Chapter Text
Indeed, though she would not have desired to, she then gave birth to you, great Python, covering so great an area of the mountain slopes, a snake not known before, a terror to the new race of men. (Book 1:438-472)
In the minutes counting down to the end of the world, Bakugou felt like he was going to die ahead of everyone else. His entire right side was on fire and he didn't even have to look down to know that he was lying in a pool of his own blood. His head was spinning with voices, the sounds of wood splintering, and cement cracking. The sound of the earth itself shaking like it had split open and was screaming. Bakugou almost laughed at how much of a hellscape his city—their city—had turned into. All because of two guys beating the shit out of each other.
All because of All for One and One for All.
Ah, shit, that smarts, he thought, which was an understatement. He could barely feel anything else except his wounds shrieking at him to lose consciousness. He kind of wanted to, but he'd told Deku that he'd stick around to see the little bastard win. If there was anything he'd picked up from his stay at U.A. (and constantly being around Kirishima), it was that he was a man of his word.
Somewhere, someone was calling his name. He wasn't sure, but it sounded a lot like Deku back when they were kids. He really did laugh this time, but it came out as a cough, blood spattering out of his mouth and dribbling down his chin. Why was he dreaming about days like those? Maybe he really was dying. More people's voices started ringing in his ears.
Somebody screamed.
"Help! Somebody! Please, my sister... She's trapped under the rubble and... and they're coming! The monsters! Please..."
Sobbing. The ground shook suddenly, like someone had taken a giant hammer and smashed it into the ground somewhere. Fire, spreading. Smoke, suffocating. Then an inhuman screeching in the near distance. Another terrified scream.
Fuck it. And somehow, bleeding and broken, Katsuki Bakugou was able to get up one last time.
He woke up to the cheap white curtains of an old memory. He felt sluggish even as he raised his arm to shield his eyes from the afternoon sunlight leaking through the slightest part in the curtains. Then he stopped. Wasn't that... his right arm? Hadn't he gone and shattered it trying to save Deku from some deathblow?
Must be Recovery Girl's work, he thought, relaxing slightly. Still, it was a bit disorienting to suddenly not be covered in his own blood and viscera. The dirty white curtains, the tiled ceiling, the bright fluorescent lightbulb... It all seemed eerily familiar... Which was weird because he wasn't usually in the clinical ward. Something wasn't right. He sat up, grunting a little at the sting in his right abdomen.
"Recovery Girl?" he called. "Re..." Wait, who was he calling again? What for? He looked around, confused now more than ever. And also very, very agitated. "What the hell..."
"Huh...? Kacchan?"
Bakugou's eyes snapped downward at the unmistakable voice. Deku was rubbing one of his eyes with a drowsy, half-lidded expression. His mop of greenish black hair caught the sunlight, looking almost iridescent. Bakugou cursed.
"What are you doing here, you fucking nerd?" he snarled. "I thought I told you to leave me alone." He paused. When had he told Deku that, exactly?
"B-But Kacchan," Deku stammered, seemingly oblivious to Bakugou's hesitation, "the nurse is out, and your parents can't come to get you yet. And I wanted to m-make sure you were okay... So I..."
"So you decided to butt in on shit that ain't none of your business, huh? Well, aren't you just a dandy little piece of sunshine." Bakugou threw off the white sheets and swung his legs off the bed. His side still stung though, likely from that hit he got from that brawl earlier today... Again, he got the abrupt feeling that something just wasn't clicking. Then he glanced at Deku and the feeling was gone. He got on his feet. "I'm going home," he said curtly. "Stop following me, twerp."
"But if you get into another fight again..."
"But nothing. Leave me alone."
"You won't get into U.A. like that!"
Bakugou snorted. "What makes you think I want to go to that stupid school?" He didn't want to go to U-fuckin-A. He didn't need to. He didn't care to. Heroes were a bunch of well-dressed retards, working their asses off for people who don't even really matter them.
"But Kacchan..." Deku sounded like he was at the end of his rope. "You've always wanted to go there... when we were kids..."
Bakugou turned on his heel, jabbing a finger in Deku's face. "Listen up, Deku," he growled, "why don't you go and get yourself a fucking calendar and check what year it is." He turned back around and kept on walking. "We're not kids anymore."
There was an itching in his palms. Some sort of urge to... do something with them. To do what, he wasn't sure. He didn't get it. The sensation was so alien to him. He couldn't understand it. He raised one palm in front of his face, but he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He was several paces out of school when he finally turned back. No one was there. No Deku, no nothing.
