Chapter Text
“Bakugou! Focus!” Aizawa’s voice cuts through the still air like an arrow.
Bakugou growls furiously. He tosses away the stone he had been balancing on his head and steps off of the small log he had been wobbling on. “This is bullshit! How do you expect me to concentrate with you breathing down my fucking neck?”
“You're the only one who couldn't complete the task today.” Aizawa picks up another stone from the ground and hands it to him. “Now get back up there and hold still. Don't make excuses.”
“I came here to learn how to fight. Not to stand around and waste my time playing with stupid pebbles!” He hurls the stone away and turns to leave, but Aizawa reaches out and grabs him faster than he can react.
“Your arrogance and talent are not going to carry you far. You need to learn patience, balance, and some fucking respect if you intend on becoming a professional,” he scolds. “You're a good fighter. But so is Todoroki. So is Yaoyorozu. They've at least learned the rest of the basics. As far as I'm concerned, your skill is worth nothing if you can't do something as simple as standing still.”
Bakugou scowls and wrenches his arm out of his grasp. “I don't need this shit from you.” He storms out of the courtyard, head practically steaming from his anger.
Aizawa sighs and watches him for a while. No matter what he does, it seems that Bakugou simply refuses to do anything but argue. He turns to look at Toshinori, who he knows has been hiding behind the corner of the building. “What are we going to do with him?” He says with clear exhaustion in his voice.
The scrawny man steps out from his hiding place, a little embarrassed at being found out again. “Ah, young Bakugou. I’m afraid his pride is going to be his biggest hurdle. Perhaps he just needs time.”
Aizawa glances back in his direction. “He'd better figure it out before the rest of his class catches up to him,” he says before he lets out a little yawn. “I want some tea.”
--
Bakugou doesn't go to training the next day. If all they're gonna do is make him do some pointless, humiliating exercise, then there's no point in wasting his time there. Besides, he hasn't gone hiking in a while.
He leaves early in the morning with some minimal supplies in his bag. He doesn't let his parents see him leave so that they'll just assume he's gone to the dojo. They'd be furious if they found out he'd been ditching, but he can't bring himself to care. All he wants is some time alone on the mountain.
If there’s a single good thing about this tiny useless town, it’s that it's so close to Mount Kirishima. It’s the perfect place to hike. No useless idiots to ruin it. Just trees, dirt, and the occasional bird. He's climbed it countless times over the past few months since he's been here. He never takes anyone with him; it’s like his private getaway.
He spends the majority of the morning stomping up the mountain. At some point, he decides to go a different route than usual, and he tries to dispel the anger from the day before as he explores. He kicks idle rocks, tugs off overgrown branches, and purposefully overexerts himself, anything he possibly can to get rid of the boiling fury that's trapped in his bones.
It barely works.
He's frustrated beyond belief. He stops a little more than halfway up the mountain, having exhausted himself from his anger and the hike, to take a break.
He sits himself at the base of a shady tree and downs half of the water he brought between heavy breaths. He starts to nibble on the crackers he brought along, but they're bland and dry. He doesn't finish them.
He shuts his eyes, letting his head rest on the tree trunk as he marinates in his thoughts. He imagines himself kicking Aizawa’s scrawny ass repeatedly. That at least makes him smile a little.
Suddenly, he hears something drop to the ground beside him. His eyes shoot open, and when he sees it, he freezes. “What the fuck?”
A small, luminescent gold creature is shoving it's face into Bakugou’s bag. When he speaks, it turns to look at him. It looks sort of rabbit-like, with a crown of six floppy ear things around its head. It's eyes are big, shiny, deep green beads, and it has no other features on its face.
After a moment, it shoves his face back in the bag, and it quickly darts away with the rest of Bakugou’s lunch.
“Hey! That's mine you little fucker!” He grabs the rest of his stuff and darts after it. It's fast, but Bakugou manages to keep up behind it.
Bakugou tries to figure out what it is while it runs. It's holding its loot in its front legs while it runs on its hind ones, and it's pretty stout and fluffy looking. He doesn't recall hearing about any glowing rodents recently, though.
At one point, it stops up on a log to look at Bakugou. It lets out a melodious squeak that's very obviously mocking him before darting away again. Bakugou growls. He almost trips over a root trying to catch this thing.
Eventually, the creature darts behind the corner of a few trees that create a little cove. Bakugou jumps around the corner, fully intending to strangle the fluffy lightbulb, but he stops in his tracks.
