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Chapter Text

Aizawa crawled into his sleeping bag and slumped against the wall after giving out the afternoon’s assignment. Yaoyorozu would make sure that the noise was kept to a dull roar so he could sleep, not that he actually would. He suspected that she had already figured out that his “naps” were more useful for spying on his students than they were for getting actual rest, but she was logical enough to not spill the secret to the rest of the class. Teenagers were always on their best behavior when adults were watching, but their walls came down when they thought no one was paying attention, so eavesdropping during his naps gave him a better idea of what issues needed to be addressed than he would get through teaching alone. 

As expected, very few students were actually hard at work. Most were chatting among themselves, and Kaminari was on his phone, most likely looking at memes. He’d have to talk to Yaoyorozu and see if she could review the class policy on technology use with him. As he watched, Kaminari’s eyes widened and he yelled to catch the attention of the rest of the class. 

“Whoa! Mischief just called out his nemesis!”

Aizawa perked up a little as the class exploded in disbelief. Calling out a hero to be their nemesis was something that every villain did when they became dangerous enough to merit the attention, which meant that having a nemesis was a huge symbol of power. It demanded a level of respect that just wasn’t possible for minor villains and thugs. 

Which was part of what made it so strange that Mischief had never chosen one. He had risen to power extremely rapidly a little under two years ago despite the fact that his quirk remained unknown, and he had been qualified as an A-rank villain for most of that time, and yet he had never called out any specific hero to be his rival. He would fight whoever showed up to stop him, but never seemed to favor one hero over the others. Nedzu had gradually become his defacto nemesis, due to Mischief’s skill as a master strategist and his love of riddles and games, so most people assumed that it was only a matter of time until Mischief made it official, since only villains could choose their nemesis, but that still hadn’t happened, so he remained both a mystery and an anomaly. 

The point was that his class was in no way overreacting by crowding around Kaminari’s phone to confirm his claim. 

“Hey!” Kaminari said, holding his head above his head. “Stop pushing, you’re gonna make me drop my phone!”

“Idiots,” Bakugo rolled his eyes, “why don’t you just wait for dunce face to tell you who that villain chose instead of yelling at him like a bunch of stupid seaguls or somehting?”

The class shuffled away sheepishly, and Kaminari used the tiny bit of extra elbow room to look at his phone again, “That’s the thing though, Bakugo. Apparently, no one can figure out exactly who he’s talking about. The video is either a riddle or it’s calling out someone really specific, but no one can figure out which one it is.”

“Well then, let’s watch it!” Ashido called out. 

“I’m not sure Aizawa would be down with that, dudes.” Kirishima glanced toward him hesitantly, but Aizawa simply pretended that he was still asleep. 

“Oh, it’ll be fine as long as we’re not too loud.” Uraraka said. “We’ve done worse, or don’t you remember the karaoke debacle?”

There were murmurs of assent as the class nodded and Aizawa rolled his eyes. Of all the things that were going to get them in trouble during his naptime, watching history happen was pretty low on the list. It was only logical for them to be aware of current events. 

“And what? We’re just gonna crowd around dunce face’s shitty phone again?” Bakugo scoffed. “ That’s gonna work great.”

“I can make a hologram projector.” Yaoyorozu offered. Quick thinking and practical, she was improving. 

Making the projector and syncing it with Kaminari’s phone only took a few minutes, and Yaoyorozu set it gently on one of the desks in the front row so everyone could see. Aizawa was glad that holograms were transparent so that he could still watch from his place on the floor, even if he was seeing the image from behind. So sue him, he was curious too!

The image on the screen was Mischief against a black background, his signature metallic mask hiding the lower part of his face as he looked into the camera. His eyes made it clear that he was smiling, which didn’t surprise Aizawa at all. No one knew Mischief's exact age, but he had a reputation for being child-like, which only made him more terrifying, in Aizawa’s opinion. Someone as ruthless as him had no right to act so innocent. 

“Hello!” Mischief gave a small wave. His voice sounded young, even warped by a voice changer. “I’ve recently learned that there are a lot of people, and I mean a lot , who are curious as to why I still haven’t called out a nemesis. Well, today, I’m going to tell you why! The truth is, I’ve had my nemesis picked out ever since I decided to become a villain! He always said that he was going to be the best hero, and truthfully, he’s one of the reasons a deku like me even became a villain to begin with, so you see, I could never even imagine having a different nemesis!”

As the video played, Aizawa found himself paying more attention to his student’s faces than to Mischief's. Most were listening in rapt curiosity or muttering to themselves in surprise that Mischief had had a hero chosen for so long. All in all, they were reacting exactly how Aizawa expected, except for Bakugo. Aizawa had half-expected to have to stop him from exploding his classmates for being too loud or annoying during the video, and at the beginning, he’d appeared to be about to do so, but as soon as Mischief had said...what word was it...deku? As soon as Bakugo had heard that, he’d gone dead silent. Even though his classmates were being loud enough that he’d normally be letting loose at least a small explosion to shut them up, he didn’t move a muscle, almost like he didn’t trust himself to move. Aizawa had no idea what was going on in his student’s head, but whatever a deku was, it was enough to catch Bakugo’s attention.

“There was just one little, teensy-weensy problem,” Mischief giggled as he continued, “I hadn’t planned on rising to power so fast, and I had to wait for him to catch up! But now that he finally has his hero license, we can officially become nemeses!” 

Mischief jumped up and down in excitement, “I guess I don’t really need this anymore!” He reached up and pressed a button on his mask and when he spoke again, it was in his own voice, “Hi Kacchan, did you miss me?”

