Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1 - Wait! We have to do what?!

Walking in with a woman dressed in business-casual attire, Aizawa started class with his usual no nonsense attitude.
“Alright class this is Heartfelt. I'm sure you all already know her, so pay attention Midoriya. None of your hero fanboy tangents today please.”
Satisfied that the green haired boy looked properly abashed, he continued on “alright class, 1-A is going to be Guinea pigs of a sort. Short story? Heartfelt is going to use her quirk on you. Long story? I'll let her explain.”
Climbing into his yellow sleeping bag, Aizawa gave the newcomer the stage.
Fortunately, she was a hero, even if she was a support hero, and took it in step.
“Okay, the hero association has decided that with the League of Villains and other villain groups getting larger and bolder, the heroes facing them need to have better teamwork and trust so even unusual teams can operate as efficiently as possible. That's where I come in. I won't tell you exactly what my quirk can do but, I can use it to create markers of a sort on all of you. These markers will represent events in your life that can be considered a part of your current self. They helped make you who you are. Now the project in this class is to earn the trust of the others and get to know them. You will want them to tell you of these events. If they do, a new marker of that person's color will show up on you. I will place your personal markers on your dominant arm and set any earned markers to appear on your non-dominant arm. This project will last your entire first year. Any questions?”
Iida, always the one to ask any question, immediately raised his hand.
“Yes?”
“What about anyone who is ambidextrous? How will their marks be placed?”
“In that case they can choose which arm will have what. Any others?”
Bakugou raised his hand to the mild surprise of everyone else.
“Yes?”
“And if we don't want to tell anyone anything?”
At this Iida immediately started scolding him.
“This is an important project set by the hero associ-”
“Then don't tell them anything.”
Iida quickly fell silent at this.
Seeing everyone's eyes on her, Heartfelt went deeper into the explanation.
“The most important part of this project is willingness. If you don't want to talk about something don't. We don't want any of you saying something to the others unless you want to do so. We want to encourage you to yes, but you should think of the markers as more of something to help the teachers group you together for different assignments or similar things. Not some goal you have to meet. Okay? Any other questions?”
Here, Asui raised her hand.
“Yes?”
“How come it's being tested here kero?”
“We wanted the environment to be as controlled as possible. If we started grouping different heroes together to see results, situations could get out of hand. Also, by testing it at UA, if we get positive results, then other schools should start emulating it. Anything else?”
Seeing nobody else raising their hand, Heartfelt went to the next step.
“Alright the process will take a bit more than half of the time for homeroom, so let's get started. For privacy, I will place the markers on you at Recovery Girl's office. Aoyama you're up first so follow me please. Aizawa said it's self-study while you wait.”
After Heartfelt and Aoyama left, the majority of the class started talking.
“Do you think this was decided by the attack on the USJ last week?”
“That sounds reasonable, but I think this might have been in the works for a while.”
With similar discussions taking place in each group if students, they started grouping together and growing louder until “why am I only hearing Bakugou studying? I said self-study. So be quiet and study. Don't wake me up again until homeroom is over.”
The class quickly and quietly went back to their seats and began studying. It was completely silent except for the exchange of students.
“ Ashido-san, you were requested next. ”
“Okay!”
One by one, all of the students of 1-A were called up until Momo returned to the classroom as the final one to have had the marks placed with Heartfelt behind her.
“Now, before I leave, I’m going to go a little further in depth. First, the mark will not work unless they are under the effect of my quirk. It isn’t anything fancy, but it does stop the mark from appearing on someone who might be passing by and overhears something. It will also muddle what is overheard so a stranger won’t learn your secrets. Only someone from your class will actually hear what you say. Second, anyone who earned a mark cannot tell it to anyone who does not have the same mark, and anyone who does not have the same mark will be treated as a stranger according to the first point I made. Third, how bright the mark is will also be watched during this time. The more noticeable the mark is, the more details your friend knows. Fourth, and most important,” here she stopped and looked at the class to make sure they were all paying attention.
“There are two ways for you to tell someone of the events. The first and the one I recommend is to simply talk about it. The more in depth you go about it, the more defined the mark your friend earns will be. The second method requires a certain level of care. If you so desire, you can draw the person into the memory itself. In doing so however, they will live it exactly as you did, so any injuries or emotions you felt at the time will be forced on them. For example, say you broke an arm, your friend would have to endure that pain. You will be allowed to use this way but be aware that even happy memories can be overwhelming. To share a memory like this, simply have your friend touch the proper mark and will the memory shared. Also, don’t worry about keeping them straight, it will be almost instinctive. Any last questions?”
Seeing that no hands came up, Heartfelt decided to take her leave.
“Alright then, if any of you do have questions, Erasurehead knows how to get in touch with me. Erasure? Won’t you escort a girl out?”
To a bit of surprise from the class, the teacher actually did get up and walk her out, albeit with some grumbles.

As soon as the adults were gone, the class erupted into idle chatter.
“This is so exciting, don’t you think Deku?”
“Hu-huh, oh yeah, it does seem kinda exciting Uraraka.”
“I must admit as well that this task does seem interesting.”
“Oh, come on Iida! Be excited!”
“I HAVE FIVE MARKS! BET NO ONE CAN BEAT THAT!”
At the loud yell, the class turned towards the blond boy that had a lightning bolt in his hair, Denki Kaminari. Hearing the challenge in his words, everyone began comparing the number of marks they had.
“Three!”
“Four!”
“Koda says he has two.”
After a few minutes of general chaos, Kaminari was still in the lead with five.
“Ha-ha! Who’s left?”
The red-head, Kirishima, was the first to answer, “I think it’s only Midoriya, Todoroki and Bakugou left now.”
Turning their attention to said boys, they were met with three different reactions. Midoriya looked like he was panicking, Todoroki had his usual stoic look on his face, and Bakugou had noise cancelling headphones on and was studying and had apparently missed the entire exchange.
“Uh any volunteers?” Sero tried to at least not be overbearing.
Surprisingly, it was the two-toned boy who spoke up first. “Five.”
“No way, man! We’re the same!”
“How about you Deku? How many do you have?”
“Um-well-that’s-I mean…. I have six.” Silence followed the green boy’s admission before the explosion.
“No way! You have the most! That’s so cool! I bet your life is really interesting!”
“Ashido, I think you’re making him nervous, kero.”
“Sorry about that!”
Kaminari sighed, “well I guess we have our winner.”
“Huh? But no one’s asked Kacchan yet?”
“I don’t know, he just seems like a spoiled brat to me. He probably doesn’t have any interesting stories.”
“That isn’t true Mineta! Kacchan is a very interesting individual!”
“I have been meaning to ask you about that actually,” the tall black-haired girl, Momo, piped up, “You have nicknames for each other. Are you friends? Because you don’t seem to get along.”
At this, most of the class started murmuring agreements.
“Now that I think about it, she is right.”
“No way they’re friends, Midoriya is to nice.”
“Bu-but we are- or were- childhood friends!”
“So why does he seem to hate your guts?”
“Yeah, that training exercise was brutal to watch.”
“I’m not sure, but he’s always earnest so it’s complicated?”
“Sounds like he’s just a brute to me. At least it means less competition for the girls.”
Six voices synchronized in a shrill, “Mineta you pervert!”
Hoping to save his classmate from the girl’s wrath, and out of general curiosity, Kirishima spoke up, “well, I’m gonna ask him.”
“Huh?! Kirishima, are you crazy?!”
“What? We can’t just leave him out.” So, saying, the brave warrior approached what the others thought would be his doom. Especially when he tapped the ash-blonde’s shoulder to get his attention.
“The hell you want extra? Can’t you see I’m studying?”
“Hey man! We’re having a little competition to see you has the most marks! So, we were wondering how many you have?”
“Why should I tell you extras shit?”
“C’mon man! Don’t be like that! We’re just having some fun!”
“I came here to become a hero, not waste time on bullshit.”
“Please man? I’ll leave you alone if you tell me?”
“Fine! Thirteen, now piss off.” Pulling his headphones back on, the temperamental boy went back to ignoring the rest of the class. Because of that however, he missed the shock that passed through the class. A shock that was currently being felt by their teacher down the hall.

A few minutes earlier....

“Alright Heartfelt, what is it?”
“What? I can’t ask a handsome man to escort me out?”
“Considering you called me a hobo yesterday? No.”
“Maybe there was no reason?”
“Since you are one of the few people I know that does not like wasting my time over stupid things, I would hope not.”
“You’re right there is a reason.”
“And that would be?”
Instead of responding right away, Heartfelt remained silent until they were in front of Nezu’s office. “An ominous feeling.”
“Shit.” Despite Heartfelt not having a combat-oriented quirk, her hero instincts were some of the sharpest he knows.
Once they told Nezu about it, he had called the rest of the faculty. UA took the well-being of their students very seriously.
“What can you tell us about this foreboding feeling you have?” Despite having his signature smile on his face, All-Might’s solemnity could be felt throughout the entire room.
Instead of coming out and saying exactly what her concern was, Heartfelt responded with an unusual question.
“Recovery-Girl, All-Might, if you were to think back in your entire lives, how many moments would you say define you?”
“Pardon dear?”
“How many moments do you think define you?
At this point there was a general confusion in amongst the teachers, so Midnight spoke up, “I’m sorry, but I thought we were discussing the students?”
“We are, but these two are the ones who have been in the hero business the longest and have seen more than the rest of us. I need them to answer this.”
“I would say around ten or so dear.”
“As would I.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
Of all the possible way their guest could have responded, this was not what they were expecting to hear.
“Alright, enough suspense please. Are the listeners ok?”
Letting out a long sigh, the support hero stepped over to the window. “Honestly? I don’t know.”
Looking up from his tea, the principal finally spoke up. “Anything you can explain, even just a theory, would help us keep the students safe.”
After a few minutes of silence, she spoke up again. “Alright. However, I will need to explain some things that I’ve noticed from those who have been exposed to my quirk.”
“Then please go on.”
“First, defining moments can change. What might be important to someone now might not always be there. Second, two people might have the exact same experience, but only one of them might consider it defining. So, there is some variation in how many moments anyone might have at a given time. Third, high school students generally have between two, the manifestation of their quirks and acceptance into their dream schools being the most common, to four marks. The other two often being unusually close friendships.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but you just said there could be essentially any amount of variation between the number of marks.” Aizawa, who had somehow pulled out his yellow cocoon before he spoke up, was beginning to feel the same dread he imagined Heartfelt had.
“Yes, but enough variation that the ‘I don’t give a crap about anything’ student, who as far as I can tell has no close friends, has more than double the number of marks than anyone else in his class? I don’t buy it. Especially since he has more than most pros I’ve met.”
Finishing his tea, Nezu stood up and joined Heartfelt at the window. “I assume there are other students we will need to watch over besides Mr. Bakugou? Even half of what exceeds pros is more than they should have.”
“Yes, the students who are concerning me are Kaminari and Todoroki, even though five isn’t outrageous. Midoriya has six which is a bit more concerning, but Bakugou’s thirteen is still what worries me the most.”
“Aizawa? We will need to keep a close eye on this class it seems.”
Aizawa sighed in exasperation. “Understood.”