The creature is on the knee of a boy sitting on a large rock. His spiky hair is red, alarmingly so, and his bright smile is lined with pointy teeth. He's also pretty built, with muscles to rival even the biggest people at the dojo. All he's wearing is some loose brown pants.
He looks at Bakugou and immediately breaks out into a grin. “Hi there!”
Bakugou isn't sure how to respond to his nonchalance. “What the fuck is that thing?” He blurts. It'll have to do.
“This here is Chichi. Isn't it cute?” The weird guy scratches its head as it starts to hastily shove Bakugou’s food into its little mouth. Honestly, he thinks it's sort of creepy.
“It's eating my food.”
“Yeah, sorry. I had to get you to come here somehow!” He stands up, leaving Chichi to continue nibbling away. “I figured it's about time I properly introduced myself. I'm Kirishima.”
Bakugou blinks a little at him. “We’re standing on Kirishima. I live in Kirishima,” he states flatly, as if to say, bull-fucking-shit your name is Kirishima.
“Right. I am Kirishima. The spirit.”
It takes him a moment. “Fuck off.”
Kirishima laughs. “I'm serious! Chichi is a spirit too,” he explains, gesturing at the glowing rodent.
Bakugou shakes his head. Admittedly, he can't say that it doesn't make sense. “Okay, fine, you're fucking spirits then. I don't have time for your bullshit.” He’s never really believed in spirits, never gave them any thought, so he's not quite sure how to feel about the whole situation. He turns and starts to stomp away.
“Come on, really?” Kirishima catches up and grabs Bakugou's wrist with an iron grip. “Do you have any idea of what it means for me to show myself to you? This is a big deal!”
Bakugou tries futilely to tear his arm away. “Why are you even showing yourself anyway? What the fuck did I ever do? Let go of me!” He shouts in response.
Kirishima loosens his grip a bit, and Bakugou rips his arm free. “You seem like a very interesting person.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“You're the first person in a very long time to bother visiting me so often. And every time you come up here you're either incredibly angry or completely at peace. You're certainly hard to ignore,” he says with a smile.
Something about his tone makes Bakugou’s skin crawl under his gaze. “Okay, so what do you want from me then?”
Kirishima rolls his eyes slightly. “I just want to be your friend! Lighten up a little.”
Bakugou scowls. “I don't make friends.”
“Not even super powerful quasi-gods?”
“Especially not fucking those.”
“Oh, don't be like that! We haven't even gotten to know each other yet.”
“All I need to know is that you're a glorified pile of dirt with a shit flapper, and I am a busy man. I'm fucking leaving.”
Kirishima snorts. “You're not busy today."
Bakugou is caught off guard by that. “And how the hell would you know?”
“It's a weekday, even though you only ever come on weekends or in the evenings. You're also pretty upset about something, so you're probably up here avoiding it then. I don't think you were planning on going home so soon in the first place. Am I right?”
Bakugou's face goes through an interesting range of expressions as he tries to come up with a decent response, but ultimately he fails. Kirishima’s guess was spot on. If someone were to see him in town, he'd be screwed. He lets out a defeated sigh and rubs his face with his hand. “Fine. I'll stay a little longer. But not because I want to, alright?”
Kirishima flashes a blinding grin. “Great! I promise it'll be worth your time.” He turns and picks Chichi up to sit on his shoulder before beckoning Bakugou to follow him. “Come on!”
He grumbles and grabs the remainder of his lunch from the rock, shoving it back in his bag as he defeatedly falls into step behind Kirishima.
The walk is quiet for a while as Kirishima leads Bakugou around the mountainside. At this point, he has a sneaking suspicion that perhaps he's lost all logic or reasoning he’d once had.
“So, have you ever seen what's on the other side of the mountain?” Kirishima asks over his shoulder.
“I haven't,” he replies simply. Kirishima is taking him along a precarious path, and he's more focused on keeping his footing than the conversation.
“Well, I've sure got a surprise for you then!” He stops in front of a tangled group of trees and touches them with his hands. They begin to gradually unwind themselves, revealing an opening into the side of the mountain. Kirishima lets the smaller spirit down from his shoulder, and it sits on a nearby branch to preen itself. “Come on,” he says to Bakugou before he steps inside.
Bakugou stops at the entrance of the tunnel. He can hardly see more than a few feet into it, and he's not extremely confident in the soundness of the walls.
“If I wanted to crush you, I would've just done it already. Come on!” Kirishima calls again.
Bakugou huffs grumpily and steps in. He's not scared of a fucking tunnel. He loses the ability to see pretty quickly, and he runs into Kirishima a couple of times.
