Chapter Text
Growing up, Katsuki had always been told there was safety in numbers. He guessed it made sense for the weaklings, but being roped in with those assholes always pissed him off. He had known he was destined to stand apart from the moment he first summoned magic to his palm.
Where he was raised, all children were introduced to basic elemental magic, and only those with exceptional talent became true magicians. Katsuki came from a family drawn to fire, but so did the Todoroki bastard, who mastered flames with ease. Then, just to show off, he mastered ice just as quickly. Every time Katsuki tried to summon fire to prove he could do it too, and better, the flames always blew up in his face. The failure quickly became his secret weapon, a technique exclusive to only him.
Though as much as Todoroki angered him, with his flippant attitude and ease of success without even trying, Deku pissed him off even more. The useless worm could never make any magic spark from his fingertips, which never seemed to stop him from trying. Every time he said he’d someday become a master magician, Katsuki had to fight the urge to laugh in his face. He didn’t fight that urge very hard.
Idiots like him, who thought they were better than Katsuki, and assholes like Todoroki, who had the ability to be better than Katsuki, filled him with a rage that constantly simmered beneath his skin. After the attack, he stopped trying to hide that anger, which motivated him to surpass all the damn idiots around him. Although standing out from others had its drawbacks, which he learned the night they came for him.
Now, Katsuki was used to being targeted.
A guy living on his own was easy prey. He had no backup, no support system. Anyone passing through would wrongly think he was a fool to willingly choose isolation during such dangerous times. Whenever Katsuki sensed something off in the air, he knew it couldn’t be friendly.
People have attacked him countlessly over the years in an attempt to take what wasn’t theirs. Most of the time, Katsuki had detected them in advance and was able to scare them off with his admittedly mediocre, yet intimidating, magic. Only once did a group surprise him. He woke up to a man hovering over him with a blade pressed to his neck, and blasted the offending arm off his body. The knife was a decent one, so Katsuki decided to keep it for himself.
Eventually, he developed a bit of a reputation. Anyone with any amount of sense knew to stay far away, though occasionally someone who hadn’t heard the warnings would pass through. Even less often, a band of idiots would think they were strong enough to seek him out. Unfortunately for them, there had only ever been one group able to scare Katsuki, and they were long gone. No one had the power to hurt him anymore.
He spent most days tending to the small garden beside his hut. The vegetables and medicinal herbs he grew there were essential for survival, but also, it was relaxing work. Plants would never try to kill you, as long as you weren’t a dumbass.
Katsuki paused in his work when he sensed something in the nearby forest. The presence was curious, not threatening. Yet the skin on the back of his neck prickled several more times throughout the day and into the night. He refused to sleep and kept watch next to the door, with only the waning moonlight to see by. Every time something rustled in the trees outside, he gripped his axe even tighter.
Nothing happened except Katsuki lose a night of perfectly good sleep.
He almost forgot about it until a few weeks afterward when he woke up abruptly in the middle of the night. Whatever noise woke him did not sound again, but his pounding heart refused to slow.
Early the next morning, as the first rays of sunlight began cresting over the horizon, he knew he wasn’t alone.
Sure enough, a figure soon appeared in the distance, coming from the direction of the closest village. His muscles tensed at the sight, but he forced himself not to make any sudden moves, and waited impatiently as the person approached.
When they got close enough, he realized it was Jirou. His defensive stance relaxed somewhat, but he was still on edge.
“Are you alone?” Katsuki asked.
She faltered before rolling her eyes. Her hair was so dark it looked purple in the sunlight. “Ten years. You don’t see me in ten years, and that’s all you have to say?”
He scanned the path behind her, but didn’t see anyone else. He shrugged.
“God. Screw you, asshole.”
He glared at her with as much animosity as he could muster. “What the hell do you want? How’d you even know where to find me?”
“We’ve all heard stories of the crazy man who kills anything that moves.” She crossed her arms with a scowl. “Besides, I’ve always been good at tracking people. Don’t act like you forgot.”
He decided not to reply to that. “So what do you want?”
She took a deep breath. “You haven’t changed at all.”
“What do you want?”
She stared at him, unimpressed. “We need your help.”
“No.”
Her arms fell to her sides. “You didn’t even—”
He turned and started to walk away. “Don’t care.”
“It’s a dragon.”
That made him stop. Instinctively, Katsuki fingered the necklace of teeth hanging around his neck, and the one tooth that was exceptionally larger than the others.
“There have been signs of one circling the area for a while now, but last night was the first time it was spotted for certain, just outside the village. It hasn’t done any damage yet, but—”
“But what?” Katsuki asked, turning around. “You want me to come back and help you fight it? Is that it?”
She marched forward until she was standing directly in front of him. Her eyes burned. “Yes.”
Jirou had probably been the closest thing to a friend he’d had near the end, but not even she was enough to persuade Katsuki to give a shit. “Yeah, no thanks,” he said. “When have any of you assholes ever done anything for me? You can all burn in hell, for all I care.”
She took a step back, eyes wide.
He turned around again, thinking that was the end of it.
“What about revenge?” she asked. “You don’t want revenge for what a dragon did to—?”
“If it dares,” he snapped, cutting her off, “to come anywhere near me, then I’ll destroy it, and add to my collection.”
After a moment, he heard her quiet footsteps begin to walk away. Despite himself, he turned back to face her and asked, “How’d you even get here so fast, anyway? I’m at least two days away from your stupid village.”
She gazed at him without emotion. “Uraraka flew us nearby. Flight’s always been her specialty. She’d have come here yourself, if she thought you’d listen to her.”
He glanced down at the hard earth beneath his feet. “Did she ever marry that idiot Deku?”
A snort of derision made him look up again. “Why do you care?” Jirou asked. She faced him head on, hands hidden in the folds of her cloak. “Are you even happy out here? Or do you actually enjoy being miserable all the time?”
He didn’t answer.
Her eyes glinted. “Screw you, Bakugou.”
He didn’t watch her leave.
Katsuki tried to imagine it, the dragon returning and setting the entire shitty village aflame. He could almost feel the heat against his skin as the cheap homes crumbled into ash, one by one.
Maniacal laughter bubbled out of his chest.
Let them burn.