This was going to be a long and difficult year for everyone.

Chapter Text

Monday mornings. The bane of all existence. Especially for anyone who has to be a ‘responsible adult’. Actually, that’s just mornings in general. Why Aizawa let Nezu talk him into teaching is beyond anyone’s understanding. He should have just been a regular underground hero. Patrol at night, sleep during the day. No, scratch that, Present Mic would never let that happen. Damn it. Life sucked bad enough as it was, throw in a group of bratty kids who have the audacity to not have their problems solved by cookie-cutter solutions, and life becomes a literal hell. Add in the space cadet, who is most likely going to short circuit himself and walk head first down the largest flight of steps on campus; the fire dick’s robotic son, who doesn’t even understand basic social interactions; the disaster child, whose personal goal it must be to break every damn bone in his body at least five times; and the explosive Pomeranian who apparently has more issues and secrets than anyone else, and you get Aizawa’s life. Damn it. He was either the worst criminal the world would ever see in his past life, or his next one was going to be one of luxury. Hopefully the latter, so he can catch up on sleep.
“Alright class, sit down.”
At the instant silence, Aizawa almost felt pleased. ‘They can learn apparently.’
“Listen closely. There has been a change in your syllabus, and it was one of the major points of this semester. It won’t change anything in the long run, but any questions?”
Seeing Yaoyorozu raise her hand from the corner of his eye, he directed his stare at her. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry Aizawa-sensei, but I don’t think any of us received syllabi.”
“That would be because I never gave you any.”
He almost had to smirk at the collective face-plant his class had. Almost.
“Any other questions?”
Seeing Iida raise his hand, Aizawa felt the urge to ignore him. A good student, but way to rigid. You can’t be a good hero if you don’t have an open mind.
“Yes?”
“If there is indeed a syllabus, should we not, as students, receive a copy so that we may be prepared for our studies? This would be a terrible mark on U.A.’s reputation!”
“Since I never follow any syllabi, you would never use it anyway. It would most likely just cause issues. Anything else?”
Midoriya was the next to raise his hand. ‘Of course, the disaster child.’
“Yes?”
“If you never follow a syllabus, why are you telling us about any changes?”
“Because for some reason, I still have to tell you all when major points are rearranged, even if you would never know it. Anyone else?”
Seeing that no other hands were coming up, he decided to move on.
“Alright then. Now, normally this would be after the Sports Festival, but you all need to select hero names in case you need to use them in the festival. Midnight will be here within five or ten minutes to critique, so start thinking.”
“Um, Aizawa-sensei?”
Looking over at Midoriya who had spoken up, Aizawa felt a headache building up. ‘Problem child.’
“Yes, Midoriya?”
“Why are we coming up with hero names to use in the Sports Festival?”
‘Because apparently some of you have severe issues that we don’t want to risk worsening by broadcasting to much identifiable information such as names to the world.’ As tempting as it was to say it out loud, Aizawa maintained his straight face and did not.
“A whim.”
Aizawa most certainly did not get pleasure from watching his class face fault. Not even a little bit.
As soon as he recovered, Iida’s hand shot straight up. “Sensei! A whim is not a good reason for U.A. to suddenly change their syllabi! It is rather unheroic! Especially for something so important!”
“Yes, but a whim is a better way to explain it. The official reason is that because of the USJ attack, we want to limit how much of our student’s personal information is made known.”
“That’s good though right? I mean it’s for our safety, so it’s very heroic and manly.”
Directing his gaze at the bottle-red, Aizawa began unrolling his sleeping bag. “Except, every previous year we’ve never done this, even though just a simple search of real names is one of the easiest ways to find out everything someone might want to know about a certain individual. Added to the fact that an attack on one of our facilities during a scheduled class time, targeting a specific individual no less, means, as most of you have probably realized, that our database has somehow been compromised. Given the fact that there are already outside sources of who are students here, which are less secure, and at this point it’s just a blind to convince everyone else everything is fine. Of course, you won’t be forced to use them. Just a suggestion.”
Absolute silence followed him.
“Now don’t wake me up until homeroom is over.” Rolling over in his sleeping bag, Aizawa promptly fell asleep.

“Um, is anyone else felling anxious all of sudden?”
No one really wanted to answer Kaminari. Doing so seemed like it would make their fears come true.
“What the hell are you extras freaking out for? This would have happened eventually.”
The gruff voice grabbed the attention of the entire class. Looking over at the explosive blond, the class saw him already writing down some ideas for his hero name, looking to be without a single care.
“WHY ARE YOU ACTING SO CALM!? JUST THE THOUGHT OF BEING TARGETED BY VILLAINS MAKES ME WANT TO WET MYSELF!”
“PISS OFF GRAPESTAIN! LIKE ANYONE WOULD GO THROUGH THE TROUBLE OF TARGETING SOME NOBODY LIKE YOU!”
“Bakugou! That is no way to talk about our classmates!”
“SHUT IT FOUR-EYES!”
“Alright everyone, that’s enough.”
The clear voice immediately cut through the growing tension in the room. Looking over the class as they turned to face her, Midnight moved to the front of the room.
“There is no reason to get so worked up. We are investigating what possible information has been compromised, and right now it looks like all student records are safe. As I’m sure Aizawa already told you, it’s just a precaution. You may not even need to use your hero names until you start your internships. That being said, Bakugou does have a point. It is not that unusual for heroes to be targeted by villains. If you all are serious about this career path, it’s something that you will need to acknowledge. You may at some point be targeted specifically.”
Giving the class another look to make sure that her point got across, Midnight addressed one of the students directly. “Bakugou, Iida also has a point. That is no way to address your classmates and potential future partners. You need to be more friendly.”
Turning back to the class, she put a disarming smile on her face. “Now, let’s pick some hero names!”
The excitement and eventual monotony of picking hero names had helped the class to calm down. After all, it’s just like their teachers said right? They weren’t in any danger. The USJ attack was targeting All-Might, so they were just in the wrong place. So, after picking their future names, or having all of them rejected in some cases, the morning regained all sense of normalcy that it had started with. A couple of students did still have something on their minds however.
“Hey! Bakugou! You wanna grab some lunch?”
Said blond looked up and was met by what looked like a smiling shark superimposed onto a sun.
“The hell?”
“Do you wanna grab some lunch?”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Ouch man! I’m one of your classmates Kirishima Eijirou! I’m the one who spoke to you after Heartfelt left.”
“Oh, you. Why the hell are you asking me? We aren’t friends.”
“Yeah, but what better way to become friends than lunch?”
“I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to become a hero.”
“C’mon bro! Even heroes need friends!”
“No, now piss off.”
Kirishima’s smile fell, but before he could reply, a new voice broke in.
“Why do you dislike people so much? Isn’t it lonely not having friends kero?”
The two boys looked at the girl who had interrupted them.
“The hell is this? Good cop, bad cop? Cause if it is, you’re doing it wrong dipshits. The bad cop goes first.”
“No! We’re not doing that! I was just worried about you and I guess Asui is too.”
“Call me Tsu.”
“Cool! Call me Ei!”
“Great, you two are friends. Now, would the both of you leave me alone?”
“C’mon man! Join us for lunch! Oh! Tsu you should join us too!”
“I’d be happy to kero.”
“I already said no!”
“C’mon man! Is there a way I can convince you?”
“No!”
“It’ll be my treat? As much as you want?”
“…Fine! Lead the way Shitty Hair.”
“What’s wrong with my hair?”
“Everything!”
Despite telling the other boy to lead, Katsuki was the first of the trio out the door.
“You two shitheads coming or not?”
Once they caught up with the blond, Tsuyu couldn’t help her curiosity. “Say, Bakugou?”
“What?”
“Are you always this hostile?”
“Yeah I am. What’s it to you, Frog Face?”
“Why?”
“None of your damn business.”
Marching into the cafeteria with a look that promised a painful end to anyone who bothered him, Katsuki made it clear to the girl that the conversation was over.
“I guess he’s not one for conversation, huh?”
“That’s an understatement, kero.”
Catching up to the blond, the group of three waited in line for food. Kirishima, being the one who always tried to make friends, tried to start another conversation. “So, what kind of food are you two going to get?”
“I think I’m going to try the pork cutlet, kero.”
“Oh! I had that the other day! It was really good! Bakugou? What about you?”
“The spiciest shit they have, now leave me alone.”
“Oh, you like spicy food? I kind of like it too.”
“I said leave me alone Shitty Hair.”
After the awkward silence returned, Kirishima and Tsuyu both tried to think of something else to talk about. Something that would hopefully not set off their blond classmate. After a few more minutes passed, their chance came when their food was done.
“What is that?!”
“Keero. It’s making my eyes water from over here. Are you really going to eat that Bakugou?”
“Damn right I am. It doesn’t smell as hot as I usually like it, but it should be good.”
Ignoring the blanching of his two companions, Katsuki grabbed his tray and promptly found a secluded corner to sit in.
“I’m a little scared to ask, but how hot do you usually eat your food?”
“How the hell do you expect me to answer that Shitty Hair? I don’t know what wimpy scaling you use.”
Even though the silence returned, this one was more comfortable. Near the end of the meal, after Bakugou had, to Kirishima’s dismay, gotten three servings, conversation started to come back to the table, if a bit heated.
“No, Frog Face. I’m telling you that there are specific kinds of spice that you have to consider when making different types of food.”
“You’re wrong kero, spices are the same. What matters is the type of food.”
“You’re delusional. I’m a master of spices.”
“Maybe, but since my parents often travel for work, I’ve been taking care of my little siblings for the past five years. Including food.”
Kirishima, who had let the other two carry on their conversation since he has no culinary skills, couldn’t help but be impressed by the girl. ‘That had to be rough. So manly, or er frogly?’
“Please Frog Face, I’ve been taking care of myself since I was six.”
Both of the other students at the table immediately thought they misunderstood.
“I’m sorry, kero?”
“What?”
The half-smile that had almost completely made it to Bakugou’s face immediately fell of once he realized what he had said. He quickly stood up. “I need to get back to the classroom.”
Before either of his companions could say anything, he was already gone.
Kirishima looked over to the frog girl. “Tsu? Did I hear him right?”
Tearing her eyes away from the exit Bakugou just used, Tsuyu looked at the red-head. “Yes Ei, I think we did hear him right, kero.”
“Why would he have needed to have taken care of himself? I heard from Midoriya that they’re both only children.”
“I don’t know, but it’s apparently something that he does not want to talk about.”
They both turned back to where the blond left. “Do you think we should tell someone?”
“Tell them what, kero?”
“I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling. I mean he was almost having fun, then it was like a one-eighty. It just doesn’t seem normal?”
“I agree, but for all we know it could just be something he just feels uncomfortable talking about. It might be better to see what else he might tell us, kero. It could just be his parents were busy with work like mine are.”
“But that reaction doesn’t seem right.”
“As far as I’ve seen, Bakugou is normally just angry, so it could be he gets flustered easily. Maybe that’s how he normally reacts to things."
“Could we ask Midoriya?”
“If you never want Bakugou to talk to you again, probably.”
The two of them stared at the doorway until the bell rang. “We should get back to class, kero.”
“Yeah, Aizawa sensei will get mad at us if we’re late.”
Grabbing their stuff, the two of them marched back to class with what felt like anchors on their hearts.

