Chapter Text
The last word Katsuki ever heard was bastard. the word was dripping with anger, with fear- with determination. Katsuki had never heard Deku that angry. He hadn’t heard the boy swear until then, not that he can remember.
It was the last day of their junior high 2nd year. Katsuki had reluctantly agreed to go out with his ‘friends’ after school. They took a shortcut towards the arcade- an alleyway in the shopping district. Katsuki had blown a can of soda to pieces and in seconds, it felt like he was in the middle of a storm that was raining hell upon the earth. At first, it was pain, darkness and suffocation. Then he set off his quirk, and he could see in front of him and hear the muffled chaos- the alleyway was on fire, people were screaming, heroes were arriving and barking orders. But the worst of all, the disgusting cage of sludge he was trapped in was talking. Laughing. Threatening to snap his neck.
He heard a hero yell. Death Arms. “HOW DARE YOU PREY ON A CHILD?!”
I’m not a child.
Katsuki didn’t think before he was screaming. He doesn’t have any memory of what he said. Heard from others that he threatened the sludge. Or- the villain. He set his quirk off like crazy, forcing the heroes to back up. Fuck. He can’t tell what he should do. His explosions are keeping him from being suffocated, but the heroes can’t fight for him if he’s that destructive. Shit. He wants his mom. He wants his dad. Is Deku okay? He always walks home alone. Did the villain get to Deku before it got to Katsuki? Did-
Katsuki heard himself scream again. Felt his palms exploding against the sludge. But it was useless. The sludge- it was surrounding his head. His limbs.
Wait-
CRRK!
His arm. He screamed. No words- just screamed. His right leg was broken- he could feel the disgusting mud mixing with his blood as wounds were ripped into his skin. The sludge was slowly destroying him. He set off his quirk. Again. Again. Again.
And then for a split second- he opened his eyes. He caught eyes with… Deku. And then Deku was running. Sprinting. Throwing his backpack as hard as he could. The sludge villain was hit somewhere by something out of the nerd’s backpack- Katsuki was in too much agony to process where.
“THE HELL!? WHY ARE YOU HERE?!” Katsuki yelled, feeling tears running down his face, each one a reaction to a different part of his body being in agony.
“I-I DUNNO-! MY LEGS… THEY JUST STARTED MOVING!”
No. No. He can’t- Deku can’t die! The idiot-!
He lost sight of Izuku a second later. But he heard that horrible noise again.
CRRK!!!
“DEKU!” He heard himself scream.
Thinking back on it now… he thought Izuku died at that moment. In reality, the sound was his own arm being broken. He didn’t think about it for too long then… the devastation quickly turned right back into anger and determination to get himself free. And that was really the first time in his life he questioned whether he wanted to be a hero or not. Because imagining more people than just Izuku dying in the field and him having to hold back his tears and fight was… daunting.
But when the thought was over- when the situation had forced him to ignore that he thought Izuku was dead… he let loose. All he could hear was explosion after explosion.
His nerves fired, and he didn’t have any control anymore.
He rained hell. He didn’t stop. He didn’t hesitate. Everything was hurting. The sludge was getting looser. His ears, his limbs, his lungs, his heart. He could feel it all, the numbness of being restrained melting away, turning into horribly freeing agony. But before he could stop the biggest explosion he had let off yet- he heard Izuku for the last time.
“LET KACCHAN GO, YOU GODDAMN BASTARD!”
The explosion went off.
And Hell fell silent.
-
Toshinori had watched in real time as technology advanced. He learned from Nana and Sorahiko that when quirks first appeared, everything, including technological advances, stopped dead in their tracks. And the two had learned that from their masters- and so on. The havoc of quirks caused the world to fall. The death toll was rivaling that of the middle ages at the peak of the Bubonic Plague. But war or sickness wasn’t the cause. Just humanity mutating into a then disgusting reality. It got better, of course. There were years of triumph. But it always recessed.
When Toshinori was a child, Japan was falling. He lost his father, then his mother and his newborn sister he never got to meet. He watched when the flashing, glowing and beeping machines surrounding his mother went dark when the hospital they were in was attacked. When the doctors and nurses screamed and panicked, the years upon years of finally having the peace to develop enough technology to keep up with quirks was yet again beaten down by a wave of terror. When the peace that let humanity adapt was taken once again.
