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“Oh, I haven’t spoken to Dynamight since graduation,” the green-haired heroine said in the news clip as she shrugged, her curly hair bouncing around her head.
“Really?” The reporter asked, actually taking a slight step back, unprepared for that answer.
“Oh, yes,” Dekiru said honestly.
Katsuki held his phone in numb hands, watching the clip replay over and over. He’d been texted it by Horns, the pink-skinned woman furious over Katsuki’s lies.
He didn’t know what to say about it. He’d told them that he and Deku were dating, taking things slow. It wasn’t a lie! He knew Deku was into him, knew the girl was crazy about him.
But, well, it was true he hadn’t spoken to her in a while. He tried to reach out, but she was always so damn busy she couldn’t take time to reach out to her boyfriend.
He couldn’t tell the extras that, though. They’d get ideas in their heads. So a white lie about them going out on the weekends was the answer.
Fucking damn it, Katsuki needed to clear this shit up. Get a hold of Deku, talk to her. Get her to admit they were dating. Ugh. She’d been so uptight about it during school, insisting they weren’t. They were what did she think those training sessions meant? Dates! Sure, she hadn’t kissed him or anything, but he got it she was shy, whatever. Eventually, she’d get over it. Then she stopped wanting to train and hasn’t responded to him since last year!
Why was she being so impossible?
Katsuki exited TigTog and went to his contacts to pull up Deku.
Deku, what the fuck was with that interview? Answer me for fuck sakes already! You need to sort shit out. Katsuki texted, scowling at his phone. He waited, glaring at the screen before smirking when he saw the response bubbles. Finally-
Dude, I don’t know who this is. I just got a new phone. Stop texting me, dude.
Katsuki stared at the words.
What the fuck?
-
“There has to be an explanation,” Eijiro said, repeating his words for the fifteenth time.
“Eijiro…” Mina sighed, closing her eyes. She really didn’t know how to get it through his head that the only explanation would be lies.
“Bakugou is like… he and Midoriya were fated man,” Eijiro pouted slightly. Usually, the pout, paired with his big red eyes, would make Mina weak at the knees. She’d want to pepper his face with kisses, giggle and tease.
Right then, though, she had to talk to him and get him to see reason.
“I thought so too,” Mina told him honestly. They’d all bet on when the two would get together. It seemed like a fairy tale, the childhood friends to sweethearts, the atoning man making up for how he’d treated the girl.
Yet then Bakugou lied. Not just a stupid lie about being busy,, so he didn’t have to hang out. An outright bald-faced lie concerning Midoriya.
“Look, I’ll reach out,” Mina decided. “Maybe Midoriya was hiding something?”
Eijiro grinned, looking relieved. Mina wasn’t too sure, though.
Something told her this would be much more complicated than a simple ‘I told the press a lie’ story.
-
Eijiro knew that just talking to Midoriya would clear this up. She had to have been lying to the press to put on the guise of a single female hero. That worked best for heroines. They had to be attractive to get attention.
Completely bullshit in his opinion, but that’s how it worked.
When Midoriya agreed to meet them, she chose a date and time when Bakugou was busy. Eijiro would have let him know, but he’d turned off his phone after some texts from other members of the former 1A class, who were less happy with him.
Man, they'd better apologize when things got cleared up.
Entering Midoriya’s hero office, Ejiro looked around, somewhat confused. Bakugou told him that Midoriya was struggling despite the face she put forward. That she needed Bakugou around to help, but was too stubborn.
The office didn’t show any of that. It looked good, clean. High tech, even with a few sidekicks (how did Midoriya already get sidekicks? They were barely a year graduated), poking at a computer Eijiro had seen in a recent hero magazine as being the latest for hero offices.
“Ashido! Kirishima!” A voice called. Ejiro looked, grinning as he saw Hagakure bounce towards them, dressed in hero gear. Learning how to turn her clothes invisible and herself visible made the girl the fashionista of the class. Not that she wasn’t before, but now it did just extend past her civilian life.
Her hero costume had 17 versions, all vaguely magical-girl-like, letting her have fun. She currently wore a green version with a poofy skirt and similar coloured ballet-like slippers, her body invisible. Eijiro heard from Mina that Hagakure was used to that, and it was her default state anyway.
“Hagakure!” Mina squealed. “Girl! You never said you worked here!”
“Ah! Izumi has her agency act as a base agency,” giggled Hagakure. “Us underground types can use her agency to file our paperwork and have support when it comes to stuff like insurance!”
“That’s so cool!” Mina clapped her hands together. “So you guys keep quiet?” Hagakure nodded, the ribbon hair pieces she wore bouncing.
“Mhm! It’s for safety! Gotta keep the connections quiet!” The invisible woman chirped.
Eijiro felt it was rude not to tell your friends, but he figured there probably would be some legal stuff you had to sign. Midoriya probably had a business partner insisting on it.
Hagakure led them to Midoriya’s personal office, chattering a mile a minute. Eijiro barely caught a word. Mina seemed to, until she caught sight of Hagakure’s hand.