Chapter Text

‘Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! I knew it was a bad idea to eat lunch with those damn extras!’ Even though there was still fifteen minutes until lunch was over, Katsuki was heading back to the classroom. He did not want to talk to anyone. Especially after his slipup a few minutes ago.
‘Shit! If either Frag Face or Shitty Hair mention anything, there’s going to be questions. Which means the hag will be notified and- NO! Kill that thought right now Katsuki! You are not going down that path right now. Damn it! If I hadn’t been so hungry, I never would have agreed to eat with them and none of this crap would be happening! SHIT!’
Slamming his fist into the wall, he took a deep breath to try and calm down. After a few breaths, he felt his heart slowing down.
“Jeez man, you all right?”
Spinning around to face whoever snuck up on him, Katsuki felt his pulse soar again. That couldn’t be good for his heart.
“Who the hell!?”
Seeing yellow hair with a black lightening bolt in it, Katsuki tried to slow his heart again. He had confirmed that it was not an instructor or either of the extras from before. Though, this extra might be another one from his class. Shit.
“Sorry man! Didn’t mean to startle you, just wanted to check to see if you were ok.”
Feeling the familiar anger at someone trying to get under his guard, Katsuki snapped at the other student.
“Why the hell wouldn’t I be fine?!”
The other boy raised his hands in surrender.
“You seem really set on becoming a hero, so I just thought it seemed out of character for you to risk expulsion for damaging school property.”
Katsuki looked back where he had punched the wall, and there it was. What might as well have been the final nail in today’s coffin. A small, fist-shaped indentation. It wasn’t very noticeable, but it was still there. Even if this extra didn’t say anything and it goes unnoticed for a while, someone was bound to notice eventually, and when they did, it would only be a matter of time before it was linked to him. Only a matter of time until the school complained to his mother. Shit.
First things first, he had to deal with this extra. Turning back around to the other blond, Katsuki prepared to try and threaten the other boy to silence, but the other spoke first.
“I’m not gonna tell anyone, so don’t worry about it man.”
The threats died in Katsuki’s throat, but the suspicion quickly grew. Narrowing his red eyes, Katsuki began studying the other boy. “Why not?”
His question seemed to throw the other boy off a little bit. “What?”
“Why would you not tell? What do you want in exchange?”
“Why would I want anything in exchange? You seemed like your stressed about something and didn’t mean to do it, so it would be the right thing to do?”
“Bullshit. Now, what do you want in exchange?”
The other boy clapped his together and lowed his head, “I saw you got a really good score on yesterday’s math test! I suck at math so could you please help me?”
Finally, a selfish reason. That Katsuki could understand and work with.
“Deal. You keep quiet about the wall, and I’ll tutor you in math. Be at Yama Café at five.”
“Thanks, Bakugou! You’re a life-saver!”
“Whatever Pikachu, just don’t tell anyone.”
“Huh? My name Kaminari Denki.”
“And now it’s Pikachu.”
“You can’t just name people like that!”
“I just did. Deal with it.”
Before Kaminari could try to rebuke Katsuki, other students started filing into the classroom. Seeing as there would now be an audience, both boys let the conversation drop and made their ways back to their seats.
‘Now, that Pikachu’s out of the way, I need to do something about that dent before someone sees it.’
The nice thing about already having a reputation for being the violent brute, was that most of his classmates would leave him alone. Which gave him space to think. However, his thought process fell apart at the sight of spikey red hair and long green.
‘Damn it! I forgot about those two! If either of them sees the wall, there’s no way they won’t tell Aizawa-sensei! If they haven’t already told him about the cafeteria, then they will if they find out about that! Shit! What if they already did tell him?!’
His fear seemed to be accurate when said instructor came in immediately after the duo and looked in his direction.
“Bakugou, see me after school.”
‘Damn it! They did tell him!’
The blond managed to keep a straight face though. It’s always worse if the mask cracks. So, he acted like nothing was wrong throughout the rest of the day. And if he did slip a little and wail on the purple shitstain during hero class, it was easy enough to play it off as his natural aggression. So, nothing was different, nothing was wrong. Not when he stood in front of the teachers’ lounge. Not when he knocked. Not even when he was told to take a seat across from his teacher. Nothing was wrong, nothing could ever be wrong. He was Bakugou Katsuki. Invincible.

“Alright Bakugou, I’m sure you already know why you’re here, so I’ll just cut straight to the point.”
The blond braced for what he knew would come. ‘Just get this over with.’
“Since you were the only one to not have decided on a hero name, you will need to do so on your own time.”
‘Wait, what?’
“Now, there really isn’t a rush for you to decide on one. Our current investigations suggest that all student information is safe, so as of now, it should be alright for all of you to use your regular names if you want to.”
‘What is he talking about?’
“Ideally, you should have one picked out before the internships following the festival, but the only deadline you will actually have is the provisional license examination, which we usually have you do during your second year.”
‘Did those extras not say anything?’
“When you have decided on your hero name, you can notify any of the teachers. We would prefer it if you notify either me or Midnight, but it’s your choice. Any questions?”
Katsuki was shocked enough that he failed to think about what he was about to say and ended up blurting it out. “That’s it?”
A gleam crossed Aizawa-sensei’s eyes for just a second. Katsuki couldn’t identify what kind of gleam it was, but he knew he saw it. He should have kept his mouth shut.
“Is there something else you were expecting?”
‘Shit! Divert and backtrack!’
“Well, since I had to march my ass all the down here, I was expecting some kind of important shit.”
“Your hero name is very important, so-”
“And there’s nothing wrong with King Explosion Murder.”
Silence fell between the two of them. Eventually, Aizawa broke it with a sigh.
“When you’ve decided, let me know. You can go now.”
Katsuki stood up and stomped over to the door. ‘Alright, I think I got him off my case.’
“Bakugou, if you ever need something, you can talk to me.”
‘Or not. Shit!’
“Why would I need to talk to you?”
And with that Katsuki left the office. ‘Now, I need to hold up my end of the deal with Pikachu.’
Making his way to the station, he got on the usual one. Even though it’s in the opposite direction of his house, he always goes to the café after class.
When he arrived at the café, he gave quick look around. Once he saw bright yellow hair, he made his way over to his new leech.
“Alright Pikachu, let’s get this over with.”
“Seriously man! My name is Kaminari Denki!”
“Shut up Pikachu. I have to be home by seven.”
A sudden laugh broke the café’s usual quiet. “What! You still have a curfew! That’s so lame!”
“It’s called dinner dipshit.”
The laughter died at that. “Oh, I guess that makes sense. So, what do you usually eat?”
“Shut it and quit stalling.”
“Oh, man!”

“You weren’t joking Pikachu. You suck at this.”
“Rude! And we’ve been going for an hour! Can I have a break?”
“Fine. We’ll stop here. Tomorrow, same time and place, have at least the first three problems from the homework done.”
“What! There’re only eight problems, and it’s not due until next week! We have all week!”
“Quit complaining and make sure you get it done.”
Standing up, Katsuki ignored any more complaints from the other blond. He had to get back home before the hag had a fit.

Making his way to his house, he stopped at the gate and looked up. The lights were on, so his parents were here. Taking a deep breath, Katsuki prepared himself, walked up to the door, and entered the house.

Chapter Text

Hey Everyone! I'm trying to decide which fics to make my main ones. I would like opinions for one or two, maybe three that I should do. So, if you like my stories, please let me know in the comments which one or two you would like as my main ones! I'll be taking votes until the end of either this week or next week! 

Alright! I'm officially closing the votes. Thanks to everyone who voted and to those who just read my stories! :)

Alright so unless I miscounted, second and third place added up to the same number of votes that number one had, so I'll try three main fics!
The winners are My Soul is Shattered, Don't try to get close; We're both Invisible; and So what if I'm a damn Omega?
As a thanks to all who voted, I will also be updated all of my stories! Thanks again! :)

Thanks!

Chapter Text

The after-school commute found two friends walking to the station together. It seemed like it would be a normal, everyday occurrence, but if someone knew these two, they would know something wasn’t right. Only one of them was talking after all.