So when he brought the world together, when he saved japan- when the symbol of peace came to be- he vowed to let the world keep spinning. He put millions of yen in donations towards support companies, towards schools, towards hospitals. He funded almost half of the construction of I-Island and made sure the Shield family was safe, along with as many scientists as he could recruit.
He never understood any of it- that was not his kind of smarts. But he made sure humanity didn’t stop advancing. He made sure he didn’t stop saving. and most of all, he never stopped looking for a successor.
In June, a week after he had turned 56- all his work came to a head in a horrifying way.
He met his successor- a timid boy who had been knocked down more times than he could count that ran into fire, desperate to save another. The moment Izuku Midoriya’s feet hit the ground, Toshinori knew he would be the one to inherit One for All.
But…
Before Toshinori could get his body to move, before he powered up enough, the boy Izuku had run into save exploded. And when Toshinori got in there, it was too late. Katsuki Bakugou as he now knows him looked half dead. The boy was bleeding out of his ears- his leg was twisted the wrong way- and worst of all- he was conscious.
Izuku screamed when the smoke cleared- when he saw his friend. Blond hair and pale face covered in grime and sludge and blood, his whole body shaking. Toshinori had seen things he wished to unsee in battle- but the horror on both the boy’s faces was possibly the worst thing he’s ever witnessed. Because he was just seconds too late.
Katsuki was sobbing and groaning deliriously as paramedics rushed in, and he lost consciousness on the way to the hospital. Toshinori ran after the ambulance, pushing himself to stay in his muscle form just to keep up with it. Izuku was in the same ambulance- the boy had growled when attempts to separate him from Katsuki were made. The media tried to follow and couldn’t in the chaos the city was in from a huge villain attack and an All Might appearance.
When he and the ambulance arrived at the hospital, he hid and let his form drop. He ignored the paramedics telling him he should stay back as he rushed forward to get to Izuku and Katsuki.
“No, no I have to- I-I have to-“ Izuku was begging, weakly fighting against the paramedics who held him back from following Katsuki as he was rushed into the ER. Toshinori helped- they all assumed he was family when his order for Izuku to stay back was the only one that Izuku seemed to hear.
“You can’t, my boy- you can’t. Those injuries are not fatal but the blood loss could be if you don’t let them work. Stay back.” He said hoarsely, holding Izuku’s wrists firmly. It was hard for even him to do- because he had the same urge to rush in after Katsuki and stay by his side.
The boy Toshinori had met minutes earlier was gone right now. No bright eyed fanboy shaking with excitement at meeting All Might- his eyes were set on one goal and that goal was protecting and caring for Katsuki. Thinking back on it now, it was one hell of a second impression.
“…H-he’s not gonna die, right? Y-you’ve seen injuries worse, right?! H-he can’t die, All Might h-he can’t-“ Izuku said, his voice hushed like he didn’t want to speak the possibility into existence.
“He is not going to die. I’ve had worse injuries than that.” Toshinori reassures. “Here, how about we head in and tell them his name? They need to call his parents, yeah?”
Izuku nodded shakily and let himself be pulled inside, where Toshinori helped the shaking boy get his words out and let the doctors know Katsuki’s name. The machines made soft whirring and beeping noises in contrast to the doctors and nurses calling out reports on all the patients in critical condition- the most people gathered around Katsuki.
“H-his name is Katsuki Bakugou- h-his parents are Masaru and Mitsuki Bakugou. I-I don’t have their numbers but I have his and-“
“That’s all they need, my boy.” Toshinori cuts him off, nodding to the doctor and pulling Izuku back.
Toshinori was hearing it again. The beeping- the yelling back and forth- the monitors all saying different things, confusing and conflicting to the eye of someone without the knowledge of what it all means. He finds himself praying that it doesn’t go the way it did back then. There’s no good reason too, he knows that. Yet he still closes his eyes for a moment, sending the plea to whoever is up there. Anyone who could help at all.
He’s funded this hospital. He’s funded the brand that wears its logo on half the equipment in this room that now have wires and tubes leading into Katsuki’s body.
Let it be enough. Let it save another. Let it make up for my mistake. Please.
“A-All Might… I-I can’t breathe.”
Toshinori tears his eyes away from Katsuki. Izuku is shaking next to him, staring forward with a glazed over expression. He doesn’t have to look at the boy long to know he’s having a panic attack.