The tunnel slopes slightly downward and curves around. Bakugou feels along the cool walls to keep his balance, making sure to make some space between the two of them so that he doesn't run into the other again.
“So, are you and fuzz ball the only spirits here?” His voice echoes in a boom inside the tunnel.
That gets Kirishima to snort. “Of course not! There are hundreds of thousands of other spirits that are living under my protection.”
“Well, where the hell are they then?”
“They're everywhere. They're just hiding from you because they don't trust you yet. They want me to tell them you're completely safe before they show themselves.”
Bakugou huffs. “Of course I'm safe. What the hell does that mean?”
Kirishima shrugs, though Bakugou can’t see it. “Well, you do have a sort of violent temper. But I can tell you're a good person. You like this place too much to hurt it.”
Bakugou doesn't say anything after that. He wonders just how much Kirishima knows about him from only watching.
A few minutes later, Bakugou can see light filtering in gradually. He's never been so grateful for the sun.
Kirishima pauses. “Alright, Bakugou. Close your eyes until we get outside.”
“Seriously?”
“Just trust me, okay? This is something you're gonna want to take in all at once.”
Bakugou reluctantly shuts his eyes, and Kirishima takes his wrist again to guide him. In a few moments, Bakugou can feel the warmth of the sun hit his skin as he steps out of the tunnel.
Kirishima nudges him to face a little more to the left. His touch is firm yet gentle, and Bakugou wants to shrug it away. “Okay. Open.”
At first, the light is a little overwhelming. But once he's able to really see what's in front of him, well- he has to say it's absolutely breathtaking.
A few meters in front of them lies the edge of a massive pool of water. The side of the mountain curves around it for the rest of it’s length. The top of the mountain slopes gradually downward, and on the very end, there's a cliff with a decently sized but beautiful waterfall. A little more to the right, he can see where the ground level cuts off again, and the pool pours in another waterfall down the side. There's an incredible view of all the land that stretches out beyond the mountain.
“Holy shit. Does anyone know about this place?”
“You're the first human in a long time to stand up here. It can only be seen from a distance, and even then, there isn't a town close enough to this side to be able to see it regularly.”
Bakugou steps towards the edge of the water. It's crystal clear, and he can see right to the bottom of it. There are little swarms of tadpoles swimming around, some of them with just a single pair of stumpy legs. Kirishima walks up next to him and crouches by the edge.
“Watch this,” he says with a smirk. He places his palm on the surface, sending gentle ripples out along the still surface. He closes his eyes, concentrating on something. “I'm sending a message,” he says softly.
Soon, massive koi the size of sharks start to swim up to the edge. Bakugou just watches, silent for once, as a whole school swarms up around Kirishima’s hand. They come in all types, solid gold, white and red, each one just as beautiful as the last.
“Are these spirits?” He crouched down beside Kirishima, gazing at the giant fish.
“Not quite yet. But they're not your standard koi either. They're not the thing I'm calling for anyway.”
Bakugou reaches out to touch the water, and the closest fish shies away. He keeps his finger in, and soon another one nibbles it gently.
Kirishima stands up and wipes his hand on his pants. “Alright. Look dignified.”
Bakugou stands up as well. “For what?”
Kirishima just nods towards the center of the lake. Bakugou looks, and before he can say another word, a soft white glow begins to emanate from the water. Something begins to rise from the water, as if appearing out of thin air. The surface of the water is still.
When it's finally finished, the light begins to fade into a dull glow. The creature that appears is huge, daunting for even Bakugou. It's body is frog-like, deep, forest green, yet still oddly humanoid. It's face is the same, but the human side shows through more than the rest of its body. It blinks its massive eyes for a moment before it turns its gaze to stare directly at him.
“Bakugou, i’d like you to meet Asui. She's the river spirit.”
Asui doesn't break eye contact with him. He bows his head the slightest bit and doesn't look away either. “Hello.”
Bakugou waits with uncertain anticipation, and after a moment, Asui breaks into a low chuckle. “Hello, Bakugou. Welcome to our world.” He simply nods in response, unsure of how else to respond to the giant frog lady. “Kirishima has been looking forward to finally speaking to you. Don't be too cruel to him.”
“Why do make it sound so embarrassing?” Kirishima groans. “You were excited too!”
“I'm excited for you to finally have someone else to talk to.”
Bakugou furrows his brow a little, finding it strange that anyone would even consider befriending him, let alone look forward to it.
“So, Bakugou, how old are you?” Asui croaks. Her expression is completely unreadable to him.