“Hey Ei! Are you listening to me?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry Mina. I guess I spaced out.”

“Rude! Now I’ll have to tell you my whole story again! I will but you have to listen this time, got it?”

“Hey Mina? Can I ask you a question?”

The pink girl was starting to worry. It wasn’t normal for her friend to be this melancholic. He could be quiet and shy yes, but not like this. Especially not when she’s telling her stories. He’s always supposed to laugh at them.

“Sure. What’s wrong?”

“Why am I so pathetic? I decided that I was going to become a manly hero like Red Riot, but the first thing that comes up stumps me. How can I be a hero like this? I only have to choose between one choice or the other, but I don’t know what to do. Should I just give up on being a hero?”

“What’s gotten into you Ei? You’ve been talking non-stop of how you want to be a manly hero like Red Riot ever since the beginning of our senior year in middle school. You can’t just give up at the first sign of trouble.”

“But I don’t want to hurt anyone or cause any trouble.”

“Ei, I watched you in the trials. You were very heroic in protecting your teammate. I also heard about you preparing to face off against the villain who got Aizawa-sensei’s arm. You have what it takes to be a very manly hero.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I know so.”

“Thanks Mina.”

Returning back to her usual self, the girl gave him a harsh slap on his back. “Don’t worry about it! But if you want to repay me, I won’t say no to crepes!”

He gave out a bark of laughter at his friend’s antics. “Alright, crepes on me.”

Throwing their arms around each other’s shoulders, the two of them took off for a nearby creperie. Arriving at their destination, Mina gave her friend a mischievous grin before walking up to the counter. “Two of your number sevens and whatever he wants!”

“Mina! I didn’t say I’d pay for two!”

“You didn’t say any number! You’re lucky I only have two hands! I love crepes!”

“Mina!”

“Chop chop Ei! Let’s not hold up the line!”

Giving up to his friend’s unstoppable love of crepes, Eijirou placed his own order and payed. Once the two of them had their crepes in hand, they went to the nearby park to enjoy the treats. A few minutes of silence passed before the girl broke it. “What choice were you talking about earlier anyway?”

The boy’s face fell a little bit.

“Can you promise me you won’t tell anyone?”

“Sure!”

The girl may be a gossip, but even she could keep a secret if asked. Now if someone didn’t ask, it was fair game.

“It’s about why I didn’t eat with you at lunch.”

“Oh! It’s a shame you didn’t! Tooru is awesome! She loves news as much as I do!”

Eijirou immediately understood it as the other girl loved rumors as much as his friend.

“Mina. I heard something I don’t think I was supposed to.”

The girl quickly calmed down.

“What was it? and why do you think you weren’t supposed to hear it?”

“I was eating lunch with Tsu, ah Asui, and Bakugou.”

“That’s an unusual combo.”

“Yeah, but they both are really nice. Anyway, the two of them were talking about cooking with spices because Bakugou ordered this really spicy dish that made me cry just smelling it. Anyway, Tsu said she knew more about spices and cooking since she --------but then Bakugou said that he ---------. After he said that, he just stood up and took off. I don’t know whether I should leave him be or maybe tell someone? What do you think?”

“Tell me the story one more time and be clear please.”

“Ok. I had lunch with Tsu and Bakugou. He ordered this really spicy dish which started them talking about cooking. After Tsu said that she ------ Bakugou said he ------ and then he just took off. So, what do you think I should do?”

“Well for starters, you can’t tell anyone.”

The boy slumped a bit. “So, you think it’s a bad idea as well?”

“No, Ei. I mean you physically can’t tell anyone. I couldn’t understand what you were saying. I guess whatever it was is important enough to the both of them you can’t talk about it.”

“Huh? But I didn’t get any marks. I checked.”

“Let me see.”

The girl had fortunately finished her treats before she reached over and pulled her friend’s sleeve up. At first, she couldn’t see anything, but as she pulled his arm every which way to her friend’s protest, she noticed faint shadows on his bicep.

“What are these then?”

“Bruises?”

A possibility. One was a faint jade green color, and the other was a very faint, almost invisible, sky-blue. Shades that can come from bruises.

The only reason the girl doubted it was the shape. They went completely around his arm. Most bruises won’t do that.

“Maybe you could ask Aizawa-sensei if they are marks. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that. Thanks Mina.”

“It’s what friends are for. Now listen to this!”

As if they had not just finished a serious conversation, the girl jumped to her story. Eijirou listened to his friend even as he resolved himself.

‘I’ll ask Aizawa-sensei tomorrow. I don’t like how Bakugou reacted anyways, but if these are marks and one is from him, someone needs to know.’

Chapter Text

Soon after school had ended, Tsuyu made her way home. She needed to get home before her siblings tore the house down. But she also needed to stop by the market to get groceries.

‘That basically gives me the option of making sure we still have a house or not needing to go out shopping this weekend. I would like to have the weekend free in case Habuko can meet up, and my siblings need to get used to me not being back as early. Shopping it is kero.’

Taking a turn on her usual way home, the frog girl went to the market place. She also fortunately had a copy of the shopping list in her phone, so she would be able to get everything in one trip. When she was just about done, she saw an assortment of fresh spices. Her family doesn’t usually eat spices, but she could help her mind from wandering back to lunch.

‘Bakugou said that different spices add different flavors, but all the ones he said he liked were ridiculously hot. How can they taste any different? Their too hot to taste of anything.’

The blond boy however, seemed adamant that food must be spicy. To the point he was almost dismissive of Tsu’s culinary skills. Somehow, the thought managed to annoy the ordinarily mild-tempered girl. She grabbed a bunch of her regular spices and turned around to get more chicken before continuing her journey home.

Once she was finally home, thankfully to a still intact house, she walked in and called out to her siblings.

“Samidare! Satsuki! I’m home!”

“Welcome back sis.”

“What’s with all the chicken?”

“I’m going to make some tori bentos for tomorrow. Would either of you like to help?”

Her siblings replied in unison. “Sure.”

“Ok, Samidare can get the rice started, and Satsuki can start mixing the batter for the karaage. Make sure you make extra. I’m making a lunch for a friend tomorrow.”

Her brother being the nosy little boy he is couldn’t help but question his sister’s motives.

“But you only make tori bentos for important days. I think you’ve only made Habuko one of your tori bentos once.”

“He said that he’s a better cook than me, so I want to show of my best dish and prove him wrong kero.”

Satsuki immediately latched onto the information.

“But Big Sis is the best cook!”

“Then are you going to help me kero?”

“Yeah! Kero!”

Watching the two of them head off to start their assignments, Tsuyu grabbed the rest of the bags so she could put the unnecessary groceries away.

Once it was time to fry the karaage, Tsuyu sent her siblings off to do their homework.

“But Big Sis! I wanna help!”

“No, Satsuki. You know your not allowed to try and fry anything yet. Now go do your homework kero.”

“C’mon Satsuki. You heard Big Sis. Besides she can’t say it’s her cooking if she has us help to much.”

“Thank you Samidare.”

Watching her two siblings walk off, she saw Samidare lean over and whisper something in Satsuki’s ear that caused the girl to perk up.

‘I wonder what he said kero.’

Turning around, she made the final touches on the batter, it had to be perfect if she wanted this to be worth it, she started heating the oil. As soon as it was hot enough, she started the chicken.

‘I need to get this done quickly so I can do that homework.’

A few pieces in, even though she made sure to be careful, some oil splashed onto her wrist. With a sharp hiss, she pulled her hand away and went over to the sink to rinse it off. As she was doing that, the girl noticed some discoloration on her wrist.

‘Kero? Did I bruise myself?’

Looking more closely at the mark, Tsuyu noticed it was a perfect, pale sky-blue ring. An intake of breath accompanied her realization.

‘I have a mark. Whose?’

A picture of a startled blond-haired boy as he escaped from the cafeteria flashed in her mind. Definitely not who she was expecting to receive a mark from, but he was the only reasonable choice. The sound of popping oil brought the girl back from her thoughts long enough to return to her task before going into autopilot and returning to her thoughts.

‘His reaction was strange and disconcerting, but it could just be he is embarrassed about his family having to work hard. I was like that too, so it’s not unreasonable. Maybe I can find out more about him though?’

Finishing her thoughts and the chicken, she put the final touches on the bentos, made sure her siblings were working, and went to her room to start on her own homework before she needed to start dinner.

A couple hours later, her parents returned home, and dinner was set.

As the family was happily eating, Tsuyu’s parents inquired into their children’s days, or rather her mother interrogated them.

“So how was everyone’s day?”

Samidare was the first to answer.

“It was ok, Mom. A new kid transferred in today. She has a mutation quirk and is really talkative.”

“Good. Sounds like you have a new friend. Tsu? How was yours?”

“It was ok kero. I have a memory mark from one of my classmates.”

She had told her parents about the project, so she fortunately did not need to explain any further on that.

“Wonderful! I’m so happy to hear you’re also making new friends! Satsuki dear? How was your day?”

The moment she received the prompting the little girl launched into an extremely detailed, blow-by-blow account of her day that Tsuyu only listened to with half-an-ear. Or at least she did until the attention grabber at the end.

“And then Big Sis came back, and we got to help her make a bento for her prince charming!”

“KERO?!”

The little girl’s words had an immediate effect on their parents. Their mother froze with her chopsticks halfway between the plate and her mouth while their father began inflating himself.

“What? Tsuyu do you have something you need to tell your mother and I?”

“No! It’s a misunderstanding kero! I only want to show Bakugou that I am good at cooking kero!”

“I see. So his name is Bakugou, is it? I don’t approve.”

“Dad! It’s just a misunderstanding! I don’t have a crush on him. He’s just a classmate kero.”

By now Tsuyu’s mother had recollected herself.

“Now dear, if she says there’s nothing, then there’s probably nothing.”

Sighing in relief that at least her mother believed her, Tsu was preparing to return to her meal when her mother continued.

“But Tsu dear, you know you can come talk to us when you are ready.”

“Mom! He’s just a classmate kero.”

“Of course dear, just a classmate.”