The class had exploded in whispers again, but Aizawa’s eyes were stuck on Bakugo, who now looked like he was holding himself back from exploding by sheer force of will. Why was this affecting him so much? From what Aizawa knew, Bakugo had never taken any special interest in Mischief, so him calling out a nemesis really shouldn’t be affecting him so much, unless...Aizawa froze. Bakugo Katsuki. 

Kacchan.

Aizawa felt his stomach sink. Please, no. Not his student. Bakugo may be strong, but he wasn’t ready to go against an A-rank villain like Mischief yet. Aizawa hoped he was just jumping to conclusions, but...Bakugo had just barely completed the make-up course and received his provisional license yesterday. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence. 

“Do you remember when we were kids, Kacchan, and we would play villains vs. heroes?” Mischief asked. “You would always make me play the helpless civilian, and you would climb to the top of the slide and yell that you were going to be the best hero ever! Well, today we’re going to play again. Heroes vs. villains, just like we used to, but this time we have a whole city to be the civilians for you to save! Isn’t that amazing? To celebrate our...reunion? Is there a better word for this? Well, anyway, I got you a present to celebrate! I hope this doesn’t ruin the surprise, but…” Mischief glanced around, then leaned forward and whispered like he was sharing a secret, “I based it off your quirk. I hid it where I left you that note! You’d better find it before 3:00, because otherwise you’ll lose the game! Good luck, Kaachan! See you soon!”

Aizawa glanced up at the clock and swore. It was almost 2:30. If Mischief based this present off Bakugo’s quirk, that meant that there was a bomb hidden somewhere in the city, and it was going to explode in half an hour. This was bad.

“What was that?” Mineta asked. “He didn’t even call anyone out, he just talked!”

“It might be in code…” Jiro suggested.

“It’s much more likely that the message is meant for someone specific.” Yaoyorozu said.

“Oh, that’s so cool!” Hagakure squealed. “Childhood friends turned fated rivals!”

The class was too busy freaking out to notice Bakugo stand up and stalk toward the door. Aizawa still hoped that he was somehow wrong, but the sheer amount of anger Bakugo was projecting combined with the fact that he was trying to leave as soon as the video finished was more than enough evidence to convince Aizawa to trust his gut. He hurriedly shed his sleeping bag and blocked Bakugo’s path. 

Bakugo scowled up at him, “Get out of my way, hobo!”

The rest of the class was looking at them curiously, but Aizawa stood his ground, “Where’s the bomb, Bakugo?”

Bakugo froze and a look of surprise crossed his face for a moment before it was replaced by his usual anger, “I can handle that quirkless fucker myself. I don’t need your damn help.”

Aizawa’s eyes widened. Mischief was quirkless? That would definitely explain how he’d managed to keep his quirk a complete mystery despite the police’s best attempts to discover it, “There are protocols for a reason, Bakugo. Heroes need to work with police to bring down villains and assure civilian safety. You are a student, Bakugo, and I can’t in good conscience send you to fight an A-rank villain alone, no matter what history you apparently have with him. So tell me where we’re going and I’ll have Tsukauchi send the bomb squad.”

Bakugo scowled for a moment, but Aizawa didn’t budge. If this was going to be a battle of wills, there was no question who would win. Eventually, Bakugo looked away, “Eitai Bridge.”  

Aizawa nodded, “Okay.” He turned to the rest of the class, who were staring at them with various degrees of confusion, shock, and disbelief as they connected the dots. “Kirishima, grab both yours and Bakugo’s hero costumes. Yaoyorozu, take the rest of the class back to the dorms and don’t leave until we get back. Classes are cancelled for the rest of the day.” 

The class exploded as Kirishima hurried to comply. Aizawa really hoped he was making the right decision bringing him along. Whatever Bakugo’s connection to Mischief was, it was bound to be an emotional day, but from what he’d seen, Kirishima was the only one who could curb Bakugo’s more...violent tendencies when he got agitated. He just hoped it was enough. 

As Kirishima handed Bakugo the briefcase with his costume, Aizawa turned back to Bakugo, who was still uncharacteristically silent. He still had no idea what exactly they were walking into, but Bakugo most likely did, “Bakugo, what else can you tell me?”

Bakugo’s frown deepened as he pushed past Aizawa toward the door, not bothering to look back as he spoke, “That the damn nerd should have stayed dead.”

Chapter Text

Aizawa waited until they were in the car before calling Tsukauchi. He knew that time was of the essence, but he honestly didn’t trust Bakugo not to try to run off on his own if he didn’t keep an eye on him, even with Kirishima mellowing him out. 

Tsukauchi picked up on the third ring, “No offense, Eraser, but I don’t have time for a chat right now.” 

“I know, which is why this isn’t an idle chat.” Aizawa responded. “Mischief...”

“So you have seen the video?” Tsukauchi sounded like he was about to pull his hair out. “We still have no idea who he’s trying to call out. We’ve checked with every hero who received their official hero license in the last year, but no one knows anything, and we’re less than half an hour from the deadline. We don’t even know what’s going to happen, much less where!”

“That’s what I’m calling about.” Aizawa glanced into the rearview mirror. Kirishima was trying to comfort Bakugo, but he was simply blocking him out and staring out the window. “One of my students, Bakugo Katsuki, whose quirk basically makes him a living bomb, just received his provisional license yesterday. ”

There was silence on the other end for a long moment before Tsukauchi spoke in a shocked whisper, “...a student?”

Aizawa nodded, “He recognized Mischief immediately. He hasn’t told me his identity yet, but he did say that the bomb is at Eitai bridge. We’re already on our way.”

“Sansa! We have a location for the bomb squad!” Tsukauchi yelled. “Thanks Eraser. How far out are you? Is the student with you?”