That's the way it was supposed to be.
He walked the rest of the way home in silence, the same way he always had.
Katsuki Bakugou. Age: 15. Birthday: April 20th. Blond. Straight As. Trouble magnet.
Quirkless.
Bakugou hadn't really grown up wanting much of anything, mostly because he had practically everything he could've wanted. So learning that he was Quirkless was likely where all the bullshit started. Learning that Deku had gotten his Quirk didn't help. Little bastard was practically glowing for months, just because he could keep a cup of chocolate hot for a few hours longer than normal. Idiot. Who got worked up over such a stupid Quirk anyway?
That was years ago. These days, Bakugou made his commute to and from school alone, as much as was Quirklessly possible. Except there was a numbskull named Deku who could never take a hint. The idiot would always find him at some point and from there, it was nearly impossible to get him off. He was like a stupid little flea. He was a meddler, always feeling like some do-gooder who had the right to get involved whenever Bakugou got into another fight. Rarely did Bakugou ever win a fight, and with Deku interfering, the odds usually went under the floor.
Today went a little... differently.
"You think you can"—the highschooler with a fishhead socked him in the gut—"talk to me like that? You"—another punch—"can't"—another—"even"—a punch to the face—"stop me."
Iron coated Bakugou's tongue and he sneered at Fishhead. "Do I gotta have to be able to beat you to talk about how disgusting you—" He was cut off by another hit to his left temple.
"You're gonna have to pay for what you did today," Fishhead said lowly. "We lost a couple of wallets. Guess yours will have to d—"
"S-stop!"
Bakugou didn't even look. But Fishhead and his friends did. That was enough time for him to twist one arm and backhand one of them.
With a cry, the kid let him go and he turned to knee the other kid in the groin. His two henchmen down, Fishhead looked at him, fury building in those milky white fish eyes. That was when Deku barreled in, Thermos in hand. He dowsed Fishhead with steaming hot chocolate and the highschooler crumpled, screaming, hands on his eyes.
Bakugou clicked his tongue. It made his bruises sting. "I didn't ask for your—"
Deku grabbed his hand, cutting him off. "Run!" he yelled.
"You're not the boss of—"
"Just shut up and run, Kacchan!"
"Fuck you!"
But they were already running. Bakugou cursed himself, and Deku, and everything about this whole stupid situation. He hated it. All of it. His weakness. The pain in his stomach and the pain in his face. The taste of blood in his mouth and the feeling of his sneakers pounding against the pavement. He didn't want any of it. He hated all of it.
He hated being Quirkless.
When they had gotten three or four street corners away, Bakugou snatched his hand out of Deku's grasp.
"Kacchan—?" he managed to say before he crashed full-speed into a telephone pole. He slid to the ground, clutching his nose and groaning.
Bakugou glanced at him but then turned and started making his way back where they had come.
"Kacchan! Where are you going?" Deku's voice was muffled and a little nasal. Bakugou kept walking. Maybe if he walked fast enough, Deku would stop asking questions. "Kacchan, h-hey! Stop! Where are you go—"
"Grocery," Bakugou snapped. "My mom wants eggs." He didn't want to turn and see what Deku's reaction was going to be, so he just kept walking.
"Can I come?"
That did it. Bakugou whirled around, fuming. "If you think for one second that you can act like some kind of bodyguard to me, I'm gonna fucking kill you."
"I'm not!" Deku protested. "I'm just... I was just going to the grocery too. My, um, my mom wants me to get some stuff."
"Yeah, right."
"No, really! Just... Can I come with you, Kacchan?"
"No," Bakugou said flatly.
Deku deflated a little, but Bakugou had a feeling the little twerp had something up his sleeve still. "Okay," he said, smiling. "See you tomorrow then."
Bakugou didn't reply. He had places to go, things to do. Like getting his mom those eggs she'd been bitching about this morning. Hands deep in his pockets, he started down the road, trying and failing to forget how miserably he had lost to those fugly highschoolers. “Shit,” he muttered, clenching and unclenching his fists. “Fuck. Shit. God-fucking-dammit.”
The bruises on his face and body stung like the unwanted reminders they were of his weakness. He grit his teeth when the memory of Deku coming to his rescue flashed behind his eyes. Irritation bubbled into anger in his stomach, making his insides churn and his blood boil.