Fortunately, even if they didn’t believe her, her parents dropped it so the girl could at least finish her dinner in some semblance of peace. Once she was done, she excused herself so she could finish her homework.

‘At least tomorrow is Friday.’

Early next morning found Tsu at U.A. going through the motions of class. Teachers piling on more homework to make sure they were busy all weekend, giving a pop quiz, saying they’ll return graded homework next time for sure, Present Mic, the usual school stuff. As they day wore on, the frog girl found herself second guessing her rash decision of making lunch for a classmate. After all, who else would take it as a sign of a crush on the resident hothead? Regardless, as soon as the lunch bell tolled, she found herself standing in front of Bakugou’s desk half wishing Aizawa-sensei hadn’t called Kirishima for something. She could use backup on this, or at least have the redhead invite the blond to lunch again so she had an easy way out.

“How long do you plan on ogling me, Frog-Face?”

At least he waited until the room had cleared.

“I’m not ogling you kero.”

“Then why the hell are you staring at me?”

“I made a karaage tori bento.”

“Holy shit. Call the Nobel Community. We have a winner here.”

“You are very rude Bakugou. I want you to have one. Though I guess trying to be friendly to you would be worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.”

“The hell did you just say Frog-Face?!”

Placing a bento on his desk, the girl pulled a chair closer for herself.

“I am showing you that I was right. The main part of meal itself is the most important, not the spices.”

The boy stared at her for what felt like an hour before he grabbed the bento and slowly pulled it towards himself. Watching him try a piece was surprisingly nerve-wracking, but he didn’t say anything as he kept eating. They ate in total silence. At last, the meal was over. She was surprisingly too nervous to ask him for his thoughts. Instead, she simply prepared to head back to her desk.

“Not bad.”

“Huh?”

Looking directly at the boy, who was refusing to look at her with what might have been a slight blush on his face, she felt her heart squeeze as he repeated himself. He was surprisingly attractive when he wasn’t yelling.

“I said it was pretty good Frog-Face. I guess you can cook after all.”

Before she could reply, he shoved the bento box back at her and left the classroom. The girl stood there in a daze until she felt someone shaking her shoulder. Looking over, she saw Yaomomo.

“Are you alright Asui? Do I need to escort you to Recovery Girl?”

“I’m fine Yaomomo. Just thinking kero.”

“If you are sure.”

“I’m sure. Thank you though.”

“Alright.”

Giving her a smile, Yaomomo walked back to her seat leaving the frog-girl to head back to hers.

Rubbing her hand over her face to try and clear her thoughts, she saw it. Right above the faded one, this one clear as day even though it seemed to lack something, was another sky-blue ring.

Chapter Text

Aizawa’s Friday was about to be ruined. The second most holy of all days, behind only Sunday when he could literally sleep most of the day away, was going up in flames before his very eyes. These kids. He should have expelled them all first day like he did last year. Regardless he didn’t and now he must deal with the consequences. Namely, a red-head with a bizarre fixation on anything ‘manly’ coming to the teachers’ office before homeroom.

“Aizawa-Sensei? Do you have a moment?”

“Yes, if it’s quick.”

The young boy rolled one of his sleeves all the way up.

“Can you tell if these are the memory mark things?”

Looking at where the boy was pointing to, Aizawa saw two very faint lines on his skin. A sigh escaped him. This was either a very trivial thing, or very serious. And with the feeling he had earlier and his luck, Aizawa knew it would be the latter.

“Yes, I would say those are soul marks. Why are you asking?”

The boy cast his eyes to the floor as he rolled his sleeve back down. Not exactly a good sign.

“I’m worried sensei.”

“About what?”

“One of my friends. But I don’t want to give away too much because it would embarrass them if it were nothing and that wouldn’t be heroic or manly.”

“Just tell me what happened that has you concerned.”

The boy began fidgeting. A clear sign of hesitance, so Aizawa tried a different approach.

“Is your friend in trouble?”

“I don’t know. It’s just….”

“Just?”

“We were having lunch, but he said something near the end and just took off.”

“And it’s his reaction more than anything that has you concerned?”

“Yeah. I know it’s not manly to talk about him behind his back like this, but I don’t know what to do. I want to ask him about it, but at the same time, I don’t want to push.”

Feeling a headache coming on, Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose as he thought. There was only one solution that he could think of here.

“Kirishima. Go to class. I have an idea.”

“Alright. Thank you for your help sensei!”

The boy obviously felt relieved as he was smiling as he took off for class. Once the boy was out of sight, Aizawa pulled out his phone and began calling Heartfelt. It was her quirk, so she was his best bet. Two rings in, she answered.

“This is Heartfelt.”

“It’s me. Do you have anything planned for this afternoon?”

“Why Erasure! Are you asking me out on a date? I thought for sure you had a thing for Emi! Unless you’re trying to make her jealous? If you don’t know how to approach her, you can just ask for my help you know!”

Feeling his headache worsening, Aizawa resisted the urge to just hang up. Why did she have to pick up on Joke’s habit of tormenting him.

“No, I am not asking you on a date, and no, I do not have a crush on Joke. This is about the project at U.A.”

Her voice immediately turned serious.

“Since you didn’t lead with that, it’s a non-emergency?”

“A bad feeling stemming from the concern of one of my students. That’s all I have for now.”

The sound of shuffling papers came through the line.

“I was going to meet Emi for some coffee, but I’ll push it off until later or have her meet me early. When do you want me to stop by?”

“They have a free period at two.”

“Alright, I’ll be there. Any other concerns?”

“Not yet.”

“You sound convinced something else is going to happen.”

“It always does.”

Ending their conversation, Aizawa hung up and made his way to the classroom. Hopefully today won’t be too much of a shit storm.

‘These kids.’

Once again, Aizawa found that the situation was getting worse. It wasn’t bad during the actual classes. Oh no, these brats always had to wait until it was some kind of break before bringing anything up. He had pulled Kirishima aside at the beginning of lunch to tell the boy that Heartfelt would be around this afternoon at two, but now another student he had hoped would not cause him any problems was here.

‘Nezu owes me a raise for dealing with this class.’

“Sensei? Is now a bad time kero?”

“Lunch break is almost over, but if it is a fast question it’s fine.”

“Is there a way for me to speak with Ms. Heartfelt?”

“Is everything alright?”

“I have a new memory mark, but the person I got it from did not actually say anything kero and I didn’t experience any memory. I was wondering how that happened.”

‘That’s a good question. Heartfelt didn’t say anything aside from the two methods for receiving marks. This is her problem though.’

“Heartfelt is actually going to be on campus today during free period. You can ask her in person then.”

“Alright. Thank you for your time sensei.”
Once the girl gave him a short bow, she returned to class. At least she kept it short and to the point. Aizawa did appreciate it, even if it gave him more problems. Grabbing his sleeping bag, he strolled down to the classroom and walked in.

“Alright class. Heartfelt is going to be on campus during free period. Since this little project is approaching the one-week mark, now would be a good time to ask her any questions you might have.”

Looking over the class, he saw several eyes light up at his announcement. Especially problem child.

‘These brats.’

An eternity later and still too soon, Aizawa’s headache had not faded yet, Heartfelt arrived.

Escorting her to the teachers’ office, they hashed together a quick plan, aka Aizawa told her what would give him the smallest headache.

“Alright. Any common questions can be addressed near the end of the period, but other than that, it’s first come first serve. If there are any students who do not get their questions answered, we can schedule again for next week.”

“Whatever you say Erasure.”

Thankfully, she is so much more reasonable than most of his colleagues, most of the time anyway. Once they were in the teacher’s lounge, normally they would have gone to the more private infirmary, but it was currently full and Aizawa wanted to know what was going on. Not exactly ethical, but he needed to know if they were in any trouble.

Kirishima was the first one allowed in since he was the first one to come for help.

“Hello Kirishima. Aizawa said that you needed to talk to me about some memory marks you received?”

“Yeah. I’m just concerned about them. My friend didn’t seem like he had intended to let what he said slip, but he did and it was like he panicked and took off. I just have a bad feeling because even though I haven’t known him very long, it seemed so far out of character.”

“I see. We might be able to narrow down the possibilities though. How personal was the topic about?”
“When he slipped? Just cooking, but what he said seemed very personal.”

“Alright then. Would his reaction count as embarrassed?”

“Not really. More worried I guess?”

Aizawa was hating this more and more, but he kept silent in the corner pretending to be napping.

“What kind of worried?”
The boy paused for a moment.

“Like he might get in trouble? I’m not really sure.”

This was not boding well at all. Since the conversation between the two at the seats seemed to have gotten as far as it can, Aizawa began thinking to who the red-head had been interacting with. Ashido, Sero, Asui, and Bakugou.

“Thank you so much Ms. Heartfelt! You’re a very manly hero!”

‘Alright, what is it with him and manly?’

“I’m happy to help, Kirishima! If you ever have any other questions, don’t hesitate to have Erasure call me!”

Of course she would say that.’

Instead of saying anything though, Aizawa contented himself with cracking open an eye and watching the boy leave the room with a boisterous and cheerful “Tsu! Your turn!”.

Said girl quickly came in.

“Hello Ms. Hearfelt. How are you today?”

“Hello Asui. I’m doing well, thank you. How about yourself?”

“I have been better kero.”

“Aizawa did say you had a question. What’s on your mind?”

“I have a new memory mark, but I have no idea how I received it.”

“I see. Do you have an idea of when it appeared?”

“Yes, it appeared right after lunch kero.”

“That’s rather specific.”

“I am positive though. I didn’t have before, but it was there right after he left.”

Heartfelt leaned back in her chair with a thoughtful look on her face.

“No, comments or anything at all during lunch?”
“None.”

“Then I think I know what this is. Do you remember the two methods for getting a memory mark?”

“Yes, being told or going through the experience, but neither of those happened kero.”

“Not in the way you’re thinking no. There is a third method that is directly related to the second method.”

‘And this wasn’t mentioned earlier because?’

“If you don’t mind me asking, why weren’t we told?”

“I didn’t mention it because it’s completely involuntary and seldom happens. You did experience the memory of the mark because it happened then and there.”

“What do you mean kero?”

“Something happened during that time and it was important enough that it created a new mark for your friend. Something directly involving you.”