“We need to find you your own doctor, kid, you’re banged up from the explosion.” Toshinori says quickly. With any kid in shock like this, distraction is the best way to go. He bends down as Izuku starts to hyperventilate, grabbing his hands and squeezing them gently. “Hey, hey, look at me kid. Your parents. Can you call them?”
Izuku mouths the word yes, but no sound comes out.
“You tell them to come to the hospital. Say simply that you got caught up in a villain attack, you’re mildly injured and being treated. That’s all you need to do right now. I’ll get you a doctor. I am here, and I’m seeing this all the way through with you.”
Izuku manages to focus his eyes, meeting Toshinori’s. The words ‘I am here’ seem to bring him back into stable reality, at least to some degree.
“S-stay with me, please, please don’t l-leave me alone until my Mom gets here-“
“I won’t. I promise.”
-
“THEN GET ME A DOCTOR WHO CAN TELL ME! THIS IS THE WORST VILLAIN ATTACK THIS CITY HAS HAD IN YEARS, DON’T GIVE ME THAT BULLSHIT!”
“Mizuki, please-!”
Toshinori plans on staying with Izuku until he’s discharged- until he has the chance to tell him about One For All, and to make sure Katsuki comes out of this alright. The kid wouldn’t be in this situation if he had been able to get there on time- the guilt is already eating away at him. The least he can do is greet the boy when he wakes up. But it turns out that Izuku’s family is a package deal with Katsuki’s, at least in this dire situation. Izuku was cleared for nothing but a few scratches and temporary, mild hearing loss. The blunt of the explosion was solely on Katsuki and the villain.
Toshinori is currently standing in the hallway outside of Katsuki’s hospital room. The surgery on his broken bones went smoothly- but there was some mysterious complication that the hospital staff seemed reluctant or completely unwilling to share with Katsuki’s parents. And worst of all, Katsuki hadn’t woken up yet. He didn’t get a good look at them before they rushed in to see their son, but the boy was a spitting image of his parents, predominately his mother. Soon after, Izuku and his own mother came rushing into the room behind them. Coincidentally, Izuku also looked exactly like his mom.
“Why can’t you tell us?! And why isn’t he waking up?!”
Izuku’s voice. It was breaking, almost as desperate as Katsuki’s mother’s.
“I-I assure you all, her staying unconscious is c-completely normal for the amount of trauma and medication your d-daughter is-“
“SON! HE’S OUR SON! HE HAS A MALE NAME ON ALL HIS GODDAMN FORMS SO STOP GOING OFF THE SINGLE ‘F’ YOU CAN’T SEEM TO IGNORE!” Mizuki yells, even louder this time. It’s obvious through her voice she’s crying, but the anger is leading.
“Please, if you can’t tell us what’s wrong with Katsuki then get someone who can explain at least a little more. W-we need answers, we aren’t going to sit here and wait until your staff thinks we’re ready to hear the news.”
His fathers voice. Gentler- much gentler. But just as desperate.
“If you can’t do that, I suggest you begin prepping for an incoming lawsuit and a punch to the face. I’m not here to hold my wife back, I’m here to make sure my son is alive and well.”
That seems to do it for the nurse, because a couple seconds later the young man comes rushing out of the room, quickly nodding to Toshinori before speed walking down the hallway towards the elevators.
“They have to tell us, Mizuki. I-It’ll be all right.”
Izuku’s mother now. Her words are followed by a sharp sob from Mizuki as she presumably collapses into someone’s arms.
“Izuku, who saved you? You said Katsuki’s quirk did the damage, but there had to be heroes there too…” Izuku’s mom says after a second. Toshinori wouldn’t have been able to catch it if she didn’t move closer to the door. He can see two sets of legs casting shadows through the crack of the door.
“…T-there were a bunch of heroes. But… A-All Might was there.”
“What?!”
Shit. Well, that was everyone’s voice at once. He’s starting to realize how awkward this is for Izuku, since he’s the only one who knows that he’s currently listening to the conversation.
“H-he didn’t get there on time to fight the villain. He was only able to catch me and K-Kacchan in the aftershock…” Izuku says shakily.
“Where is he now-?! Did he just leave the scene afterwards?!” Mizuki says, angry yet again.