“AHHHH!” Mina shrieked, Eijiro jumping almost a foot in the air from it. “You’re getting married?!? I knew you were dating, but keeping it secret!!” Mina bounced on her feet. “Girl, who?”
Eijiro glanced at Hagakure’s hand, seeing a decent-sized engagement ring on it.
“Congratulations, dude!” Eijiro cheered, glad for his friend. Mina had talked on and on about how shitty Hagakure’s girlfriend’s parents were. Apparently, they were super Quirkist and had plans for their kid to marry some guy with a suitable Quirk.
“Thanks! Man, I’m so happy they finally overturned those ridiculous laws about the Quirkless! Waiting so long sucked!” Hagakure groaned.
“Oh, she’s Quirkless? No wonder they were bastards!” Mina snarled.
Eijiro agreed. Hearing what Midoriya used to go through had sucked. Having One for All helped free her from that, so she wasn’t under her parents' rule. Bakugou used to defend Mrs. Midoriya all the damn time until he realized how bad she was—trying to remove your kid from a school because she wouldn’t marry the guy you wanted her to was horrible.
“Totally,” Hagakure scoffed as they reached the door. She pushed it open, letting them step inside to speak to Midoriya. The green-haired woman was leaning against her desk, looking tired.
“Is this about Bakugou running around claiming we’re dating still?” Midoriya asked, rubbing her face.
“He’s still doing that? When will he get a hint, babe?” Hagakure asked as Eijiro felt his stomach tighten.
That reaction wasn’t promising for an easy explanation.
-
When Izumi was eleven, she realized she liked women.
She was twelve when her mother made it clear that it wouldn’t be allowed. The words still echo through her brain, the screams of Inko ringing. The threats, the curses, the harsh reminders of the laws about the Quirkless. The fact that they would always need to be under someone's guardianship.
Izumi accepted One for All, not just for a Quirk but to get away from her parents. Of course, then it was exposed they successfully argued she needed to be under someone’s strict rule still.
Pity for them, UA happily took that responsibility. They hadn’t even noticed that until they attempted to force her to marry some man older than her by like fifteen years when she was sixteen. They had a fit, but UA still protected Izumi from them.
Izumi had begun fighting to appeal the law, backed by All Might and Nezu. Few in her class knew she was still under the law; only her best friends knew. And Toru, whose mother was a lawyer who’d uncovered the case.
Toru had offered to help Izumi in any way possible. It was through the invisible girl that they’d uncovered the various statistics hidden by those in power and learned the best way to argue back.
Working with the girl had caused Izumi to fall for her. Luckily, Toru fell in love back. They began quietly dating. They didn’t want Izumi’s parents to catch wind and potentially use it.
Part of the laws made it illegal for Quirkless people to be in same sex relationships. Apparently, that section was the input of some Quirkist who’d realized that Quirkless people, when they had kids with someone who had a Quirk, always had kids with super-strong Quirks.
If it got out before they overthrew the laws, Izumi was at risk.
So the relationship remained secret. Tou received guardianship of Izumi when they graduated, and had been really rebuffing the adult Midoriya’s until Nezu got the laws appealed.
Izumi got down on one knee the day after. Toru howled as she dropped down in the same position, a ring in hand.
They were thrilled while they planned their wedding, until the day Izumi was ambushed by a reporter asking about Bakugou. Izumi had stared at the reporter, not sure why the man asked her about her former classmate.
Not until she got home and saw the dozens of texts from her former class asking what was going on. Was she not dating Bakugou?
Izumi realized then that Bakugou had never stopped saying they were dating. He’d claimed it in school, and despite her trying to tell him off, he hadn’t backed down. It was infuriating.
Izumi eventually gave up when he tried to tell her they’d been dating for a year, didn’t she know? She wasn’t going to bother with that.
Instead, she’d distanced herself and cut contact after graduation.
Why the hell was he continuing with this lie? Or was he that delusional to believe it true?
A question everyone in her office was asking.
“What’s going on here?” Kirishima asked, looking around at them with big eyes. He was frowning, looking from Izuku to Ashido as if he was asking one of them to give him the answers.
“I don’t know,” Izuku admitted. “It’s been almost two years.”
“There’s gotta be some explanation,” Kirishima repeated. Toru huffed, tossing her arms.
“There isn’t. It’s just Bakugou being himself. I know you were friends, Kirishima, but he’s not a good guy.” Toru told him. “He refuses to listen unless it supports his opinion, and he still threatens everyone he comes across!”
“It’s just a gimmick,” Kirishima tried, but Ashido stopped him with a look. He winced. “… why would he do this?”
“Again, it’s him being himself!” Toru snapped. “And you never stopped it! No one asked Izumi anything! They just believed him! No one ever asked her about Bakugou! They just believed him!”
Kirishima wilted, Ashido mimicking the motion. Toru spoke the truth; no one asked. No one reached out; instead, they simply believed Bakugou.
“I’ve never dated him, I haven’t spoken to him, and I’m engaged to Toru,” Izumi said gently. “I’m sorry.”
Sort of. Izumi was sort of sorry.
However, as she saw the trade shared half-wincing looks, she couldn’t feel fully sorry.
They just had to ask her.