Who did Deku think he was? Some hero? That snot-nosed brat, a hero? Bakugou would rather die than see the day that nerd became a hero. Even if he wanted to go to U.A…. Even if he had a stupid, useless Quirk…
Bakugou stalked into the grocery, irritation fueling his every step. He was in the middle of mentally throwing Deku into the ocean when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out and made a noise between a growl and a grunt.
“Get us some veggies while you're there, Katsuki. Just the usual. And milk.”
He clenched his jaw. Was everyone seriously just trying to get on his nerves today? Even the grocery employees were shooting him weird looks. When he tried to grab the last cart, its wheels moved like they had ten thousand years worth of gunk in them. A kid bumped into him when he was trying to get a carton of eggs. Of course he didn't drop them. He almost did. But he had pretty awesome reflexes. That didn't make him any less pissed off though. As soon as he aimed a glare at the kid, she started bawling and ran away.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance and walked off to the dairy section only to find out that the brand his family usually bought wasn't there. He could feel his mouth twitching into an angry grin. He was seriously being tested today, huh. He picked the best-looking milk he could see and dropped it into his cart. As he turned the corner, he felt his already heated temper soar to unimaginable heights.
“You’re a fucking stalker, aren’t you, Deku,” he said through his gritted teeth.
Deku was holding two different packs of pasta in his hands and when he looked up, he didn't even have the guts to pretend that he hadn't planned this all along.
“Kacchan!” he said brightly. “You're really here.”
“Stop being a creepy little shit and following me around. I’m this close to pounding your face into the ground.”
“I w-wasn't following you.” Maybe if Bakugou didn't hate him so much, he might have admired how hard Deku was trying not to look like the coward he really was. “I really d-did have to buy groceries.” He raised the pasta up to make his point. “See?”
Bakugou clicked his tongue again. “Right. Whatever. Just stay out of my sight.”
“Okay.”
He narrowed his eyes at Deku’s ready response. So the twerp wasn't going to try anything, was he? Did he think Bakugou was some kind of idiot? Was Deku looking down on him?
Bakugou’s temper was already at breaking point and all he really wanted to do was lash out at the one source of all his anger. But even as he clenched his fists, he could feel the stares and hear the whispers around him. Realizing at last that he was making a scene, he forced himself to relax. He took two deep breaths.
“Okay, Deku,” he said evenly. “I'll not punch your face in today. Good for you.” He pushed past Deku without another word.
“Wait, Kacchan—“
Bakugou picked up the pace and didn't look back. If he did, he probably would've exploded.
The career paths form lay, half-crumpled, half-torn on his desk. He snatched it up as soon as he saw it, wanting to chuck it in the trash can as soon as he could.
“Katsuki, what are you doing now?”
He paused mid-throw and shot a glare at his mother who stood by the open door. She crossed her arms.
“I get another call from your homeroom teacher. Then I find that form in the trash. What are you playing at? Don't you dare lie to me.”
Bakugou looked away from her, fist closing over the battered form. “None of your business,” he said hotly, though even he knew that it was a weak response. “I don't care what I'm going to do. Put me in some shitty high school, I don't care. Make me an office drone or whatever. I don't. Care.”
“You don't really think that.”
He turned on her. “You think you know what's going on in my head?” he hissed. “You don't know me.”
“I'm your mother,” she threw back at him. “If anyone on this planet knew you like the back of their hand, that would be me. You’ve been like this since the day we went to the doctor eleven years ago. I know what's pissing you off. I know what you really want to do. You—“
“Shut up!” Bakugou roared, kicking his desk and making the entire thing shudder and fall with a deafening crash. “You don't know anything about me! I don't want your fucking pity! I don't want anyone’s fucking pity! Adults like you act like you’re some sort of God, just because you can! Just because you're older than me and just because you gave birth to me doesn't mean you know who I am and what I want to be!”
“You think I pity you?” she sneered. “I don't. A brat like you doesn't need that sort of thing.” She stepped toward him and wrenched the form from his hand. “And I do know you. Not because I'm an adult and not because I gave birth to you. I know you not because I can but because there's no way I can't.” Her expression softened a bit and she sighed. “Dinner’s ready downstairs. Your dad is waiting for us.”
“I'm not hungry,” Bakugou grumbled.
“Doesn't matter if you’re not hungry.” She looked at him with an expression he couldn't read. “Just be there.” She paused, then added, “or you're grounded until after winter break.”
He bristled at that, but after another stern look from her, he bit his tongue and stormed out of his bedroom. She watched him leave. She didn't have to unfold the form to know that he had written U.A. as his top high school choice and scratched it out at least a dozen times.
