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Katsuki tries to make the most of every situation. In his victories, he remembers the specific actions he took to earn the win— whether it be in combat training or everyday life— so that he could apply those skills again. In his losses, he points out where he went wrong and avoids making those same mistakes in the future. Everything he goes through is an opportunity to propel himself to whatever goal he has his mind set on. He uses his environment to his advantage, and pinpoints his enemies' weaknesses so he can exploit them in battle. No matter what, he can always find a way to get something out of a situation. But there’s one situation he can never get out of. Rather, there’s one skill he knows he’ll never be able to attain again.
Setting off explosions as a quirk is a bitch to the ears. Especially when it first forms as a young child, and you don’t see the harm in setting them off whenever you please. He remembers how it happened, though he doesn’t recall specific details. He was about five years old, and was frustrated at someone about something or the other. He’d only had his quirk for about a year, so he still didn’t have much control over it yet. He was in the middle of having one of his many tantrums alone in his room, yelling at the top of his lungs with his hands at the sides of his head. Without meaning to, he’d set off an explosion that happened to be harsher than the ones he was able to consciously do himself. He remembers falling to the ground and could feel himself screaming, but the loud ringing penetrating his ears drowned it out. Then everything went black.
When he woke up, he was in a hospital bed. He hadn’t even realized his parents were there until he noticed something moving at his right. They both rushed over to him, panicked. His father was crying and his mother was yelling at him. For a moment, he was grateful that he couldn’t hear what she was saying. But he had a bad headache punching at the walls of his skull that made his vision swim a bit. His mom stopped yelling when he swayed, worry and anger leaving her expression, allowing confusion to enter in its wake. She continued talking, worry quickly creeping its way back into her features. He remembers her look of fear more than anything else.
“HUH?” He yelled back, ignoring the pounding in his head. He brought a hand up to cup his ear but was surprised to feel soft bandages at the side of his head.
Eventually a doctor came in. It didn’t take long to pronounce him properly deaf. The doc told his parents that it wasn’t uncommon for patients with concussions to experience a loss of hearing. They were to keep him in the hospital for a while to monitor him and see if there are any changes. He doesn’t remember much from his time at the hospital, appart from the boredom and the few visits Deku payed him.
There were no changes to his left ear. He’d regained a bit of hearing in his right, but only enough to pick up a few muffled words.
Over the years, him and his parents learned sign language as a form of communication. He could still talk, even if his speech became a bit slurred as he pronounced new words. It was the most efficient way for them to talk. He surprised himself at how quickly he picked it up. Learning together brought his family closer, but you wouldn't be able to tell with all the bickering. Even that useless idiot Deku learned a few phrases.
He never really minded not hearing until middle school. At first people would often poke fun at him for being deaf, and would try to pull his hearing aids out his ears. But, with a few angry explosions, people in class quickly learned who the boss was. There was one time when Deku had shoved a kid in their class for teasing him, the bastard. As if Katsuki needed a quirkless loser to defend him. He too learned to stay out of Katsuki’s way.
The only thing that really still bothers him about what happened is the scars that the explosion left. They don’t grow hair, so he had to find a way to style the rest of his hair to cover them. But his ears and sideburns remained visibly marred, which was something he hated to be pointed out. Once, in the begining of the year, Recovery Girl was helping him with some minor injuries he'd gotten while sparring with Kirishima, and he'd asked if she could do anything about his skin. She gave him a comforting pat on the knee, which only worked to fuel his quickly growing frustration, and told him that her quirk could fix injuries, but not their afteraffects. He left her office as fast as possible to go kick some trees as a way of venting his embarrassment. Probably not his best idea, since it left him bruised.
Since the burns had fully healed when he was a kid, the scars had a tendency to itch during late spring to summer when temperatures rise. Every now and then, he finds a tube of moisturizing cream in front of his door in the dorms. At first, he was outraged to find it. Seeing it was proof that no matter what he did, someone still pitied the poor deaf guy who picked at his head. He doesn’t bring it up or make a scene, though. Something about the whole class knowing that he’s secretly insecure about his scars just doesn’t sit right. It would only leave more room for them to feel bad for him. He’d probably prefer they all make fun of him than that. He can scare them into not laughing at him, but he's found that you can't scare people into not caring. When he cornered Deku and asked (ie: demanded) to know if he’s the one who did it, he only shakily said it wasn’t him and backed away, promising not to mention it to any of the other students. Of course he could have been lying, but Katsuki couldn’t physically do anything to him in the dorms, not wanting to get in trouble for fighting him again. Now whenever he finds a new tube, he quietly accepts it. At least it’s not fully useless.
Now that he thinks about it, being a deaf student kind of has its perks. Like when Deku tries to talk to him, he’ll reach up and turn off his hearing aids. That’s always fun. Deku gets so mad when he does it. He’d tried that on his mother once when he felt particularly ballsy, but that only led to her signing her frustrations at him. Then, in a wave of confidence and simply wanting to be petty, be brought his hands up and covered his eyes. That led to him receiving a few hard smacks to his arm. The woman was unfairly strong, and nearly knocked him over. She didn’t even have a quirk that boosted her strength, she was just a beast all on her own.
And whenever one of his classmates acts like an ass, he’ll curse them out in sign language. The only downside to that one is that over the years, Deku continued to teach himself how to sign, so he understands most of it and laughs with him. Once he taught Kaminari and Ashido how to sign ugly bitch and told him it meant hi, how are you? Then they went the whole day calling people ugly bitches until the whole class started doing it. He knew Deku would find it funny so he wouldn’t rat him out, and they both laughed when even that wet blanket Iida joined in. But, apparently, Mr. Aizawa knows some sign and understood what they were saying. Or he saw Katsuki’s smug and amused reaction to the whole thing and knew it couldn’t have been good. Either way, he got detention. Still, it was totally worth it. He doesn’t plan on ever refraining from causing trouble. Like everything else in his life, he'll use his disability to his advantage.