“Seventeen.”
“Is that old for a human? I can't remember,” Kirishima says.
“I’m just barely an adult. Not like it matters though.”
“And what is it that you do?” Asui asks.
“I'm a fighter,” he says with a smirk. “I'm gonna be the best in the world.”
“Is that why you're always punching and kicking my trees?” Kirishima says with a laugh. “I didn't know what to think when you did that.”
“Why would you fight on purpose? That's rather stupid,” Asui croaks.
“It's not stupid. It's called martial arts because it's a fucking art. We master the fine control and movements of our bodies, turn ourselves into combative beasts that can take anyone down with just our fists. We don't go looking for fights, we’re ready for them.”
“Woah, that sounds so cool and manly! Can you show me?” Kirishima says excitedly. He looks like he's dying to get his ass handed to him by Bakugou.
“You wanna spar?” He replies with a smirk. “I'll take you whenever.” To be honest, he's been wanting to punch this guy since the moment they met.
“You're challenging Kirishima in combat?” Asui says incredulously. “I'd like to see this.”
“I'm not top of my class for fucking nothing,” he retorts. He turns and faces Kirishima, widening his stance a bit. “Come on, let’s go right now,” he challenges, already fired up by Asui’s lack of faith.
“Alright then,” Kirishima says with a grin as he takes a stance. “Count us off, Asui.”
“You're gonna be on the fucking ground before you know what's hit you,” Bakugou gloats as he sets the proper distance between the two of them. Asui calls out, and Bakugou is rushing forward with practiced speed.
As it turns out, he had fatally overestimated himself.
Kirishima doesn't move to dodge, so Bakugou tries to land a crippling punch to the abdomen. Bakugou’s fist barely moves him an inch. Instead, his hand throbs with a loud pain as if he had just punched a rock. He feels Kirishima move behind him, so he tries to grab him for a throw, but he's practically made of pure concrete. He puts all of his weight into pulling Kirishima over his shoulder, but in the blink of an eye it's him that's being tossed to the ground like a crumpled sheet of paper.
He blinks the daze from his eyes as his head throbs from hitting the dirt. Kirishima is grinning down at him, arm outstretched, while Asui chuckles faintly in the background.
Bakugou is completely stunned. He's never lost so quickly, so embarrassingly easily as he’d just done. As he puts out his his hand to let Kirishima pull him up, the realization sets in for the first time that these two are truly otherworldly. When he looks Kirishima and Asui in the eyes again, it's with a changed perspective.
“You shouldn't pick fights with mountains,” Asui teases. “They're rather stubborn.”
Bakugou glares Kirishima down, a fire of indignation and fury kindling inside of him. “You fucking cheated!”
“I mean, not really. I have a lot of mass.”
“Your reflexes are bullshit. You'd be on your knees weeping if you weren't all sturdy.”
Kirishima can't help but smile a little. “Your skills would be great against someone your own size.”
Bakugou scoffs. “Whatever, you fucking prick.” He goes to sit by the edge of the water, plopping down as angrily as he can.
Asui laughs some more. “You've caught yourself a feisty one, Kirishima. Well, that was fun, but I've got things to do. I'll see you around, Bakugou,” she says before phasing into the lake with a soft glow.
Bakugou doesn't say anything for a moment. As angry as he is, there's some other feeling inside him. Whatever it is, it’s not a bad feeling, necessarily. The fact that it’s there pisses him off.
Kirishima steps over to him and reaches out a hand to pull him up. “I've got more to show you. Come on!”
Bakugou huffs and gets up without taking his hand. It doesn't seem to bother Kirishima too much, who's just happy to have him along.
They travel through the tunnel once again, and Kirishima leads them to their next destination. It's not long before they arrive at a small bare patch of ground near a little cliff. Between two small trees near the edge, he can see his town a little ways away. He remembers that he should probably head back home.
“Alright. You were asking about the other spirits, yeah?”
Bakugou nods, glancing around as if to see if he can find any.
Kirishima closes his eyes for a moment, breathing deep as the ground beneath him seems to glow softly. A bit of movement catches Bakugou's eye, and he looks beside him to see the air around him warp like waves in a pool. As the waves travel around, he notices little eyes glowing eyes and blurry shapes appearing where they pass over. He turns, realizing just how many small creatures surround him, some brave ones starting to come closer.
“You guys can say hi now,” Kirishima says to the spirits, walking up to a strange mushroom shaped one and picking it up. It nuzzles his face quickly before jumping out of his palms and scuttling over to the newcomer.