“N-no, no! H-he actually- he-“ Izuku pauses. Shit. It’s like Toshinori can hear the panicked thoughts in Izuku’s head right now. Either he tries to explain that All Might in his full muscle form helped him get a doctor, which would make no sense because he would be swarmed. Or he reveals his secret, which Toshinori made him just hours ago promise to never do.
What Toshinori does next is possibly one of the stupidest risks he’s ever taken. That's saying something, because his entire career up until this point was built off of stupid risks.
He doesn’t think this one through at all though. He has no plan when his feet are suddenly moving towards the door of Katsuki’s hospital room, or when he opens it and everyone’s heads dart over to him. The only thought running through his head is guilt. The guilt that he knows needs to be resolved, the guilt that isn’t letting him think straight. Izuku’s eyes widened in pure shock and confusion, then realization. The look the kid gives him is the clearest ‘What the hell are you doing?!’ expression someone’s ever shot his way.
“…Hello. I’m Toshinori Yagi. Or… All Might.”
~~~
Katsuki doesn’t know where he is. He can see. He can feel a faint wind on his bare skin.
Wait, why the hell is his skin bare? Okay, he can come back to that. Where is he?
It’s blue. Kind of purple, actually. A swirling void of cool colors. Yeah. Yeah that’s it. A void. He can’t move his head, but it feels like he’s standing on concrete. It’s cold and there’s small, rough imperfections and pebbles. The void is still. Its colors are moving like an illusion, but he’s not falling or moving. Maybe he should try to talk.
…
…Nothing. He can’t hear anything. He can’t tell if no noise left his lips or if he simply couldn’t hear it. Maybe both? Okay. This is boring now. He needs to do something. Find something he can move.
“Oh my…”
What was that? He can’t- that wasn’t- that wasn’t sound. He heard it, but he didn’t hear it with his physical ears. But somehow he knows that a gentle masculine voice just muttered something in surprise. He makes another attempt at speaking, banking on the theory that he’s making noise and simply can’t hear it.
“…You’re not a vestige or a wielder.”
Again. The voice with no sound.
“How are you here, little dream walker?”
~~~
Katsuki… is deaf. Completely. He woke up, groaned in pain, and didn’t hear it. There were a lot of people in the room when he opened his eyes. His parents, Auntie Inko, and Izuku were expected. Then there was a doctor, a nurse and a man he didn’t know.
He remembers what happened. A villain, an explosion… silence. A hospital, an IV, and darkness. He can’t seem to process it right now. He should be upset, shouldn’t he? He’s deaf. The nurse held up a small whiteboard when he sat up.
‘You went deaf from the explosion. It is permanent.’
There’s no fixing it. They were blunt. They probably weren’t going to be, but his mom probably made them. He should cry. He should be mad. Why isn’t he mad?
He’s not. He sits there, watching everyone in the room. One by one, his parents and auntie come over to hug him. Izuku doesn’t. Why would he? Izuku is covered in small bandages and plasters, and looks more exhausted than he has in months. He ran in to save Katsuki like an idiot.
Another thing Katsuki should be mad about. Izuku ran in to save him. Katsuki got himself out. Izuku’s a weakling. A weakling who has the nerve to look down on Katsuki, to try to save him even though the outcome should’ve just been getting himself killed.
He’s not mad. He doesn’t know why. Oh. Another whiteboard.
‘How are you feeling? Point to your injuries and try to describe out loud your pain level so we can monitor you accurately.’
This time it’s the doctor holding it up. He’s a mostly teal heteromorph who looks kinda like a dinosaur. He looks down at his body. Oh right, he broke an arm and a leg. With his uninjured right hand, he points at his left arm and says 4. Then to his right leg, a 6. Then to his head. He finally notices that he has the worst headache he’s ever had in his life. His ears are the source, like faucets that are spilling a hot, liquid pain into his entire skull. He says what he hopes sounds like the words “Worst headache I’ve ever fucking had, 10.” By the way everyone tenses, he assumes he said it clearly.
“Who are you?” He says next, pointing to the man he’s never seen.
The man starts to talk before remembering and rushing over to take the whiteboard from the doctor, quickly scribbling something down. It takes him a while, and the doctor fills the time without the whiteboard in hand by talking to his hysterical parents. After a minute, the man hands him the whiteboard.
‘I’m All Might. This is my true form without my quirk activated. I couldn’t save you on time back there, I am here to apologize and help in any way I can.’