“Kero?”

“Alright, let me try an example. Say you and your friend were swimming and your friend started drowning. Morbid I know but bear with me. That moment alone would be enough to cause a mark to appear, as the memory would be a powerful one. Now, say a stranger was the one that saved your friend. The mark would show up as normal in that case and even though you were a part of it, you would not receive your friend’s mark. However, if you were the one that did the rescuing, you would receive your friend’s mark because you were more directly involved. Does that make sense.”

The frog-like girl put her finger on her cheek and looked down with a contemplative look on her face.

“I think so kero. But what would be so special about lunch that a mark could appear?”

“Well, a boy eating lunch with a cute girl? I think that could be reason enough.”

Even though she kept her face straight, the girl’s face immediately flushed a deep red.

“I don’t think that’s it kero. I just made him lunch to show I can cook.”

“Oh? You made him lunch?”

“It’s not like that kero! Thank you for your time Ms. Heartfelt!”

The flustered girl quickly grabbed her stuff and fled the room.

“Was tormenting her really necessary?”

“First dates always need to have some teasing.”

A knock on the door stopped the adults.

“Ms. Heartfelt?”

“Ah, Midoriya. Please come in. What can I help you with?”

“Can memories prior to the mark placing appear?”

“Pardon?”
“I have a bunch of marks, but I know that the memories are from before the marks were placed, but we never spoke of these events after the placing.”

“Yes, if the memories are important enough, it is possible.”

The boy began absently scratching at his arms.

“Is it possible to find out exactly what the memories are and why they are important?”

“Not without the mark owner talking about it. after that though, you can instinctively know which mark is from which memory.”

“Okay, thank you for your help.”

“Always happy to.”

Once the boy left, Heartfelt turned to Aizawa.

“Erasure? We may have a problem.”

“Shit. What is it?”
“The three students who just came in? They were all talking about the same friend.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, the marks are always in the persons favorite color and I only remember one student having a shade of blue as his. Katsuki Bakugou.”

Aizawa closed his eyes. Behavioral problems, dislike of company, general aggression, and possible panics at slip-ups. None of this was looking good. He needed to look into his home life ASAP.

Chapter Text

“Hey man, you ok?”

“Shut it Pikachu. Have you finished that damn problem yet?”

“Yeah, I finished it a couple of minutes ago. You were spacing.”

“Piss off Pikachu. Let me see how you did.”

Pulling the worksheet from the other blonde’s hands, Katsuki began looking it over with a critical eye. He may not want to tutor this extra, but no way in hell was he going to half-ass it.

“Try again Pikachu. You dropped a negative sign in this part of your equation.”

Grabbing his pen, Katsuki circled the specified area and shoved the paper back at his companion.

“Ah man! You’re such a slave driver!”
“Shut up and focus. And don’t even think about just picking up where you messed up. You damn well better start from the beginning.”

“Seriously!? It took me like an hour to do it once!”

“It was twenty minutes you damn Pikachu. Now it should only take fifteen. Get to it.”

Ignoring his fellow blonde’s complaints, Katsuki let his thoughts draw his mind away again.

‘Why the hell am I letting it bother me so much? It should mean absolutely nothing! She just wanted to show off her cooking skills, so why the hell does this keep bothering me?!’

When Katsuki had noticed he had developed another mark, he had been furious. How could something as simple as having someone make you a lunch be important enough that it influences who you are or whatever shit that woman had been spouting out at the beginning of this shitshow. He didn’t need any friends or pointless shit like that, so how could that damn froggy extra somehow give him another mark? He knew he shouldn’t have taken those two extra’s up on that one offer of free lunch. All this shit had started after that.

No, that’s not true. Things had gone to shit from the first day. That damn Deku lying like the bastard he was about being quirkless, said bastard getting into U.A., and the humiliation at losing against him in that battle trial. On top of all of that, Deku actually had the balls to lie to Katsuki’s face.

‘Got that quirk from someone else my ass. Even if there was some shitty quirk that can be passed between different people, that would be all it could do. That strength would have had to come from something else. But why am I so surprised he lied to my face? He did so much worse when we were kids. People can’t be trusted. The only person you can trust is yourself. Every other bastard is out to stab you in the back first time you drop your guard. Shitty extras acting like they actually give a damn about others. It’s all abou-’

“Dude, seriously. Are you ok? You’re spacing again, and isn’t your leg tired yet?”

The words pulled Katsuki from his mind scape and focused his attention on his legs. How long has he been bouncing his leg like that?

“Piss off and mind your own business Pikachu!”

Snatching the worksheet, Katsuki looked over it again to make sure his instructions of completely starting over were followed.

“Alright this one is good. Do the next one.”

“Dude it’s almost seven. I thought you ate right about now?”

A quick glance at his phone confirmed what the Pikachu said. He needed to go if he was going to get back in time.

“Have the rest of the problems done by Monday. You have all damn weekend, so no complaints or excuses.”

Grabbing his bag, Katsuki left the café without another word. There would be hell to pay if he was late.

It was a near thing, but he managed to get back in time. He would still need to be quick about fixing dinner though. It needed to be ready before either of his parents got after him. Leftovers would probably be his best choice. There should still be something in the fridge. After all, his parents rarely even ate at home, so anything he put in there should still be there.

His search through the nearly bare refrigerator yielded the result of some taco meat. Perfect. It doesn’t have to noticeable of a scent and all he’ll need is some cheese and tacos. Grabbing a few slices of cheese and the last couple of tacos, Katsuki stole upstairs and put the food in the desk in his room and set his stuff down. It sounded as though his parents were in their office so that should be the next thing he does.

Taking a deep breath, Katsuki walked over to the door to his parents’ office and put his ear to the door. It didn’t sound like his parents were in a meeting or anything, just speaking with each other, so he tentatively brought his hand up and quietly knocked on the door. When there was no response, he opened the door by a crack and looked in. His parents were sitting at the large desk that was covered by several design sketches, talking with each other.

Opening the door all the way, Katsuki knocked again loudly.

“What the fuck do you want? Can’t you see we are too damn busy to deal with you right now? Fuck off you damn brat.”

“Now dear, you know getting worked up isn’t good for you. Let me see what he needs.”

“No. That little shit already bothered us so he might as just spit out what he wants. Well? Out with it. What the fuck is so important that you need to bother us with it?”

Surreptitiously taking another breath, Katsuki gave his carefully practiced reason.

“I’m almost out of food. I need grocery money.”

“Why should we care? You’ll just spend it on nonsense anyways, so go get a fucking job and actually do something good for once in your life. Now, quit being a greedy little bastard. You’re lucky we even let a little fucking shit like you live here.”

“But-”

Katsuki cut himself off as his mother stood up and stomped over to him. Even as he closed his eyes and braced, Katsuki could feel her contempt for him. He didn’t need the sting in his cheek as she backhanded him.

“Don’t you fucking talk back to me! Go to your room!”

Knowing that doing anything else would just piss her off more, Katsuki turned around and walked to his room. The footsteps from behind told him his mother was following.

The moment he was inside, he heard his door slam and the lock click as his mother locked him inside. Another evening in his room then. It wasn’t like he was going to do anything other then study anyway.

After he had pulled his books out, Katsuki reached under his bed and pulled out the ice chest he kept under there. Grabbing a handkerchief, he quickly broke a small chuck of ice off the block in the chest, wrapped it up, placed it on his face, and put the chest back. Studying was a bit of a hassle while trying to keep the ice on his face, but he was used to it. A shuffling sound at the door brought his attention from his books. An envelope had been shoved under the door. Walking over, he grabbed the envelope and opened it to find some money and a note.

-For groceries only. I know it may not always seem like it, but your mother and I do love you. We only want what’s best for you.

Setting the note aside, Katsuki quickly counted the money.

‘It’s not a lot, but I should manage to make something for Frag-Face and Shitty-Hair to pay them back. Might need to skip a few meals though.’

Setting the money on his dresser, he looked out his window to see his parents leaving for dinner. Time to eat then.

Pulling the taco stuff out, he quickly heated the meat by holding the container between his heated palms. Making a couple of tacos, Katsuki quickly ate and turned the fan on in his bathroom to get rid of any possible smell. He would have liked to open the window, but it was still sealed.

Putting the ice back on his face, Katsuki resumed his studies. He was going to be number one and had nothing else to do anyways.

Chapter Text

Nothing. At all. Not even one of those people who always seemed to try and blow the little things out of proportion. Everything about them seemed so straight-laced. Maybe everyone, himself mostly, was just making too big a deal out of this?

Aizawa leaned back and began rubbing his tired eyes. He had given up his weekend to investigate this, yet he’s found nothing strange about the Bakugou family. The parents were widely known and respected in the fashion business. They had started out as freelancers but were discovered by the fashion mogul Sosuke Aizen who gave them help on their startup. Their climb has been steady in the eight years since. Bakugou’s vaccines are up-to-date, he sees physicians regularly, and not a single note of anything concerning is listed in anything. Sure, there are a few ER visits, including a particularly nasty one, but nothing that any staff ever made any notes about aside from the obvious. He could call and ask for the staff that were in charge during each visit, but he had nothing to go on. All he had was a hunch and that was not enough for patient confidentiality to be overlooked. Besides, he had gotten these medical files from Recovery Girl, so if she didn’t see anything in them, there was no way Aizawa would.

‘Maybe there really is nothing here at all? It wouldn’t be the first time a spoiled rich kid got into U.A. Something still doesn’t seem right though. Midoriya’s concern could be waived aside fairly easily with how he tends to overreact to everything, but Asui and Kirishima are much more level-headed. However, they are still young so they may not know what it is they are actually looking at? They couldn’t say what he said that bothered him, so it could either be nothing or something serious. All the files I’ve found so far point to busy parents with an only child. Since everything is up to date, neglect isn’t a very likely factor. With the lack of anything concerning in his files, it could just be a lonely child you pitied himself because his parents were busy?’

A snort.

‘Ridiculous. Bakugou hates any kind of pity, and he definitely isn’t the type to pity himself. Plus, if he were that lonely, he wouldn’t be so anti-social. Awkward maybe, but not standoffish. What am I missing here?’

