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If asked, Izuku wouldn't be able to pinpoint when the bullying started, but he would be able to tell you that it was around the same time Kacchan developed a deep-rooted fear of birds.
Wait, that makes no sense. It's better to start at the beginning.
Midoriya Izuku was diagnosed Quirkless a few days after his fifth birthday. He doesn't remember much of the appointment itself, only that the doctor told him it was hopeless trying to be a Hero without a Quirk.
He remembers coming home with his mother, tears streaming down his face, much to his father's distress. He remembers asking them both if it was possible to be a Hero without a Quirk.
He remembers their quiet assurances that it would be hard, but Izuku would be the first.
That was what Izuku kept in the fore-front of his mind when his teacher told his kindergarten class that he was Quirkless, and that they needed to be careful when playing with him. That was what Izuku remembered when the other children started excluding him from their games. That was what Izuku reminded himself when Kacchan started ganging up on him in elementary school.
That was when, he supposed, Kacchan started avoiding birds.
It was little, at first. Bakugo Katsuki was never one for feeding the birds like his father was, so he was never all that close to the creatures. But it was weird to see the usually spitfire young boy go quiet and step back whenever he spotted a pigeon or a crow.
Izuku had confided in his friend Shinsou Hitoshi about this, back in elementary. Shinsou was bullied too, but in a different way. Students were fake nice to Hitoshi. Students, when dealing with Izuku, got physical.
(Most people stopped after the first time, though, like when Abe-kun kicked his ankle at lunch only to trip because his laces were untied, or how Murakami-san's water bottle broke and spilled all over her book after she pulled Izuku's hair. Most people didn't bother doing much else other than inconviencing him or settling for insults. Bakugo Katsuki was not most people, however.)
"I dunno, maybe he got dive-bombed?" Hitoshi suggested, rocking back and forth on the swing but not letting his toes leave the ground. Izuku puffed out his cheeks, kicking out his feet. They were still too short to reach the ground, so he had to always try really hard to swing himself.
"Kacchan wouldn't back down because a bird attacked him." Hitoshi nodded sagely, like an old man. "Bakugo-kun would simply attack the bird back."
The two burst into a fit of giggles, leaving their parents to watch on fondly, not having heard a word the boys had said.
The bullying worsened in middle school, as did Kacchan's fears.
This was most exemplified by the time Izuku and Hitoshi ran into each other while escaping bullies after school ended. They had booked it to the park, hoping to lose their pursuers. The students from Hitoshi's school couldn't be bothered, but Aldera students were made of tougher stuff. Truly, the bottom of the barrel.
Hitoshi and Izuku were hiding in a bush in the park, covering their mouths were their hands to silence their breathing. The boys both knew that they were risking it by hiding in the bush, because neither of them blended in. Sure, Izuku had green hair, but he also had a stupidly bright yellow backpack. Hitoshi's statement-piece of a hair-do spoke for itself.
Izuku could hear Kacchan and his posse approach their hiding spot, calling out insults and mockery as they searched. The usual, 'cowardly Deku', 'you'll never be a Hero without a Quirk', it was water off a duck's back at this point, really.
If it had just been them, Izuku wouldn't have been nearly as scared. But Kacchan was on the prowl. Izuku's still smouldering shoulder was proof enough of that.
Or, rather, Izuku thought he was, until Hitoshi silently tapped him on the shoulder and pointed.
With twin expressions of shock, they watched as Bakugo Katsuki, Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight himself, had a staring contest with a crow.
He was frighteningly pale and never blinked while staring at it. He didn't move or respond when his friends called to him and tried to get his attention. He just watched the bird.
The bird watched him back, before tilting its head to the side. It took a hop forward, and Kacchan stumbled back.
To Izuku and Hitoshi's amazement, more crows joined the first one, all staring at Kacchan.
As the crows amassed in numbers, Kacchan took one step back, then two, before turning tailing and running in the opposite direction. His friends followed soon after once the crows took flight, the murder attacking the boys as they ran.
Silence.
"Do you think Bakugo-kun has ever seen 'The Crow'?" Hitoshi asked, a look of awed amusement on his face.
Izuku punched him in the shoulder.