own voice sounded.

"I'm sorry, Todoroki, it's just...doesn't this feel a little weird to you?"

Todoroki's brows furrowed together, his face shifting from concern to uncertainty. "...the ramen bar?"

"Well, yeah...no...I don't know, all this is weird." Izuku sighed and shifted himself so that his arms were folded on the table, his chin resting in the center. When he said this, he lifted his hand and waved it a bit.

"All...what?" The confusion on Todoroki's face was clear.

"All this. All the walks and the ramen bar and the soba and...and just..." Izuku's voice trailed off as he slowly ran out of ways to spin his thoughts into coherent words, but his head remained just as chaotic and messy as it had ever since the Incident.

He couldn't just "sit down." He didn't know why he thought that he could. Ever since the Incident, his brain had been a cacophony of colliding theories and nonlinear events and he said-she said that he couldn't shut off if he tried.

It made him anxious. The thoughts were there to greet him every time he so much as sat down, and they forced him in paced circles around his room every time he had a moment to himself. It was almost as exhausting as training; like he had a second responsibility he couldn't escape sitting on top of his chest. It squeezed the air from his lungs and smothered his mind every time he entered his classroom.

He didn't see how he could just sit in a ramen bar and eat noodles and talk and laugh like everything was alright when it wasn't. There wasn't an elephant in the room—there was an elephant in his mind. And that was so, so much worse.

Todoroki was silent. Izuku could tell that he didn't completely get what he was saying, and Izuku didn't expect him to. Todoroki wasn't exactly a therapist. But then again, Izuku wasn't sure he wanted that right now.

Resting his head on the table, Midoriya gazed out over the tops of his arms through half-lidded eyes. The snow flurries slowly turned into flakes right before his eyes, blanketing the ground the way it always did when it snowed just the way it was supposed to. He was hoping that maybe he would be able to get some peace here. Guess he was wrong.

"I don't see how we can just sit around right now," Izuku mumbled.

Izuku kept his eyes staring out the window. A curious hand of cold pressed against the glass, beckoning Izuku forward. He kept his eyes trained on the frost-laced streets while the waitress came and took their orders, Todoroki ordering for both of them. Once she was gone, Izuku felt a bundle of warmth suddenly press against one of his hands.

Glancing over, Izuku saw Todoroki staring out the window with him, holding his hand in his. It wasn't much. It was just a small gesture; nothing too extreme. However, warmth spread all over Izuku's body like an oil spill the second it happened.

"Hey...Todoroki." Izuku kept his head on the table, but glanced over at his friend.

"Hm?" Todoroki didn't look down to meet Izuku's eyes, but addressed him when he spoke.

"Why do you think villains do what they do?"

At that, Todoroki glanced down at Izuku. "Explain," he said, curious eyes following his friend.

Izuku bit his lip, trying to come up with a way to bring to words what he thought. "Why do they do it, as in...why do they hurt other people? I mean...they don't do it because they're scared, or they're protecting themselves. They just do it. Why do you think they do that?"

Todoroki was silent. He was silent for so long, Izuku had to glance up to make sure he had heard him. However, when he saw Todoroki's eyes focusing straight ahead out the window, deep in thought, Izuku knew better than to interject.

"I guess they're selfish," Todoroki finally said after what seemed like a small eternity.

Izuku felt his eyebrows furrow together. "Selfish? What do you mean?"

"Selfish like they decide what they want, and think of other people like things in the way of getting it, or even tools to get it. It seems cruel to people who don't think like that, but it doesn't mean anything to those who see other people as less than."

Todoroki paused for a moment, as though thinking, then continued. "Selfish. Self-centered. Focused. Lacking empathy. Anything might work, but the one thing they have in common is they typically don't factor people as people into the equation of getting what they want."

To that, Izuku was silent. He found himself dumbstruck; not entirely sure what to say to that. What Todoroki said wasn't exactly poetry or earth-shattering, but it was something Izuku had never thought of before.

As soon as he could remember even feigning an interest in the world of heroics, Izuku had always seen villains as "the other guys." They were insane. Immoral. A different species altogether. They hurt innocent people, and always got punched by the good guys. That was how you knew a villain was evil.

A villain was never a person. They were an icon; a target for the heroes and the public to direct their aggression at. Even now, after fighting real villains that said that they stood for something—or at least, tried to stand for something—Izuku still had trouble seeing them as little more than the bad guys.

He had never been able to relate to villains. Even when their ideas and philosophies and everything that made them do what they do were spread out on the table, Izuku could never get his mindset to link up with theirs. He never understood just what it was that made a villain tick. no matter how hard he tried. He supposed that's why it was always so easy for him to draw a line between good and evil.

Izuku preferred it more when that line stayed clear.

It used to be cut and dry: if you did bad things, you were bad, and if you did good things, you were good. There was no exception for doing the right thing. But now, Izuku was left to wonder.

He had seen Kaminari in action. He had seen him fight villains and help classmates and make people laugh. That was something he was especially good at. He and Kaminari were never best friends or anything, but Izuku always liked Kaminari. He admired his optimism and his will to do good things. It was what made him a hero. He didn't see how someone like that could do things that Izuku thought that he might have done.

Izuku saw the patterns. He saw discrepancies and strangeness in the continuity of Sero's injury that made the whole thing seem like a glitch in the matrix. Something wasn't right here. The only problem was that he didn't know what that thing was.

Not until yesterday, anyway.

Kacchan's outburst hadn't come out of nowhere. He just didn't work like that, and Izuku felt like he knew that better than anyone. He saw the rage on Kacchan's face when he stormed out of Kaminari's room. Not just rage, but frustration.

There, standing in that hallway, interrupting something deep and private and real, Midoriya got a glimpse into something he wasn't supposed to see. He had been handed the blueprint for a bomb and instructed to make the choice of building it or not.

He wasn't sure about his choice before. Now, he thought he knew.

There was a piece of paper by Bakugou's door.

He didn't see when it had been slid under. To be honest, he had spent most of his Saturday sleeping or hitting his punching bag. He didn't feel like going out into the dorms and hanging out with everyone; so instead, he slept and he punched things.

So far, it seemed to be working.

When he saw the slip of paper, he had to admit: curiosity prickled under his skin. It didn't look like anything official; in fact, it looked like something written on a notecard. Reaching down, Bakugou slid it off of his floor and read.

I believe you,
Meet me in my room at midnight
—Deku