“Were they around this whole time? Why couldn't I see them?”
“Yep! It's a little hard to explain, but there's this sort of blinding barrier that separates the spirit world from the natural world. They can see through it, but you can't. I had them let it down for you.”
Bakugou kneels down, giving the weird mushroom thing a timid pat on the head. It pips and scuttles around excitedly, and a couple of other spirits approach Bakugou with newfound confidence.
He finds himself enamoured with all of the little creatures, all different colors and shapes and sizes. A couple remind him of birds, some of rats, but they're all unlike anything he's ever seen. A little insect-like one with pastel wings like a rainy sky lands on his arm and flutters.
“They really like you! I'm glad,” Kirishima says, moving to sit in front of him. “They can usually tell if a person is good just by being near them.”
“How come only chichi is glowing?” He asks while petting a strange bird.
“I'm not sure. Chichi is just special,” he replies cheerfully, giving it a little scratch.
Suddenly, Bakugou feels a huff of breath at his neck and nearly jumps. He whips his head around and is met with a large deer-like creature, covered in a coat of dewy moss filled with small spirits. It's face is rounded, almost like a crescent, and the antlers atop its head curl and intertwine with each other. The moss reminds him of wool. It sniffs at him, brushing its wet nose against his cheek, and he stares in awe as the majestic creature moves to sit beside him and rests its head in his lap. Kirishima lights up, grinning gleefully as Bakugou gently pets its head.
“Wha- what's this thing doing?” He asks. The smaller spirits that were riding on its back start to scuttle around with the others. They all seem very excited.
“Bakugou, this is amazing! They all really like you.”
He shuffles a bit closer, careful not to harm the little creatures. “This one in particular is very shy. You must really be special.”
Bakugou isn't sure how to respond to that information. “Animals usually fucking hate me.”
“Spirits are a bit more intelligent than animals.”
He just continues to stroke the mossy deer, heart filled with warm happiness. It's face is clear from the moss, and it feels smooth and delicate. As he moves down it's neck, the moss has a rough and spongy feel. Any anger that he had felt at the beginning of the day was long gone now, replaced with the wonder of this new experience.
“None of this seems fucking real,” he blurts as he strokes its ear.
Kirishima chuckles a little. “Well, what do you think then? About everything?”
Bakugou shakes his head. “I have no fucking idea what to think about anything. This- all of this, it's… fuck,” he responds.
Kirishima grabs Bakugou's hand, annoying the deer between them who was enjoying the scratches. “So you like it then? You'll come back?”
Bakugou forces himself not to comment on the hands thing. “Why the fuck wouldn't I, are you serious?”
Kirishima throws himself at him and wraps him in a tight hug. The spirit moves its head out of the way, snorting in irritation, as Bakugou tenses up and tries to shove Kirishima away from him.
“Oh, I'm so relieved to hear that! I thought you'd just keep being all crabby like earlier,” he says as he finally pulls away. Bakugou feels a chill on all the now-absent places Kirishima had grabbed him, still caught off guard.
“Well I won't come back if you keep pulling that shit!” he yells in indignation. “I still don't get why you're trying to be all friendly with me, anyway.”
Kirishima just smiles. “I told you already! I like you, and so does everyone else!” he says, gesturing to the spirits. “Won't you just take my word for it?”
Bakugou blinks a bit at all the creatures, still finding it hard to accept that anyone would actually give him a second glance. People usually just avoided him or did anything to avoid his aggressive personality. He'd never had a real friend. “Alright,” he finally says. “I guess that's the best bullshit of a response I'm gonna get.” He stands up slowly, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. “I'm going home now.”
Kirishima stands up with him, the other spirits starting to disperse. “Let me take you down! I've got another shortcut.” He ambles along a little path, and Bakugou has no logical choice but to follow.
Once again, they take another tunnel. Through a few pushy questions, Bakugou learns that Kirishima can change the shapes of the tunnels at will, letting him get from place to place as fast as he wants. As if to prove his point, Kirishima gets them to the bottom of the mountain in hardly any time at all.
When they step outside, the sky looks a little dim. Bakugou realizes he’ll probably be late home and swears under his breath, wasting no time in heading back home.
“Hey! Not even a goodbye?” Kirishima shouts after him.
“Bye, shitbrain,” he calls back with a little smirk.
“See you soon!” Kirishima doesn't even mind the name; he's just glad to have achieved his goal for the day. He lets out a little yawn as Bakugou walks out of his sight, turning to go back up the mountain.