“Yes, him and one other student. We’ll be at the bridge in ten minutes. Also, Bakugo’s quirk works by exploding nitroglycerin, so based on Mischief's typical attention to detail, there’s a good chance that’s what the bomb is made of.”

“I’ll tell the bomb squad.” Tsukauchi said. “Your class hasn’t had it easy, Eraser, first the league of villains, then what Stain did to Ingenium’s little brother, and now this. I wish...”

Aizawa nodded and glanced back at Bakugo, “Me too.”

Bakugo didn’t know how to feel. Deku was supposed to be dead. He jumped off a bridge two years ago. Sure, they never found his body, but his suicide note had been pretty clear. The whole thing had gotten swept under the rug by the school, and the police had seen enough cases of quirkless suicide that they said Deku’s case was pretty textbook. Sad, a tragedy, but nothing they could do. The useless extras that hung around Bakugo had been too scared to say anything about the whole swan dive comment, and after the first few months, the only one who seemed to remember Deku had existed at all was Bakugo. 

So when Mischief had referred to himself as a deku, Bakugo knew that it was nothing but a coincidence. Deku was dead, he had to be. But then that damn nerd had turned off the voice changer and spoke in the same annoying voice he’d been hearing behind him his whole damn life and called him Kacchan , and Bakugo’s life crashed down around his ears. 

It was all Deku’s fault. Not only was he useless, he was a liar! He’d made Auntie Inko cry and he wasn’t even there! It was Bakugo and his parents that had been there to hold Deku’s mom when she cried. It was them that went to his stupid funeral and buried an empty casket to help her get some closure. And all the while, that stupid, shitty nerd was out there laughing at them as he amassed some sort of shitty criminal empire.

Bakugo was gonna make Deku wish he’d actually died the first time.

Thankfully, it hadn’t taken long to clear the bridge. There were gates on all city bridges that could be remotely lowered in the case of a villain fight, so by the time Tsukauchi had arrived with the bomb squad, there were only a few stragglers that still needed to be cleared off. The bridge looked surprisingly normal and Tsukauchi was almost convinced that Aizawa had somehow been wrong when he heard whimpers and the sniffer dogs alerted to a spot in the middle of the bridge. 

“H-help!” It was a woman’s voice, and her voice was breaking like she’d been screaming for hours. “Somebody help me!”

“Get the harnesses,” Tsukauchi ordered, “she’s under the bridge!”

The woman kept screaming as they strapped up and prepared to crawl off the bridge. With all the traffic, it was no wonder that no one had heard her screams, even though she had to have been there at least since the video was released. Finally, Tsukauchi and a few bomb squad members finished their preparations and got underneath the bridge. 

The woman sobbed with relief when she saw them, but Tsukauchi knew they weren’t out of the woods yet. She was tied to the bridge’s supports, but there were bombs strapped all over her body. As they got closer, a miniature television screen on her chest lit up and Mischief’s face appeared. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, detective.” Mischief warned. “If anyone touches her before Kaachan gets here, he loses the game. You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

Tsukauchi swallowed. At least they knew they were in the right place.

The media was already swarming by the time the car pulled up. Apparently, the reporters had been chomping at the bit about Mischief's nemesis since the video had been released that morning, so the news of the bridge closure and subsequent arrival of the bomb squad had spread like wildfire. Bakugo just scoffed. Why did they think Deku was so interesting, huh? He was supposed to be a nobody, not even a pebble by the side of Bakugo’s path to greatness, and yet here he was, apparently famous enough to merit a media frenzy. 

It pissed him off. 

“Annoying vultures.” Aizawa muttered. “Alright, this is close as we’ll be able to get in the car. Bakugo, you get out first. We only have five minutes until the bomb goes off, so don’t bother answering any questions right now, just get to the bridge as quickly as possible so Tsukauchi can brief you on the situation. Kirishima and I will be right behind you.”

Bakugo nodded sharply and slid out of the car. He knew what Aizawa was doing. He had to leave first so that he was the first one the cameras saw. If they all got out at the same time, the media would be confused about which of them was Mischief's nemesis, so it was best to avoid any confusion by having Bakugo take the lead. Catching Deku was his responsibility now, after all. 

The reporters immediately swarmed him the moment he was out of the car and Bakugo had to resist the urge to explode them. He settled for snarling at them and stalking resolutely toward the police line, which thankfully intimidated them enough for him to push through the crowd. Midnight probably wouldn’t be too happy, since she’d tried to drill playing nice with the media through their heads, but she could go fuck herself. Aizawa was right, these guys were annoying. 

He ducked underneath the cation tape and a plain-looking guy in a trench coat that Bakugo recognized from the USJ came up to him, “Bakugo, right?”

Bakugo nodded, “You Tsukauchi?”

Tsukauchi nodded, “We found the bomb strapped to a hostage underneath the bridge. Mischief wasn’t allowing anyone to touch her until you arrived, but we did manage to talk him into letting us move her up onto the bridge by promising not to try to defuse the bomb. Right this way.”

Bakugo frowned. Deku...well, he knew that Mischief often used hostages, but Deku had always seemed too heroic for that kind of stuff, even if he was too weak to actually do anything. Bakugo just couldn’t imagine him strapping a bomb to a random person like this. 

Tsukauchi led him to the midpoint of the bridge, where half a dozen bomb squad officers were surrounding a familiar-looking woman who looked to be having a panic attack. Ah, that explained it, she wasn’t random.

“Miss Fujii?”

She looked up at him with tearful eyes, “I’m s-sorry, do I know you?” 

Bakugo didn’t know why he’d thought she’d recognize him when she hadn’t seen him since he was four, but why would Deku choose to strap a bomb onto their old preschool teacher? Bakugo was about to reintroduce himself to jog her memory when a small screen on her chest lit up and he was met with Deku’s smiling face, Mischief’s metal mask hanging around his neck. 