“SHOTA!! C’MON!! KAYAMI IS WAITING FOR US!”

The loud voice in his ear shattered Aizawa’s train of thought.

“Must you yell in my ear? And why is she waiting?”

“YES! YOU’VE SPENT ALL WEEKEND LOCKED IN HERE AND THE LITTLE LISTENERS ARE COMING BACK IN FOR SCHOOL TOMORROW! YOU NEED A BREAK, SO WE’RE TAKING YOU OUT FOR AWHILE!”

“Hizashi, does anything about Bakugou strike you as strange?”

“HUUUH? WHERE’D THAT COME FROM?”

“If you stop shouting, I’ll tell you.”

“Why would anything be strange about that listener?”

Turning back to the stack of papers he had sitting next to his computer, Aizawa pulled out one from the bottom and handed it to his friend.

“He’s the student Heartfelt was concerned about. The one with thirteen marks.”

Watching his friend solemnly grab the file and start reading it, Aizawa resumed rubbing his tired eyes as he continued his explanation.

“Kirishima and Asui both came in to talk to Heartfelt when she was here for free period on Friday. They were concerned about one of their friend’s unusual behavior during lunchtime. Apparently, he said something that was related to one of his marks during their conversations and began panicking immediately afterwards.”

“And this was Bakugou? He seems reckless and impatient, but not one to panic easily.”

Nodding his head in agreement, Aizawa pulled another file from his stack.

“That’s the concerning part. What could possibly make the student who was nearly killed by a villain and remained calm, level-headed, and analytical during the attack on U.A., worrying to the extent he essentially fled from them?”

Watching his friend grab a chair and make himself comfortable to read the files, the underground hero pulled up some articles he had been looking at on his computer.

“Given his anti-social behavior and his dislike of anything even remotely assembling weakness, my foremost concern right now is something wrong with his home life, but I’ve found next to nothing. The only concerning things I’ve found in his past, are an emergency trip to the ER and a surgery when he was little and the slime villain attack. I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t like it.”

Watching his friend read over the second file, Aizawa started hoping that maybe Hizashi would spot something that he himself had missed.

“Shota? Where did you get these files?”

“His medical ones? Directly from Recovery Girl.”

“Shit. I thought he was a bit thin during the entrance exam, but after having him in class, I was beginning to think he was one of those people who are just naturally that thin. I wasn’t expecting a reason like this though.”

“Neither was I. But Recovery Girl said that the file is legitimate.”

“That doesn’t make it any better. That had to have been one nasty accident for a child to need even just his floating ribs removed. You’re thinking this may not have been an accident?”

“Originally yes, but none of the staff at the time made note of anything that could have been considered a discrepancy. It was an accident.”

“This listener seems to be one paradox stacked on another. If nothing is showing up in his past, maybe it’s just his personality?”

“Maybe.”

The two men resumed looking over the documents and talking about the possibilities, until they were interrupted by a put-off female voice.

“Hizashi, I sent you in here to get Shota almost twenty minutes ago. What’s the holdup?”

“I FORGOT! C’MON SHOTA! LET’S GO EAT AND TACKLE THIS AGAIN WITH RESTED EYES!”

“Quit yelling Hizashi.”

“Oh? That’s what’s holding you two up? A report?”

“An investigation actually.”

Leaning to the side so their other friend could look over his shoulder, Aizawa showed her Bakugou’s student file.

“Hm? Why are you investigating one of the students?”
“A few of the others, specifically Kirishima, Asui, and Midoriya, are worried about some of his recent behavioral episodes. Among other things.”

“Aggression?”

“Moments of panic actually.”

“I see. Have you found anything?”
The two men slumped in unison.

“Nothing everything about Bakugou is fairly normal. An accident needing surgery and the slime villain are the only events in their entire family that doesn’t follow in their apparent pattern of excelling at anything they do.”

“What triggered his panic?”

“A slipup during lunch a couple of days ago apparently.”

“What kind of slipup?”

“Kirishima couldn’t tell us anything due to the restriction Heartfelt’s quirk has.”

Watching Midnight look through one of the files was starting to frustrate Aizawa. Three pro heroes were looking at this and so far, nothing had come up. Four heroes if you wanted to count Recovery Girl looking through his medical files. Was there really anything here at all?

“Do either of you boys have theories?”

“Neglect and abuse have pretty much been ruled out. I don’t know if Hizashi found anything else?”

Directing the second half of his sentence to said man, Aizawa waited to see if anything had indeed been found.
“Nothing. Everything about this listener seems fine. The closest we can get to anything might be neglect with how much his parents work, but we still have nothing.”

The three friends did another look through the files hoping to find something. Eventually Midnight spoke up.

“I may have an idea, but I’m not sure.”

“I will take anything at this point.”

“I’m with Shota on that.”

Setting the files down on the desk, Midnight looked at her friends.

“Given his personality and dislike for weaknesses, it could be that he thinks people might pity him for having busy parents. Shame might be what brought that reaction.”

Not the strongest reason but definitely possible.

“Now come on you two. It’s getting late, so we should eat.”

Letting his friend push him along, Aizawa glanced back at his desk where the files had been locked away.

‘Maybe there really is nothing there?’

Chapter Text

Alright Everyone, two things.

First off, Have a happy, healthy New Year!!!

Second, Please vote for your two favorite stories, excluding the two harem ones and People call me a bastard though bitch is more accurate but it's not my fault people are easy to mess with. those three have a more specific schedule.

the voting will end with January.

I will update throughout the month of January, and if you vote at the beginning, you have until the end to change it, just let me know that that is what you are doing.

Again have a happy and healthy 2020!

Chapter Text

“Oi! Shitty Hair! Frog-Face!”

Monday morning before classes started, a more-than-usual-pissed-off Katsuki homed in on his two targets.

“Bakugou! I must again-”

“Fuck off Four-Eyes. Shitty Hair what’s your favorite food?”

“Huh? I love any kind of stir-fry. Why?”

“Frog Face?”

“Chicken karaage or shrimp tempura and octopus. Kero.”

“Alright. Neither of you dipshits do anything for lunch tomorrow.”

Turning around and marching to his seat, the boy sat down with a huff even as the two teens he had just spoken two exchanged slightly bewildered looks. That was unexpected and judging from the perplexed looks from the others who were also early, they weren’t the only ones to think so. It did sound like Bakugou had just said he was making them lunch tomorrow. Something that would be out of character for the ordinarily prickly boy. Although, any questions that would have come up were prematurely cut off when Aizawa walked in early and took a quick glance around the room and stopped on a head of messy, green hair.

“Midoriya, come here.”

Walking back out, their teacher left the class staring at the door in confusion as their classmate scrambled after the man. Bakugou’s behavior seemed insignificant now, as the silence slowly grew to questions.

“Oh No! I hope Deku isn’t in any trouble!”
“I’m sure Aizawa sensei just needed to ask him something! U.A. is a well-respected school after all!”

“EEEHH but he did lie to us on our first day about expulsion!”

At the invisible girl’s word, the class quickly fell into a debate the rapidly drew the attention of the stragglers even though the louder students did most of the talking.

“Maybe it wasn’t a lie and he just needed time to fill out paper work! Midoriya was last in the apprehension test after all!”

“Don’t be ridiculous Kaminari! It’s been almost a month! It can’t be an expulsion!”

“No way! Midoriya is definitely going to be expelled! Just think about it! He keeps crippling himself with his quirk, so the school can’t keep him in the hero department because of liability!”

“But that’s why were here! To learn to control our quirks! It would be unmanly of them to not help Midoriya! What do you think Bakubro?”

The debate quickly stuttered into silence upon the cheerful redhead inviting their volatile classmate to join in. The angry red eyes slowly looking up did not help the class’s nerves.

“You fucking call me that again Shitty Hair and I will rip your fucking tongue out of your fucking mouth. And that shitstain isn’t going anywhere. My luck is too crap to ditch that fucker that easily.”

“Bakugou. As class representative, I must again ask you to-”

“Go fuck yourself with a branding iron. That should really give you something to bitch about. Beat it Four-Eyes.”

The taller boy, and most of the rest of the class, flinched back not only from the words but also the sheer venom they were dripping with. Even Kirishima’s face fell slightly at the hostility.

Before the class could do much more however, Midoriya and Aizawa-sensei came back in. The teary look their classmate cast over them, lingering on Bakugou until red eyes began narrowing dangerously at him, had to mean that whatever discussion they had did not go well.

“Sit down.”

Despite only knowing the man for a short period of time, they knew that he preferred them just doing what he expected of them without having to say anything. The fact that he did must mean that he was in a really a foul mood. Between the teacher and their explosive classmate, today was not going to be very pleasant.

“I have two announcements. After that, homeroom will be self-study.”

The sigh of relief lasted only long enough for their teacher’s eyes to flair red.

“Firstly, our investigation is almost over, so unless we find something within the next few days, no one will be encouraged to use a hero name if they don’t want to for the upcoming Sport’s Festival. Secondly, next week is going to mark the first assignment to test the Association’s little experiment, so you need to notify me of how many soul marks from each of your classmates you have earned so I can start planning teams. Any questions?”

A hand in the back of the class went up.

“Yes, Yaoyorozu?”

“What sort of assignment shall we be doing?”

“You’ll be told when it’s time and not before then. Any others?”

When the class was silent, their teacher gave a sharp nod of his head.

“Alright. Self-study begins now.”

From the dark circles under his eyes that were more noticeable then usual, the class expected Aizawa to crawl into his sleeping bag and sleep for the rest of homeroom like he always does when he makes it self-study, but he instead turned on his heel and left.

“Ok? Doesn’t Aizawa sensei sleep in here when he says that?”

“Maybe he’s going to the teachers’ lounge or something?”

“Kaminari, Ashido, our instructor said it was self-study, so please make the most of this time to do just that. I am sure he is just very busy with his pro hero duties as well.”

Although Iida did his best to sound his part as the class representative, the uncertainty he was also feeling leaked through his voice and couldn’t stop himself from glancing to the door and back to the student who had been called out. Except for Bakugou, who had already put his noise canceling earphones on, and Midoriya, who kept distractedly looking at said blond boy with his still teary eyes, the class followed suit before gradually sitting down and pulling out books.