…Wow. Okay, he’s somehow more shocked by that than he is about going deaf. He looks up at the man- All Might- with wide eyes in disbelief. All Might stands there awkwardly, fidgeting with his hands. Seeing All Might nervous is like seeing a fish walk.
After a moment of processing who the fuck is standing in front of him, he grabs the pen from All Might’s hand and scribbles his own crude message down.
‘I’m guessing this form is a secret to the doctors like it is to the whole fucking world. Does the nerd know or just my parents?’
He knows All Might won’t know who the nerd is at first- but context clues are powerful. All Might blinks as he’s handed back the whiteboard, thinking for a moment before responding.
‘Midoriya knows, along with his own mother. Yes, it is a secret from the doctors and the public. Few know.’
Katsuki stares at the whiteboard, then looks back up at All Might. The man smiles softly, lowering the whiteboard. Then he looks away- towards Izuku. The nerd is saying something to him. All Might responds.
And suddenly, Katsuki is crying. It’s like a tidal wave. Tears flow down his cheeks and his breath catches in his throat- he wants to stop, but there’s no way he can. The sudden pain in his chest is unbearable. It’s not physical- just despair in all the realizations he had in a moment no longer than a second. He’ll never hear All Might say “I am here!” in real life. He’ll never hear the All Might theme song again. He’ll never hear his parents' voices, or his mom’s coworkers at the boutique who would sing with him. He’ll never hear auntie greet him with the kindness he doesn’t deserve- or Izuku calling him that stupid fucking nickname. He’ll never hear his favorite song Tekireiki again. The memory will fade, and it’ll be gone.
He’s so stupid.
Izuku is the first by his side. Why? Why would he ever, ever want to be here for him? Does the idiot not realize what he’s done to him? He why he in this room in the fucking first place?
The stupid, heroic idiot. Katsuki’s always been half of the person he is.
“I-I’m s-sorry-“
Katsuki can’t hear himself choke out the words, but he knows he said them. He finally tears his eyes away from his lap, looking up at Izuku with tear filled eyes. Izuku’s eyes widen, and he takes a step back. Katsuki doesn’t let him go. He reaches forward with both hands, completely forgetting about the heavy pain in his left arm. He grabs Izuku’s hands with all the strength he has left.
“I’m sorry. I'm sorry D-de- Izuku.”
Izuku stares at him, unmoving. At that moment, no one else is in the room. It’s just him and the person he heard last, the person he would never trade for anyone in the entire world. The person he doesn’t deserve. The person who deserves so much more than his delayed realization only realized by a loss almost as great as death.
Izuku mutters ‘Kacchan…’ and it’s obvious what he’s saying. A little too obvious.
“I’m sorry. For hitting you- for making up that stupid nickname- for letting you b-be bullied by everyone, for bullying you- I’m sorry, I-I’m so sorry-!” Katsuki is going off prayer alone that he’s saying all the words right. “We could’ve died. We could’ve died and- and it would’ve happened with you thinking all the stupid things I said! You fucking disregard it all, y-you hear me?!”
With that, he and Izuku both lunge forward. He can feel Izuku crying once they’re wrapped in each other's arms. The vibrations are comforting. He can feel Izuku’s gasping breath, his heartbeat, every time he sniffles and every time he repeats Katsuki’s name.
He doesn’t deserve this.
This is halfassed. He should’ve known this on his fucking own. Should’ve gotten it through his thick skull that bullying Izuku was the coldest thing he could do. It shouldn’t have taken this. Izuku deserves so much more, and he deserves nothing at all.
He jumps a little as Izuku suddenly pulls back. The boy scrambles across the room, grabbing the whiteboard and marker out of All Might’s hands without asking. In seconds, he has his message written down and handed to Katsuki.
‘I forgive you.’
Stupid Izuku.
-
“Katsuki Bakugou is a medical anomaly. Yesterday around 4pm, he was attacked by Shinya Fukumatsu, a villain known as the sludge villain. His quirk is Mud Form, a mutant quirk that gives him a body almost completely made out of a sludge-like-substance. Along with making the user very resistant to most physical attacks, if the user enters its own flesh into another’s body, it allows possession and use of the other's quirk. Though full possession would result in the other person being killed via asphyxiation. Now-“
This isn’t the first briefing Toshinori’s been to of this type. Being the current strongest hero in Japan, he fights a lot of strange villains, and ends up having to give his statements in hospitals and courtrooms everywhere. This one in particular however, is being held to give evidence to doctors who work in quirk studies the odd occurrence of what happened to Katsuki Bakugou. The conference room of this hospital is small yet packed with doctors. He’s standing in the back awkwardly, in full muscle form, taking up way more space than he wishes he was.