“Hey, Kacchan! I see you got my message!”

“What the fuck, Deku?” Bakugo growled. “I thought you jumped off a bridge.”

“Yeah, well, plans change.” Deku said bitterly. “For example, I always planned on being a hero, and look how well that turned out. My plans went down the drain by the time I turned five.”

Bakugo crossed his arms, “Does that have something to do with why our preschool teacher is sitting on the bridge you were supposed to jump off of with a bomb strapped to her chest?”

Deku smiled brightly, “You were always so smart, Kacchan! That’s why you’re going to be such a good hero!”

“Don’t you dare look down on me!” Bakugo startled out of his rage when he felt a hand on his arm and he glanced over to find Kirishima looking at him with concern. He forced himself to take a deep breath. “I’m here, Deku, just like you wanted, so let the bomb squad defuse the bomb.”

“I’ll do you one better!” Deku waved a remote in front of the camera and pressed a button before Bakugo could even yell at him to stop. Miss Fujii whimpered in fear, and Kirishima ran forward, switching to unbreakable in an attempt to block as much of the explosion as he could, but instead of a boom, there was a quiet beep and the lights on the bomb turned green. 

“You really should trust me more,” Deku said, “I told you that you wouldn’t lose this round as long as you showed up by three. Nice reflexes though, Red Riot, I’m impressed. No wonder you’ve managed to break through Kacchan’s tough exterior.”

“Shut up, Deku!” Bakugo pushed Kirishima out of the way so he could see the screen again. “And what did you mean this round?”

“Well, the game wouldn’t be any fun if it ended this soon!” Deku pouted. “So I already left another present for you to find! Same rules, if you find it within the time limit, I’ll defuse the bomb, if not, well…” he giggled, “then the game is over and I win!”

“Those rules are shit.” Bakugo growled. “Stop hiding behind hostages and fight me yourself, coward!”

“Nope!” Deku said, popping the p. “You already had your chance and now it’s my turn to control our games. Don’t worry, Kacchan! It’ll be fun! Now, because you’re throwing a tantrum, let’s up the stakes a little bit. You can use your explosions to propel yourself, so let’s give you...hmm, 15 minutes should be more than enough time to make it to where I saved your life, right? Good luck, Kaachan!”

The screen went dark and the bomb squad ran forward to save the hostage. Bakugo flexed his hands. It was already bad enough that the media wouldn’t let him forget that stupid day, and now Deku was rubbing salt in the wound. How dare he!

Bakugo almost exploded Aizawa when he put his hand on his shoulder, “Do you know where that is?”

“Of course I know, you damn hobo, I’m not a fucking idiot!” Bakugo yelled. 

Aizawa rolled his eyes, “Tell me and we’ll meet you there. Mischief didn’t give you much time, so you need to hurry.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Bakugo flexed his hands as he prepared to take to the air. “And it’s at Tatooine Shopping District.”

Chapter Text

The place had been mostly rebuilt since the last time Bakugo had been there, but he could still see scorch marks high on the walls from where the sludge villain had made his explosions go crazy. Even just walking through here again was making him feel like he couldn’t breathe, which was probably why Deku chose it, or maybe he was trying to remind Bakugo that he was above him, just because the damn nerd saved his life once time. He hated this place.

He was getting some weird looks from shoppers, considering that he literally dropped out of the sky less than a minute ago, but he ignored them as he massaged his wrists. He could see police trying to quickly evacuate the area, but they couldn't just tell everyone to run without causing mass panic, which had the potential to be even more dangerous. The safest course of action would be to find the bomb quickly so Deku would disarm it.

Speaking of the bomb, according to his own estimates, Bakugo still had a few minutes to find it. He looked for anyone who might be more stressed than a simple shopper. If Deku kept to his pattern, the bomb would be strapped to someone, most likely someone from their past, it was just a question of finding them before the time limit. 

Suddenly there was a scream and Bakugo whirled around to see people frozen in fear around his homeroom teacher from the third year of middle school, who was very predictably strapped with enough explosives to level the street. Unlike the hostage at the bridge, however, there wasn't a screen attached to his chest. 

"Y-you made good time, K-kacchan." The man's voice was thick with tears, and upon further inspection, there was an earpiece in his ear. Deku was probably on the other end, forcing his hostage to parrot his words on fear of death. "I’m p-proud of you." 

“I don’t need a villain like you to be proud of me.” Bakugo growled. “And speaking through hostages? That’s a new low.”

A woman’s voice spoke from behind him, “W-why do you care, K-kacchan? Shouldn’t these p-people just be e-extras to y-you?”

Bakugo whirled around as the crowd around the new speaker screamed and started scrambling away from her as fast as they could. She was rigged to near identical explosives as the first guy, all the way down to the stupid ear-peice that Deku was using to tell them what to say. Bakugo vaguely recognized her from sometime in elementary school, though he couldn’t tell you what year.

“I care because I’m a hero.” Bakugo said. “And heroes protect people by beating villains like you.”

“B-but do these monsters even deserve your p-protection?” Another hostage from elementary school spoke, this one blocking the entrance. “T-they w-were c-cruel to me. Every s-single one of t-them was complicit in my abuse, t-turning a blind eye to everything our c-classmates d-did to me.”

“So you’re just gonna kill them?!” Bakugo scanned through the crowd. How many hostages did Deku have? “Did you really track down every single one of our teachers just to be petty? What are you trying to prove?”

“I’m n-not trying to prove anything, K-kacchan.” Bakugo was getting really annoyed with the way the crowd screamed every single time a new bomber hostage stepped forward. It was getting old and this would be so much easier if they would just be quiet. The bombers were blocking every entrance now, despite police’s best efforts to evacuate, which meant that every single shopper here was now a hostage, not that they hadn’t been in danger before. So much for avoiding mass panic. 

