Chapter Text
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Katsuki Bakugo wasn’t a quitter.
He never half-assed anything, adventures, assignments, and definitely not fights.
He was more than pissed off when Half-n-Half half-assed it for him to the point where there was reasonable doubt in his victory.
So, no, he didn’t want the fucking medal, trophies didn’t mean shit to him, victories did.
He could feel like he earned the title after challenging Icy-Hot and winning for real in one of the gyms or something.
“Hey, I’m not taking that medal, so I’m gonna leave now.”
“What?” The apparently deaf hero said. His name was something about limbs right? He felt like he had seen him before. Eh, not that he needed to remember. Katsuki ignored him and walked to the door.
“You can’t leave, the ceremony is in 15 minutes! I’m here to make sure you get on to the podium!”
“Fucking Engines isn’t here for a family emergency right? You can do it without me, so I’m leaving!” He set off a few very small explosions to punctuate his point and also help with the sweat build-up for this shittily ventilated room.
“Actually,” Icy-Hot interjected for some reason “I don’t feel much like I deserve mine. I was being childish, refusing to use my power, so I’ll leave too.”
“Guess we got the stage for ourselves huh Fumi?” Dark Shadow piped up with a grin in her voice. Tokoyami didn’t say anything but seemed a bit nervous.
“No! I- Get back here Bakugo you aren’t allowed to leave, and you’re Endeavor’s kid right? Don’t you understand how important ceremonies are? They’re vital to heroes and- and you can’t brush it off if you feel like it and-” The hero moved towards Bakugo, “You’re going up there whether you like it or not!”
He grabbed the teen and- shit, Katsuki couldn’t fucking let off a big blast without injuring the bitch, and injuring an actual goddamn hero is about the worst thing he could do to his record. If he got expelled not even Aldera would take him back. Not that he would ever go there again, but still. Hands were on him and all he could do was let off more small explosions that were about as effective as those popper things you throw on the ground at New Years. Fuck.
The bitch wouldn’t let go, just like the sludge villain wouldn’t let go and-
Oh. That's where he knew him from.
“GET OFF OF ME YOU LIMBSY BITCH!”
Arms, his brain unhelpfully supplied.
Death Arms.
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Todoroki Shouto thought he could have a good day and forget about Endeavor until he got home. And refusing the award would piss Endeavor off. Apparently, the Wal-mart version of Endeavor just had to be their monitor.that didn’t make him any less afraid, no matter how much he wished he wasn’t
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Tokoyami Fumikage was not built for the spotlight. It took away a constant that he’d much rather have by his side. He was not thrilled to be going up there alone.
“GET OFF ME YOU LIMBSY BITCH!” Scratch that. He’d go alone, he’d go alone, god why did the universe do this to him. Bakugo was never the easiest to get along with but he barely did anything at all. What was he supposed to do?
Anything beats seeing his classmate get dragged around like that. What could he do against a licensed hero?
He would wait until it was over and then break down in the forest where no one would get hurt.
(but wasn’t letting someone hurt someone else in front of him also bad?)
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Seeing the muzzle made something in him scream - shoving, the lock of a door, hunger and stings from all around his body, forcing himself to breathe so he wouldn’t choke on his own spit, the daze of waking up the next day to the janitor shaking him - and he couldn’t believe his eyes.
UA allowed this?
His fingers were still fucking throbbing, left arm too, and there was no way he would be able to leave but he had to help get it off, had to reach-
(Eight voices inside reached too, and a certain Toshinori felt angry despite having not seen the victors yet in the prep room)
- and dark tendrils sprung from his hands. He sprung up in confusion, but the tentacles (what were they made of, he had to experiment later) rushed out of the room. Recovery Girl was going to kill him, but he ran after it spurred on by energy he shouldn’t have after surgery. He was tired a moment ago but he wasn’t complaining. He needed to get to Kacchan, and maybe this would help.
(When black tendrils extended from the not-just morphine induced for surgery hero, he was very reluctant to leave the prep room)
He ran past a few shocked people that were passing in the halls and into the blinding light of the arena. It took a second to reorient himself and he looked around the area and locked eyes with Kacchan.
Fear. He could see a bit of confusion and a lot of anger in his gaze but he had seen those ruby eyes enough for a lifetime to see the fear Kacchan always tried to hide. Then his eyes shifted to the (ugly, disgusting, vile, painful, something in his head interjected) muzzle and without even trying to command it the tendrils- (whips, his mind supplied) shot towards Kacchan as the audience screamed in confusion.
He ran to the podium, ignoring a weirdly still Midnight, jumped on to the third place platform and brushed past Tokoyami’s confused stare, grabbed the first place platform with his good arm, and dragged himself up with spite and the whips, like the menace he was. Kacchan thrashed under his bindings again, muffled noises crashing into the atmosphere.
Izuku walked up to him and started getting the horrid thing off while blackwhip worked on the chains. Muttered apologies and rambles spilled from his throat, he wasn’t listening to it, simply working to get rid of it.
Finally, after using blackwhip as a lock-pick (who the fuck did this, he was going to-) he took the thing off
“Izu- Deku?” a worn voice said, not nearly loud enough for the cameras to hear.