“-Katsuki Bakugou’s quirk is Explosion. He sweats a nitroglycerin-like sweat on his palms that he can explode at will or if enough friction is applied. As soon as Bakugou was taken hostage by Fukumatsu, he started firing off explosions, trying to break free. This continued for several minutes and turned into a back and forth of heroes at the scene trying to save Bakugou and making sure Fukumatsu didn’t do something drastic. Then, Izuku Midoriya ran onto the scene in an attempt to save Bakugou, as the two are friends from school. We now know that just minutes earlier, the boy had also been attacked by Fukumatsu and saved by All Might. The villain was distracted and hit in the eye by Midoriya’s backpack, which he threw at Fukumatsu. In that small moment of weakness for the villain, Bakugou was able to free half of his body. In a desperate moment, the teenager let off the largest explosion he had yet, no longer blocked by Fukumatsu’s body. All Might was able to catch both Midoriya and Bakugou before they went flying from the wind force of the impact, and Fukumatsu fell unconscious.”
A small applause started for Toshinori. He doesn’t deserve it, but he nods in thanks so they can continue.
“But the external explosion isn’t the anomaly here. It had been known that Bakugou’s quirk was powerful due to quirk counseling and yearly exams. However, as soon as the explosion cleared, Bakugou now stated under our care that he couldn’t hear a single thing from that point on. No ringing, no anything-“
“Excuse me?”
Toshinori and everyone else’s heads turn away from Dr. Yoshida, who’s leading the briefing.
“Yes?” He says, looking slightly annoyed at the interruption. Another slightly older doctor steps forward, looking very serious and also slightly annoyed.
“You have consistently referred to Bakugou as a ‘he’ when all her medical charts we’ve been given state she’s a female.” The doctor says. Toshinori can feel his blood boiling as soon as the stuck up words leave the doctor’s mouth.
“…Bakugou is Transgender. That should be obvious from the list of medications that include Testosterone supplements.” Yoshida says, his expression calm but almost- disgusted. “Being Transgender is a known medical concept. Respect it or leave the briefing so I am not interrupted by your statements again.”
The older doctor sputters- looking around for support he’s definitely not getting before Yoshida continues. Toshinori is very glad he’s the leading doctor on Katsuki’s case.
“Anyways. Bakugou states that he was immediately completely deaf as the explosion went off. This is almost unheard of, and completely unrealistic that he wouldn’t hear ringing or the sound fading slowly. And Midoriya was at a similar range to the explosion and only suffered minor and temporary hearing loss from the explosion. This was a mystery until today, when we had to perform a follow up operation on Bakugou’s leg due to complications with his broken Tibia. While surgeons were operating, they started to feel small sparks burning their hands when they got close enough to Bakugou’s body. When they looked close with a magnifying tool, they could see small sparks, or explosions running throughout Bakugou’s blood stream. It seems that in his moment of desperation, Bakugou has a quirk awakening- one that along with making his external explosion highly effective, began to explode the nitroglycerin-like sweat throughout his entire body. We believe that explosions in his skull and ears severed all connection from the cochlear nerve and possibly more to his brain. Bakugou has reported a nonstop headache since he woke up after his first surgeries. Though it seems to be slowly getting better, the sensation he’s feeling isn’t standard at all for regular auditory trauma.”
As Yoshida finishes speaking, the room falls into a tense silence. All the doctors, quirk specialists and scientists seem stunlocked. Toshinori doesn’t blame them- a quirk awakening like this is almost unheard of. Usually, it’s something simple like an emitter quirk’s range being expanded, or a transformation quirk getting stronger. This is a complete rewrite of how Katsuki’s previously simple quirk works- and how quirk studies will change from this point on.
As doctors begin asking questions that are far too complicated for Toshinori’s brain, he finally has a good moment to slip away. As interested as he is in the anomaly of Katsuki, he’d much rather be with the kid himself if he’s going to be staying here to help him and his family.
After Katsuki’s… breakdown yesterday, he hasn’t had much of a chance to talk to him or Izuku- and has had no chance at all to tell Izuku about One For All. However he did get some inkling of an idea of what the entire meltdown was about from Inko, who he had been talking to the most during visiting hours.