“These people are guilty.” The bomber hostages were speaking in unison now, echoing Deku’s words in some creepy, twisted version of surround sound. There were almost a dozen in total, so Deku probably had tracked down every one of their old teachers. “If I’d even been able to change my eye color, things would have been different, but instead they saw me as weak and worthless. Is it any wonder that I chose to take power back?”

Bakugo swallowed thickly. Had Deku really become a villain because of the bullying? Bakugo felt a chill down his spine as he finally remembered what Deku had said in his first video. He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, considering that he had been trying to wrap his head around the fact that the nerd was alive and a villain, but now the line stuck out like a sore thumb. 

He’s one of the reasons a deku like me even became a villain to begin with.

“I found the bombs.” Bakugo said, an icy calmness frosting over his usual explosiveness. “Let them go, it’s me you want.”

“T-that’s true.” Their last middle school teacher was the speaker again. “But they’re still n-not innocent.”

“But the rest of these people are.” Bakugo said. 

“Are you sure?” The way that the bomber hostages switched speakers every line forced Bakguo to constantly turn around to see who was talking. “How d-do you know that they don’t hold quirkist opinions? H-how do you know that n-none of them have punched a quirkless kid, or made someone feel useless and p-powerless just because they were stronger? We l-live in a quirkless society, K-kacchan, everyone’s guilty.”

“That doesn’t fucking excuse any of this bullshit!” 

“I guess not.” 

There was a tense moment of silence before the hostages started to speak in unison, “Meet me tonight where our friendship officially died. You know the place. Afterall, it’s where you became convinced I was looking down on you. Come alone or you lose.”

“Will you actually be there this time, or are you gonna keep forcing extras to fight your battles?” Bakugo asked. 

“I think we’re overdue for a face-to-face, Kacchan. Seven o’clock. Don’t be late.”

There was a chorus of beeps as the lights on the bombs turned green and Bakugo breathed a sigh of relief as the police and bomb squad ran in to free the hostages. He hadn’t realized how tense he’d been as he faced down Deku’s hostages. It was a strange feeling to not be the one in control of the explosions, knowing that one wrong move, one wrong word might result in hundreds of casualties. 

He hated it. 

He pulled himself from his thoughts as he saw Aizawa and shitty hair weaving through the crowd toward him. Kirishima looked like he wanted to give him a manly hug, but he seemed to realize that wasn’t what Bakugo needed right now. He settled for squeezing Bakugo’s shoulder and moving to stand beside him, a silent rock of solidarity. Bakugo would never say it, but he was grateful for it. God knows he needed something steady today. 

Aizawa’s face was grim as he looked around at the chaos that was the Tatooine shopping district, then down at Bakguo, “We need to talk.”

Chapter Text

Aizawa was beyond ready for this day to be over. It was bad enough that Mischief had chosen one of his students to be his nemesis, but the picture that was being painted of their past was even worse. Between the fact that Mischief seemed to blame Bakugo for pushing him to villainy and the fact that he had chosen their old teachers as hostages, well... Aizawa didn’t want to believe that one of his students was capable of being a bully, but he wasn’t blind to how the quirkless were treated. It would have been all too easy for any of those teachers to simply not report the abuse in favor of keeping a star student’s record clean. 

UA had a zero tolerance policy toward bullying, and Aizawa himself had less than no patience with quirk discrimination, having been a victim of it himself, so if this were a normal situation with any other student, he wouldn’t even hesitate to place the student on probation, or even just expel them if their crimes were severe enough, but Bakugo was a special case. Despite being a first year, he was already extremely well-known. His temper, along with the fact that the league had kidnapped him in an attempt to recruit him, made him a controversial figure, but he was determined to become a hero despite all that. And then All Might had died at Kamino. If there had been high expectations for him before, they were astronomical now. No one wanted to see the kid All Might died for fail. 

And to make the situation even worse, Bakugo now had a nemesis. That was the real problem. Everything else, Aizawa could ignore, but having a nemesis came with a certain amount of responsibility. Responsibility to fight the villain, to arrest them, and to keep the public safe. Even if, objectively, there were dozens of other heroes that were qualified to take Mischief down, the public wouldn’t see it that way. In the court of popular opinion, the moment that he had been chosen as Mischief's nemesis, Bakugo had become the only one with the necessary authority to take him down. Any attempt to prevent Bakugo from being a hero now would be taken as an attempt to let Mischief run loose, no matter what mistakes he had made in the past.   

But none of that meant that Aizawa had to just let this go. If Bakugo had contributed to Mischief's abuse, or worse, been the ringleader, then it was Aizawa’s responsibility as his teacher to make sure that he saw the error of his ways and became better. This whole mess might have to be handled a little more delicately than Aizawa would have preferred, but he’d be damned if he let that keep him from fulfilling his responsibilities as a teacher. 

The drive to the police station was quiet. Even Kirishima was more subdued than normal, his bright personality dimming in the thick atmosphere that had been building since the class had gathered around to watch the video. Had that really been only an hour ago? It felt like so much longer. 

Tsukauchi silently led the three of them back into one of the interrogation rooms. Bakugo immediately slouched into one of the offered chairs in broody silence and Kirishima sat right next to him, seemingly trying not to hover. Aizawa exchanged a quick glance with Tsukauchi before the detective closed the door and they both sat down. 

“Alright, Bakugo,” Aizawa began, “tell us everything.”

Bakugo scoffed, “What do you want to know?”