Whatever happened must have involved Bakugou and Midoriya. Those two may not have the best relationship, but aside from the training exercise, where Bakugou nearly killed the other boy and the USJ attack where it turned to saving the green boy, Bakugou never instigated interactions with the other. Or anyone for that matter. It was always someone else reaching out and being rebuffed.

Once the class reached this conclusion, in their own ways, the studying began in earnest. Except for Kirishima and Asui who knew more.

‘Does this have anything to do with the soul mark he gave me?’

Once lunch time came around, the class began fracturing into what had started to become the usual groups. Except for two people who the rest were beginning to believe had a death wish.

“Would you like to join Ei and I for lunch Bakugou?”

“No, now fuck off.”

“C’mon bro! Don’t be like that! I tried looking up some cooking ideas just so could try to understand what you and Tsu are talking about! It did look like you were having fun talking about cooking last time!”

“We weren’t talking, that was a debate that I fucking won.”

“No, you didn’t kero. You did say my cooking wasn’t bad, so I would say I won.”

“NO FAIR! WHY DOES THE BRUTE GET TO HAVE A GIRL COOK FO-”

The frog girl’s tongue launched past Midoriya and knocked Mineta to the ground without a single look.

“Like fuck you did frog face! Wasn’t bad doesn’t mean good! Just wait until tomorrow, you bitch!”

“Aw man! I’m so jealous you two are so good at that, but isn’t that biased for you both to claim you’re better?”

The two teens looked at the nearly forgotten third member of their trio with blank looks until Kirishima started fidgeting.

“Fine! You’ll eat my cooking tomorrow, have the bitch’s Wednesday, then when you say mines better, the bitch won’t have any excuses!”

Before either of the others could offer their input, the blonde stood up and marched out of the classroom.

The duo glanced at each other, but before they started after him, a slightly wobbly voice grabbed their attention.

“I’m a bit jealous. Kacchan’s the best cook I know, he’s even better than my mom, and now he’s going to make your favorites.”

“Are you alright Midoriya? You don’t look very well. You’ve looked upset since Aizawa-sensei pulled you out into the hall, kero.”

Though it was slight, Tsuyu was close enough to notice the boy tense at her question.

“Y-yeah! Ev-everything’s fine! Thanks for asking Asui!”

“Call me Tsu.”

“R-right! Well, I’m going to go eat lunch now!”
Watching Midoriya all but flee from the classroom, the class glanced around at each other. Something had to have happened. The question was, what?

“Deku?” “Midoriya?”

Watching the greenette’s friends hurry to follow him, Eijirou gently nudged Tsuyu.

“We should probably head to cafeteria ourselves if we want to find Bakubro.”

“You’re right kero.”

“Are you two sure you want to do that?”

Looking in the direction of the voice, the duo saw Yaomomo approaching them.

“Forgive me for prying, but why do you want to eat with Bakugou? He was quite adamant about not joining you two for lunch.”

“I’m not sure about Ei, but I need to talk to him about something, kero.”

“NO!! WHY IS THE MONSTER THE FIRST ONE TO GET A CONFESSION?! IT’S NOT-”

Another harsh smack from the frog girl’s tongue sent the small boy sprawling again.

“It’s not a confession, but it is a bit personal, kero.”

“Ah, I actually need to talk to him to, but I really just liked the last time we ate together! It was so much fun listening to how passionate you two are about cooking! It was so manly!”

“I see. Then I won’t say anything else on it.”

“Thank you Yaomomo.”

“Yeah, thanks Yaomomo!”

Finally free from distractions, the two made their way to the cafeteria, grabbed some food, and began their search for their volatile, yet surprisingly elusive, classmate.

“Is that him over there kero?”

“Where? Oh, yeah, I see him! How did you find him so fast?”

“I looked for the least crowded part of the cafeteria, kero.”

“That makes sense. He probably would find the spot with the fewest people.”

“Or chase them off, kero.”

“Haha, yeah that too. Let’s go then.”

Taking the lead to open the crowds for the short girl, Kirishima began the track to their destination.

“May I ask you a question Ei?”

“Sure! What is it Tsu?”

“Do you need to talk to Bakugou about the memory marks?”

The unexpected question caught the boy off-guard, but he pulled himself out of the stumble.

“Yeah. I actually need to talk to you about that too.”

“Ok. I’m free after classes today. Will that be ok kero?”

After the boy nodded his head in confirmation, the two quickly crossed the last of the distance separating them from the blonde and sat down across from him.

“What the fuck? I didn’t say you extras could sit there.”

“C’mon bro! Don’t be like that! We just want to eat with you!”

“We are also allowed to sit wherever we want in the cafeteria, kero.”

The response came out almost as a growl as red eyes narrowed dangerously.

“And I already said I don’t want to eat with you fucks.”

“But we had such fun last time!”

“No, I did not.”

“Ei and I still need to talk to you though.”

Bakugou narrowed his eyes even further at the statement, especially when he noticed the red head give a slightly panicked look at his compatriot.

“And what the fuck could you have to talk to me about?”

Instead of answering, the girl began eating her lunch. Noticing the death glare moving back towards him, Kirishima was quick to follow her example. To their surprise, Bakugou said nothing as they ate and simply returned to his own meal.

He did not however, relax his glare, so Kirishima decided to try and break the ice.

“You’re surprisingly calm bro. I would have thought you’d demand answers, and don’t you eat more than that?”

The blond shot a quick glance at his simple lunch of rice, tempura vegetables, and calamari before looking back up and subtly pulling his food closer.

“How much I eat is none of your fucking business, Shitty Hair. And I may be an asshole, but I’m not gonna stop you fucks from eating just because I want answers. If you’re going to talk anyway though, what the fuck do you want?”

“Oh, um, uuhhh.”

“Ei and I have memory marks from you kero.”

Chapter Text

“What?”

Carmine eyes bored at them with such intensity, it was as though he was trying to have them spontaneously combust. A not unusual situation to be honest.

“We have memory marks from you, kero.”

“But not like real marks! They’re more of a partial?”

“How the fuck can you have a partial? I haven’t told you shits anything about me, and that ain’t changing.”

“You started telling us something. During our debate over food, remember?”

“The fuck I did! All I remember is kicking your ass in that debate and that’s the fucking end of it.”

“No, you didn’t. You admitted—”

“I didn’t admit shit! For the last fucking time, not bad does not mean you won a damn thing!”

“Isn’t that still on ongoing debate though? Since Tsu and I have yet to try your cooking?”

“…. Shut your fucking face, Shitty Hair.”

“Ei makes a valid point. It is technically ongoing until we try your food and declare a winner.”

“And you’ll both be groveling once you do.”

“Wow man, you really are confident in yourself, huh? Kinda makes me jealous. I wish I were like that.”

Feeling the weight of both his companions staring at him, the shark-toothed boy clamped his mouth shut in regret. Not to rag on his classmates, but these two definitely had the most intimidating stares of everyone he’s every met. Tsu’s because she can be so expressionless all the time and Bakugou’s because he’s usually so expressive, his deadpan look makes someone feel pathetic.

“What do you mean by that, kero? You’re easily one of the most outgoing people in our entire class.”

“Obnoxious too. How the fuck are you saying you aren’t confident?”

“Oh uh, well, I guess I’m more a ‘fake it till you make it guy’? I was actually really shy in middle school, so I’m trying to make a new image for myself?”

“Never would have guessed that one. That why you dye your hair?”

“Yeah, it is! My personal hero is crimson riot, so I wanted to make myself more like him, so maybe I could pick up some of his manly spirit!”

Red eyes met red eyes head on.

“That is so fucking stupid.”

And one crushed the other.

“Bakugou! That is horrib—”

“Shut it Frog Face. Shitty Hair is trying to mimic someone else too what? Build up his own courage? That has to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. What else is he going to mimic? Everything? When will his own originality come out? Quirks were called individualities, for fucks sake. So be an individual and not so fucking stupid. If he inspired you, then fucking fine: he inspired you to be a hero. But if you can’t at least decide to be your own kind of hero, what business do you have at U.A? This is the best hero school in the entire country, so learn to be a fucking hero. If anyone could just fucking duplicate what any hero does, there wouldn’t even be a fucking need for this school or even the two bit side show ones all over the rest of the fucking country. Everyone could just go ‘oh I’m going to be the next All-Might’ but guess what? Not how it fucking works. You made the decision to become a hero, you made the decision to apply for U.A, hell you even made the decision to accept a spot here. So, don’t you fucking slink about like some beaten dog and pretend at shit. You got in here, that’s it. If you wanna be some outgoing and obnoxious hero, do it. If you wanna be a quiet and more reserved hero, do it. Just don’t make excuses.”

Slamming his seat back and grabbing his empty tray, the blond immediately left his stunned classmates alone at the table instead of listening to any more of their nonsense. Because he meant every fucking word of what he said. All-Might inspired him to be a hero, but like hell was he gonna be some two-bit wannabe copycat like that green little shit stain! He was going to be better than All Might, because he was gonna be the best damn hero!

‘Fucking hell I don’t hope lunch tomorrow isn’t awkward.’

Just one more meal with them and that will be that. He said he’d feed them a meal, so he’s still gonna fucking feed them a meal. Then he can wash his hands of them.

“Ei, are you alright, kero?”

“Oh, uh yeah. Just, I don’t know, didn’t expect that from Bakugou? He was really passionate about it and he didn’t strike me as the type to go off like that. I mean, I would expect him to throw hands, not lecture.”

“That’s true. But about what he said.”

“I mean, it did hurt, but not as much as I would have thought? He said things that I hadn’t thought of before. I did make decisions about coming here, so maybe I’m… I don’t know? I’m having a hard time trying to express my thoughts right now. He definitely gave me food for thought though. What about you? What do you think of his speech, Tsu?”

“I don’t know. I think I’m in shock like you are about it.”

“That’s fair.”

….

….

….

….

…

“Think he’ll be still be willing to make us lunch tomorrow?”

“I would say so. He doesn’t strike me as the type to back on something.”

“Think it will be good?”

“I hope so. He did talk a big game.”