He didn't remember sleeping much that night. He stayed awake most of the time, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. Sometimes, he would drift in and out of consciousness but he would always end up here, right where he was. In reality.
It pissed him off but he felt like he didn't even have the energy left in him to get pissed off. Which also pissed him off. He didn't know how many times, how many nights he had spent like this, lying stagnant, unable to move or be moved. All he knew was the frustration of everything. His body burned with anger and with every passing second, he only got angrier and angrier. His mind raced with questions it couldn't form answers to.
Why was Deku following him all the time? Was it out of pity? Why was he the one who got a Quirk? In what world did that make any sense? And even if he’d gotten one, why didn't Bakugou have one? Yeah, that was the more serious question here.
Why didn't he, Katsuki Bakugou, have a Quirk yet?
He wasn't about to accept that “pinky toe” theory. That was just an excuse for everyone to think he was Quirkless. After everything he had been through, everything he had believed, and everything he had ever dreamed of, it was impossible for him to have been born without the power to be the person he knew he was destined to be.
It wasn't fair. He was the one who was better than everyone at everything. He was the one who was going to stand head and shoulders above All Might. It was what he had been born to do and he knew it.
So why didn't he have a Quirk?
The only explanation was that he didn't have his yet. Or maybe he did have one but it was one of those non-manifesting types. He just didn't know it yet.
The U.A. entrance exam was only ten months away. The application forms were due in two. But what was the point? He didn't want to go there. Heroes were stupid. He’d come to realize that.
“Heroes are just really fucking stupid,” he grumbled, turning on his side.
He told himself that a lot when he couldn't sleep. It never really helped.
The form was due next week. It burned a hole in Bakugou’s pocket while everyone in class made an insane commotion when the homeroom teacher announced he wasn't going to give them their forms. He almost crushed the edge of his table with his fingertips. The whole class got their moment of glory and Bakugou was left seething about how the teacher had had to summon him to the faculty to hand him a form personally, if only to save him from the humiliation of getting it in class alone. He had taken the form with every intention to tear it apart when he got home, but the man had to go and call Bakugou’s mother.
He clicked his tongue quietly, trying to keep his temper in check. The last time he had exploded in class, he had gotten suspended for a week. He only had so many absences left. Repeating a grade was nothing if not another spectacular humiliation.
Instead he blocked the world out. He tried thinking of something else. About what his Quirk probably was. About what he would do to all the bastards who’d dared to make fun of him when he still didn't know what it was. About how he would show everyone that they were all looking down on the wrong person. He pictured himself standing proud, everybody’s hero, feared and respected, leaps and bounds beyond what All Might had ever achieved. Katsuki Bakugou, the greatest hero who ever lived.
“…chan… Kacchan, wake up.”
“Huh… wha…” Bakugou blinked awake then jumped to his feet, his chair sliding backward noisily. The classroom was empty. He had fallen asleep. “Shit,” he muttered. He grabbed his backpack and turned to leave, crashing into Deku, who’d been standing there the whole time. “The hell?” he growled the moment he recognized the runt. “What do you want, Deku.”
“Nothing. Everybody left and you were still asleep so…”
Bakugou let out a frustrated noise. “Would it kill you to quit acting like my babysitter?”
“I-I’m not acting like—“
“It pisses me off, Deku,” he said coldly. “It pisses me the fuck off that you act like you're better than me.”
“I never acted like that.” Deku looked almost annoyed.
“Stop looking down on me!”
“I’m just trying to help you!”
“I don't need your help, you shithead.”
“Kacchan, why don't you understand that I'm just trying to be friends with you?” He wrung his hands. “Stop being so stubborn!”
“Oh so now you aren't stuttering,” Bakugou said tauntingly. “Now you're all brave and standing up to me. You've been laughing at me behind my back ever since you got your fucking Quirk. You always thought you were better than me.”
“I never—“
“You're just an arrogant wannabe, just an All Might fanboy. Even your Quirk is dumb shit.”
“Kacchan…”
“Just get the fuck away from me!” Bakugou wasn't aware that he was shouting, but there was a ringing in his ears and he just wanted to get out of there and away from Deku. He left the classroom fuming. Hot anger was once again pulsing in his veins. It always happened when he dealt with Deku.