Aizawa resisted the urge to sigh. He should have expected Bakugo to be difficult today, he always got ruder and more stubborn whenever he was stressed because he had no idea of how to actually process emotions. Aizawa had been intending to do something about that, but it had gotten pushed to the back burner because of the non-stop villain attacks, and now he was paying the price. Oh well, there wasn’t anything he could do about that now. The only logical course of action now was to take this conversation one step at a time. 

“Let’s start with Mischief's identity.” Tsukauchi suggested. “You called him Deku?”

Bakugo’s mouth tightened, “I’ve called him that since we were kids because...because it was a misreading of his name. Midoriya Izuku.”

“So you called him useless?” Aizawa asked.

“He was quirkless!” Bakugo yelled. “That’s what he was!”

“Dude…” Kirishima put a hand on his arm to ground him, but Aizawa couldn’t tell if he was trying to convey concern or disappointment. Kirishima probably didn’t know either. 

Bakugo took a deep breath, “Our moms were friends, so I literally can’t remember a time before I knew him. We were close as kids, best friends even until…” Bakugo trailed off.

“Until you developed a quirk and he didn’t.” Aizawa finished for him.

Bakugo grunted, but didn’t deny it, “I had all sort of extras following me around, but stupid Deku just wouldn’t leave me alone. He’d follow me around, trying to say he’d be a hero just like me, like he thought I was just as weak as his shitty ass.”

“What did you do to him, Bakubro?” It was Kirishima who spoke next, to Aizawa’s suprise. He was probably trying to keep the accusation out of his voice, but by the way Bakugo flinched, he wasn’t entirely successful. 

“I…” Bakugo scowled and went silent. 

“We need you to be honest, Bakugo.” Aizawa sighed. “I think it’s pretty obvious that you bullied him and you trying to hide that is just going to waste everyone’s time.”

Bakugo flexed his hands and swallowed, but still didn’t respond. 

“We need to understand your history to know how to move forward.” Tsukauchi said gently. “We need to know how much danger you’ll be in tonight.”

“That quirkless weakening can’t do anything to me.” Bakugo growled. 

Aizawa simply looked unimpressed, “Bakugo, quirkless or not, Mischief has proved himself to be a dangerous adversary. He wouldn’t be in a position to call you out as his nemesis if he wasn’t.”

“Yeah, dude.” Kirishima agreed. “I mean, hasn’t Nedzu even tried taking him down a couple times?”

Bakugo scoffed, “Yeah, the nerd was always smart. He had these creepy notebooks on heroes’ quirks and shit when we were kids, like he was hoping that by studying quirks, he’d get his own one day.” Bakguo scowled again. “That obviously didn’t happen.”

“No, it didn't.” Aizawa said. “So…?”

Bakugo glared at him for a long moment before accepting his fate, “You’re right, I was shit to him. I was sick of a quirkless loser like him following me around and trying to act like he was better than me, so I beat him up to put in his place. At first, I was just trying to get him to leave me alone, but after a while…”

“It just became the way things worked.” Kirishima said bitterly. When he saw Aizawa’s and Tsukauchi’s confused expressions, he explained, “I’ve had my own fair share of bullies. Tormenting me became a habit for some of the kids in my middle school, just like taking the train or packing a lunch. It was just another part of the routine for them.”

Aizawa nodded and turned back to Bakugo, “Is that what happened?”

Bakugo jerked his head in affirmation and Aizawa sighed and rubbed his eyes, “How long did this go on?”

Bakugo grit his teeth, “It didn’t stop until that quirker faked his own suicide two years ago.”

Aizawa’s eyes widened in realization, “That’s why you thought he was dead.”

“He left a note addressed to me on Eitai bridge.” Bakugo huffed. “The cops thought that it was just because I was the closest thing that nerd had to a friend, but it...I…”

“Bakugo.” Kirishima stared at him in horror, but Bakugo refused to meet anyone’s eyes. “Please tell me you didn’t…”

“Take a swan dive off the roof and hope you’ll be born with a quirk in the next life.” Bakugo kept his eyes firmly on the table as he spoke. “I was mad because he was planning on applying to UA, even after everything, and I went too far. It was only one time, and I honestly thought he’d forgotten about it, until…”

“Until he actually did it.” Aizawa finished. 

Tsukauchi frowned, “Why didn’t that come up in our investigation?”

Bakugo scoffed, “Because the extras who followed me around were fucking cowards, that’s why. Same with our teachers. I don’t think I got reported once, which is probably what made Deku mad enough to pull them into his little game.”

Aizawa resisted the urge to feel like the teachers deserved it. Even if they’d completely failed in their duty to protect the students, no one deserved to go through something like that. Still, he had to admit that it made sense for Mischief to go after them if they let the abuse continue unchecked. 

“Look,” Aizawa said finally, “I’m not going to pretend that anything you did was right or excusable. Your teachers should have stepped in to stop you, and we at UA will be making sure you never hurt anyone like that again.”

Bakugo looked like he wanted to explode, probably thinking that he was going to be punished. Not that he was wrong, but his punishment would probably be much different than he expected. Aizawa held his hand up to keep Bakugo and Kirishima from interrupting, “We’ll talk about therapy and other reparations later, but for now, you created this mess Bakugo,” he fixed him with a stern glare, “so you’re going to have to clean it up.”

Chapter Text

After an entire afternoon of discussion, they decided to let Bakugo go alone, but he had to have a comm link in his ear that would be open the whole time so Aizawa and the police could listen. If anything even looked like it was going south, Aizawa, Kirishima, and what seriously looked like half the police force would come to his aid, not that Bakugo was going to need them. There was no way he’d let himself lose to a quirkless weakling like Deku. 

The sun had just set by the time they congregated at the edge of the woods. Bakugo could almost hear the laughter, screams, and chants that used to echo through the trees way back when. 