“Katsuki is… a bully. I wish I could say it lighter, because I’m his unofficial Godmother.” She had started with a humorless laugh. He had sat down with her in the small hospital cafeteria while Izuku was hanging around in Katsuki’s room. “He has some real problems with feeling inferior. Izuku is such a… shining light of a boy. The two were close as ever in primary school, but Katsuki has always been mean to him. I think it’s because Katsuki couldn’t stand the idea of anyone being better than him. It just got worse the older they got, and when Izuku started to not simply take it, they began fighting regularly. Katsuki would instigate pretty much all of it. I’m relieved he apologized, but I’m not happy about the circumstances…”
From the sound of it, Izuku’s quirklessness was a main point in the bullying. Kids at school since they were small never left him alone and Katsuki didn’t do anything to help that. But after Izuku ran in to save Katsuki, it seemed as if everything he had been doing dawned on Katsuki all at once.
Toshinori lightly knocked on the door to Katsuki’s hospital room after he dropped his form, blinking in surprise when it was Izuku’s voice that said come in. He opened it to see that it was only Izuku and Katsuki right now. Izuku was sitting on the edge of Katsuki’s bed with something up on his laptop that he had brought in today.
“H-hi, All Might!” The boy says nervously, almost immediately starting to shake his hands in excitement. Katsuki lights up as well, waving and sitting up. “I-I’m starting to teach Kacchan JSL!”
“You know JSL?” Toshinori says in surprise, shutting the door gently behind him as he approaches the bed. Once he’s close enough, he can see that the basic JSL alphabet is up, facing Katsuki.
“I-I’ve been taking a class online for a while now!” Izuku smiles. “I always- well- I wanted to know at least a little, because Kacchan going deaf was always a possibility his doctors told him. But I really got into it, so-“
“Care to share with the class?” Katsuki interrupts. Though his words are already starting to get a little slurred, the annoyance that comes with pretty much every word the boy says is very obvious. Quite a character for a 14 year old.
Izuku snaps his head back to him and signs what Toshinori can only assume is sorry, which is probably one of the first words Izuku had taught Katsuki today. He grabs the white board (that had been used so much in the past day and a half that it was turning grey and two more were brought into the room) to catch Katsuki up on the conversation. Katsuki rolls his eyes, sitting back with a slump. He looks to Toshinori, looking him up and down- before pointing at an open space on the bed stubbornly. Toshinori blinks before sitting down like he was- told? Now he gets why Izuku is so flustered whenever Katsuki asks for something- the kid is demanding as all hell.
“So whas’ your plan to help me? You can’t change wha’ happened.” Katsuki mutters to Toshinori.
Toshinori thinks for a moment at the question before reaching over to grab a spare whiteboard. He quickly jots down an answer, cringing at how messy his handwriting is before handing it to Katsuki.
‘I plan on funding everything going towards research and support items made for your unique condition.’
Katsuki stares at the answer for a second, his lips falling slightly agape before he catches himself, scowling and looking away at Izuku’s update on the conversation they were having before. Toshinori laughs softly. This kid is already reminding him of Sorahiko- blunt, bashful and bitter.
“Whatevah support item y’get me, it has to be strong. M’ still going to be a hero.” Katsuki says after a moment, not looking at Toshinori. Toshinori blinks and smiles. He had a hunch the kid was gunning to be a hero, but his determination makes him happy. Toshinori nods, giving him a thumbs up.
Izuku, who was wrapped up in finding another chart of JSL basics, taps Katsuki and points back at the laptop screen. Katsuki groans but sits up, refocusing.
It’s almost hard to believe that until yesterday, these two were in a bully-victim relationship. Despite Inko seeming to know plenty about their complicated relationship… there’s more. Any regular person wouldn’t have forgiven Katsuki that easily- and no regular kid at Katsuki’s age and maturity would get himself in check that fast. These kids are… odd. But special, no doubt. With a quirk like Katsuki’s and with One For All on Izuku’s side, they could take UA’s hero course by storm. And since Katsuki is already in the know about Toshinori’s power to an extent, they could help each other greatly if he was told about One For All along with Izuku…
“Hey- um- hold on. Young Midoriya, can you find a speech to text website for me? There’s something I need to discuss with both of you at the same time.”