He wandered downtown for a while, trying to get his mind to cool down before he went home to possibly another explosive argument. He stuck to side streets more than the main thoroughfare, not wanting to see any of his stupid classmates and their stupid Quirks. He went around aimlessly, mostly staying within arcades to beat the crap out of 2D villains. He kept throwing glances over his shoulder, just to make sure Deku (or any of his other classmates) wasn’t following him. He didn't care how stupid he might have looked. He just wanted to be alone and left alone.
He finally settled in an Internet café, dropping his bag and pulling out a chair, starting up an MMORPG as soon as he sat down. He stayed there until the manager kicked him out for shouting into his headset too much. It was around 3 in the afternoon when he felt the explosion.
The ground shook a little and a boom resounded in the distance. People around him let out surprised cries when the ground shook again and again.
“Another villain?” somebody behind him said. “That's the third one today…”
“It’s like they have no idea what they're up against.”
“Yeah, I mean, who’d have the guts to fight All Might?”
Bakugou was sprinting. He forgot when he’d started running but it was probably when he heard “All Might.” He ran hard, until his calves and lungs burned. His heart hammered against his ribcage. The explosions had stopped but there was a massive smoke cloud rising up into the sky. Tall flames were licking the air, higher than buildings. Bakugou torpedoed forward, against the tide of people running away. The air was growing hotter and hotter with every step he took until he reached the side street that was consumed by fire. In the center of it all was a moving hulk of gunk and three heroes keeping their distance.
Only a few people could handle the heat and were watching the fight, though one would be hard-pressed to call it a fight. Bakugou stood there and felt his exhaustion ebb away, replaced by indignant fury. Where was All Might? Who were these no-name losers? What the fuck was that thing?
“This is going to be a problem,” he heard one of the heroes yell to his companions. “Everything it touches is combusting. What kind of Quirk does that kid have?”
Kid? Bakugou thought. I don't see any— The monster roared and began to laugh. It was a gross sound. “This kind of Quirk,” it roared, “is confusing as hell. But all I gotta do is let it run wild and all of you heroes run for cover!” It laughed more. “None of you can even touch me!”
“Our priority is the kid,” yelled one of the heroes. “We have to buy him time until the backup gets here.”
“How?”
“I don't know! Just… improvise!”
“Very specific!”
While the heroes bickered about what their plan of action was going to be, the monster continued to ravage whatever it could get its sludge-like body to touch. Bakugou felt his fingernails digging into his palm. He hadn't even realized he’d been clenching his hands into fists. His heart was thundering in his chest. Through the sounds of the blazing flames and shattering glass, he could hear the few people around him talking to each other.
“I knew something was weird.”
“What do you mean?”
“It looks bigger and meaner but that thing is the thief All Might was trying to nab earlier today.”
“The hell? Then what's it doing here? Did it escape or something?”
“Dunno. But things are shaping up pretty bad now.”
All Might was chasing that thing? Bakugou thought, scowling. It got away? Bullshit. All Might would never let something like that get away. But the situation he was seeing was telling him otherwise. There had to be some kind of reason. All Might wasn't weak shit.
“So then where is he?” a person next to him asked aloud. “Where’s All Might?”
The tiny crowd exchanged uneasy glances. Nobody had an answer. Bakugou wanted to pound them all into dust. Why were they talking like All Might was responsible for this shitfest? What the fuck were they even saying?
“We weren’t blaming him.”
Suddenly they were all looking at Bakugou. He grit his teeth. He’d said his thoughts aloud. Not that he regretted that. Not at all.
The man who had spoken up looked him up and down. “You're wearing the same uniform as the kid that monster is holding hostage, you know,” he said solemnly. “Maybe he's your classmate. Maybe not. But he’s a child, first and foremost, Quirk or no. And he could die any second now.”
“The same uniform?” Bakugou echoed.
The man nodded. “I'm just saying that everyone here is basically powerless. Nobody can save him. The only one who’s got a chance isn't even here. I'm not blaming All Might. I just wish he were here right now.”
Powerless. The word had stopped Bakugou in his tracks. A word that had utterly destroyed his life. The mere mention of it was enough to make him start to question why he was even there in the first place. He didn’t have a Quirk. He hated heroes. He hated villains. All of them could go to hell or whatever. This whole planet could go to hell. Fury was making his entire body throb. He shouldn’t care. He shouldn’t.
The monster was rearing its head and though the smoke and flames were getting thicker, Bakugou had a clear view of it.
Of Deku squirming to break free.
His vision went red and his mind went blank.
Katsuki Bakugou. Age: 15. Birthday: April 20th. Blond. Straight As. Trouble magnet. Quirkless.
Also running to his death.