Forward march and here we go! Members of the Agency Ba-ku-go! Sound off...

This whole fucking day was just bring back way too many memories. Bakugo was seriously gonna kill that damn nerd the moment he showed his face. He didn’t want to be reminded of those days in that shitty elementary school when Deku would follow him around like a lost puppy and look down on him! He was the strongest! He was the best! That damn nerd wouldn’t know what hit him!

A hand on his shoulder reminded him to take a deep breath and he looked over at Kirishima. A part of him vaguely knew he was lucky that Kirishima hadn’t just straight up left after all that stuff with Deku came out, but he’d stayed. Bakugo would never have guessed that Kirishima was bullied himself. He just seemed so bright, like he was always the life of the party. He gathered extras just as much as Bakugo did, so it was weird to think of kids treating him like he treated Deku. It almost made him want to go beat up everyone who had ever been mean to him, but that would probably make him a hypocrite. 

As it was, Kirishima had stayed, but he was quiet and avoided Bakugo’s eye as often as not. Bakugo hated it. He’d have to talk to shitty hair after he’d taken care of the nerd, see what he could do to put things back to normal. Maybe. But first he had to pound Deku to the ground and make sure he knew he was still a quirkless weakling, despite what those stupid extras thought of his fancy new name and crimes. Bakugo was the best and he was there to prove it. 

Tsukauchi glanced at his watch and addressed the gathered heroes and police, “Alright, it’s now five minutes to seven. According to Ground Zero, Mischief’s clue this afternoon is referring to a log bridge about a ten minute walk into the woods. We assume that Mischief will retaliate if Ground Zero does not show up alone, and since it is very likely that he has hostages, we can’t take that risk right off the bat. Keep on your toes and be prepared to move out if Ground Zero calls for backup. I don’t need to tell you not to underestimate Mischief. We have no idea what his plans are.”

Everyone nodded and Bakugo flexed his hands in anticipation. This was gonna be fun. 

“Be careful, Bakugo.” Aizawa said quietly, making Bakugo roll his eyes. “Mischief isn’t the same Deku you used to bully.”

“People don’t change that much.” Bakugo sneered. “I’m still stronger than him.”

Aizawa’s annoying face looked like he didn’t quite believe that, so Bakugo turned away before he could give into the temptation to explode the expression right off his face. He looked to Tsukauchi, who nodded, and Bakugo grinned wildly before launching himself into the air and toward his least-favorite childhood hangout spot. 

It didn’t take long to reach the log bridge at all. Bakugo half expected to see a crowd of hostages crying out in the river, but instead, it was just Deku, sitting on the bridge and swinging his legs in the half-light of the late evening. At the sound of explosions, Deku looked up at him and got to his feet, smiling at Bakugo like he didn’t know he was about to get pounded. 

“I was starting to wonder if I’d been too vague.” He said cheerfully. “Childhood memories can hit people differently, you know?”

Bakugo had no intention of talking. This was gonna be a fight, plain and simple! He’d win before Deku even had the chance to wipe that dumb smile off his face. He landed and ran at Deku, who met him in the middle. Bakugo grinned and launched an explosive punch right at that annoying face. This fight was his!

His eyes widened as Deku pivoted to dodge his punch and grabbed his arm. Bakugo had barely any time to react before he was flipped onto his back and hit the ground hard. 

“Still starting fights with that same right hook?” Deku sighed. “I thought UA was a good enough school to teach you to be unpredictable, but I guess I was wrong.”

“Fuck you!” Bakugo spat as he got to his feet. 

“Bakugo, are you ok?” Aizawa’s voice came to life in his ear. “Do you need backup.”

“I’m fucking fine!” Bakugo growled. “I can handle one quirkless weakening! Stop looking down on me!”

Deku rolled his eyes, “And that’s how we got into this mess. You always think everyone is looking down on you, even when they’re not. I just wanted to help you, Kacchan!” He gestured at the bridge behind them. “You slipped and fell, Kacchan. You were my best friend! Of course I was concerned about you! But instead of accepting my help for what it was like a normal human being, you convinced yourself that I thought I was better than you! Do you even realize how messed up that was?”

“Shut up, Deku!” Bakugo launched himself at Deku again, flying over him and firing an explosion at his back. He felt a small sense of pride as Deku cried out in pain. “You may have gotten lucky with that first move, but I’m still stronger than you!”

Deku glared at him and launched an attack of his own, aiming an obvious punch at his head. How had he even become such a well-known villain when he telegraphed his moves so obviously? Bakugo lazily dodged the punch, only to get a solid knee to the gut and double over in pain. Oh, it was a feint. That explained it. 

He felt a slight pinch on his neck before he could recover and he snarled up at Deku, who was holding something that Bakguo couldn’t quite make out in the gathering darkness, but that looked suspiciously like a syringe, “What was that?”

“I’m quirkless, Kacchan.” Deku said innocently. “I have to use every tool available to me, unlike you. You get to rely on your amazing quirk for everything. You never have to wonder about not being strong enough. About being weak.”

Bakugo growled and launched himself at Deku again, only to stumble as the world spun, “What the fuck did you do to me!”

“It’s just a mild paralytic, Kacchan, don’t worry.” Deku said dismissively. “It’s not even enough to completely knock you out.”

“We’re on our way, Bakugo.” Kirishima said over the comms. “Just hang in there.”

Bakugo grit his teeth. He didn’t need to be saved. He just needed to beat Deku before this stupid drug took over. He tried to use an explosion to launch himself at Deku, but the stupid drug made him trip over his own feet and the only thing the extra power did was make sure he hit the ground with explosive force. He took a deep breath and tried to get up, only for his arms to give out before he could even get to his knees. How weak was he if quirkless Deku could put him facedown in the dirt? Fucking useless!

“Good try, Kacchan.” Deku was mocking him now. “But it’s probably best if you just stay down. Not like you have much of a choice at this point.”

Bakguo wasn’t used to feeling fear. He’d always been so strong, so the only times he’d really felt anything even close to terror was that time with the sludge villain and when he’d been kidnapped by the league of villains. It seemed really unfair that Deku was one of the only people to make him feel this way. No! Bakugo didn’t do fear. He did anger.

“So what now?” Bakguo tried to move again, only for his limbs to barely respond. He stopped. Better keep whatever dignity he still had rather than flop around like a stupid fish. “You’re angry about how I treated you, so is this some kind of shitty ass revenge or something?”

Deku walked in fron of him so that his stupid boots were right in front of Bakugo’s face. When he followed them up, that damn nerd was looking down at him, “Something like that.”

“So what?” Bakugo’s fear was completely drowned in his anger as he spat the words. “Are you gonna fucking kill me or what?”

“Bakubro!” Kirishima’s voice sounded afraid. “Don’t give him any ideas!”

“Kill you?” Deku laughed. “No. If I was going to kill you, I wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of calling you out as my nemesis.”

“So why are you doing this?” Bakugo was yelling now, his fear and anger mixing with frustration at not being able to fight back. He felt so fucking powerless! “If you’re not gonna kill me, then why do all this? You could have chosen any other nemesis and never had your identity known. You could have gone on forever without anyone ever knowing you’re a quirkless weakling, Deku, so why?”

“Because you tortured me for ten years, Kacchan!” Deku snapped. He took a deep beath and smiled. “And I know it’s a little petty, but I want a little revenge. I think it’s only fair that you suffer for at least as long as I did.” 

Bakugo swallowed thickly, “I have back-up on the way. They’re going to be here any minute, so if you’re planning on kidnapping me, you’re out of luck.”

Deku laughed, “Oh, I know about your backup. You’re lucky, you know, to have people who care about you, who believe in you. I never got that, even from Mom. Yeah, she loved me, but even she saw me as broken and fragile. It wasn’t until I proved that I was dangerous that people actually started to believe I was capable of anything.”

Bakugo gasped as Deku planted his foot on his neck and pressed down, “I don’t need to kidnap you to torture you, Kacchan. I know you too well for that.”

“What are you even talking about you damn nerd?!”

Deku took his foot off Bakugo’s neck and crouched down beside him, “I’m talking about making you feel powerless and trapped. You always hated me following you around. You hated that you couldn’t get rid of me. You must have felt so relieved when I pretended to jump off that bridge. Finally, you were free of me looking down on you. ” Deku grinned. “But guess what, Kacchan? Now that I’ve called you out as my nemesis, you’ll never be free of me. From now on, my name will be listed right next to yours in the history books. Whenever people talk about the great Ground Zero, they’ll always mention Mischief, his childhood friend turned enemy. No matter how much you want to forget me, you won’t be able to, because we’re linked forever.”

Bakguo hadn’t even thought of that. Somehow, he’d thought that once he’d beaten Deku, that’d be the end of it, but...Deku was right, wasn’t he? People always talked about a hero’s nemesis just as much as they talked about the hero. Shit. 

“And you know what the best part is?” Deku giggled and leaned closer. “Heroes who have nemeses tend to be more popular than those who don’t, so even if you finally make it to the number one spot like you always talked about when we were kids, well Kacchan…” Deku smiled as his voice dropped and he whispered in Bakugo’s ear. “You’ll never know if it’s because you really are the best, or if the only reason you got as far as you did was because I helped you.”

Bakugo went cold as Deku’s words sank in. He barely noticed when Deku giggled and ran away, or when Aizawa and Kirishima ran into the clearing seconds later. Kirishima knelt beside him and lifted him to his feet, throwing one of Bakugo’s arms over his shoulder so he was leaning his entire weight on Kirishima as they stood. 

“Bakubro?” Kirishima’s voice was almost as soft as Deku’s had been right before he left. “Are you ok?”

Bakguo couldn’t bring himself to respond as Deku’s words played on loop in his brain. The rest of the night passed by in a weird haze. The drugs in his system had worn off at some point, but Bakugo didn’t know if that was because they metabolized quickly or if the paramedics had given him something. He didn’t say a word as Aizawa herded him and Kirishima back into the car and drove them back to UA. 

He knew Kirishima was probably looking at him with fucking pity, but he still let him lead back to the dorms, his feet going off of muscle memory, even if he wasn’t really aware of anything outside of Kirishima’s strong arm around his shoulders. Even the yells and questions of his stupid classmates seemed muted as Kirishima pushed open the doors. 

“Bakugo, you’re back!” Kaminari yelled. “How did it go?”

“Did you win?” Ashido asked.

“Were you really childhood friends with Mischief?” Hagakure piped up. 

Bakugo prided himself on not being overwhelmed easily, but right now, he was tired and just wanted to be alone. 

“Shut up!” He snarled at them harshly enough that the stupid extras were forced to take a step back, then stalked toward the stairs and helded straight toward his room. None of those extras would follow him if they knew what was good for them. 

The class watched in shock as Bakugo stormed up the stairs. They’d seen him angry plenty of times, yes, but this seemed different. Normally, Bakugo’s anger was loud, so it was concerning seeing him so quiet. As Bakugo disappeared, the class turned to Kirishima, who looked exhausted, for answers.  

“What happened?” Uraraka asked finally. “What did Mischief do?”

Kirishima hesitated for a long moment before sighing and running a hand through his hair, wincing when it caught on the gel, “Let’s just say that Mischief knows how to hit Bakugo where it hurts.”