“M’ here, even if you don’t want me.” Relief coursed through his veins, Kacchan was safe, he smiled, might have said something-
And then he promptly passed out
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Katsuki was being lifted into the light, and god was he humiliated.
He thrashed and screamed, his cheeks stung, his wrists hurt, his hands sweat like hell and by kami did he hate the sun right now. But he was going to fight. He may not have been able to fight Death Arms personally, but he was not going to accept this shit laying down. This was bullshit and surely someone in the audience knew it.
(he ignored the similarities to the sludge villain. He could breathe. If he could breathe he could fight, and he could fight anything. He had too. Because who would want to save him this time?)
He kept thrashing until someone finally came up to him-
Izuku.
Of course the one who saved him from the sludge villain also saved him now. Fucking ironic that the one person who shouldn’t be there in the first place always manages to save him.
The stupid thing is finally off him and he rasps out “Izu- Deku?” God, his voice shouldn’t sound like that at all.
“M’ here, even if you don’t want me.” Izuku said with a small grin.
His voice took on a slightly more layered tone “We will gladly help you for Ninth.”
What the fuck did that mean?
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Yamada was a good kind of tired. The festival was almost done, and he could go home with his lovely husband who currently was not in the announcers booth. Aizawa had left a few minutes ago, claiming that ‘Those kids have no right to take even more sleep from me’. Hizashi easily agreed, he already knew the victors after all, and all that was left was a couple more comments. All Might was going to take charge really so he was more of a formality. His poor husband needed as much rest as he could, honestly he shouldn’t have even done this after USJ.
“And here are the final victors of the sports festival!! DRUMROLL PLEASE!” He smiled as the audience quickly boomed and cheered.
He watched alongside everyone else as the podium lifted on the ground and-
That was a muzzle. On Bakugo. He- Fuck he looked so pained. He was glad Aizawa wasn’t here, he would freak out. Just like Hizashi was.He kinda wished he could hold his hand No. That was selfish of him.
His cheeks hurt in sympathy- oh wait that was his nails. He stopped himself.
It was a conversation he had had with his therapist many times. After he had ruptured more eardrums than he could count, the doctors made a muzzle that could fit a three year old, for the safety of his fellow people. It had the unintentional consequence of making it so Hizashi often covered his own mouth whenever he got overwhelmed, so that his parents didn’t put the muzzle on him. It didn’t help him now as much as it did then.
He told himself to breathe and closed his eyes. Thank god the announcers booth wasn’t very visible, and the speakers only projected his voice when he actively pressed a button. Okay. He was a hero. He needed to go down there and fix everything because for some reason Midnight had froze-
…What the fuck are those tendrils.
He watched in mostly confusion as the owner turned out to be fucking Midoriya 'I like to break my bones' Izuku. How did a strength quirk translate to those tentacle-thingies? Wait, wasn't he supposed to be recovering right now?
The boy went to the podium and climbed it with one arm (how is the kid still conscious?) and started taking off the machine.
Hizashi also needed to help. He was literally thinking about that five seconds ago. How did he forget!
By the time he got down there Midoriya had already passed out. He had definitely said something earlier but he couldn’t make it out between all of the layers of wall. No matter, Nezu was probably on damage control already.
Speaking of damage control the audience was clearly freaking out right now, and Midnight, for all her calm exterior, probably wasn’t doing much better. Luckily, he knew what to do. Most people, when they looked at his quirk, saw the sound attacks and battles and didn’t look past it when really communication was probably one of the most valuable things it offered, he was a loudspeaker that people could trust.
“EVERYONE!” he made sure to turn toward the audience so it wouldn’t be too loud for those on the ground, “I’M SURE YOU’VE HEARD THIS A MILLION TIMES BEFORE BUT PLEASE CALM DOWN! THE QUESTIONS CAN WAIT UNTIL EVERYONE IS SAFE! PLEASE LET US TAKE CARE OF THE KIDS! THEY TAKE PRIORITY!”
It was certainly short, but did the trick and he was too tired to think of something better. Medical droids had been called to take Midoriya and they had led a begrudging Bakugo as well for a throat check. Todoroki and Tokoyami were going to be asked questions about what happened, but they could choose to wait till later.
Turning to address the rest of the students in his normal voice, he told them to go to any of the waiting rooms and figure out how they were getting home and to come to him or Midnight if a problem arised.
Speaking of Midnight, she hadn’t said anything during the exchange, which is weird for her. When he turned to look she seemed to be coming out of a daze and blinked a couple times. He absentmindedly scanned the audience when he saw a tuft of purple hair trying to slink into the crowd. Ah, the brainwash kid that Shota had his eye on.
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Hitoshi was honestly tired. He was half-planning on ditching the awards ceremony, it's not like he needed to be there. All it did was reward the hero brats yet again for their skills. But he was also too tired to walk home, and the festival was conveniently scheduled to end around the time trains started coming. It was definitely not because there was a rumor in Gen Ed. that All Might had a chance of showing up. No siree, this teenager is not a fanboy thank you very much.
So he waited in the uncomfortable sweatiness that was inevitable when a group of teenagers were outside for extended periods of time.
“And here are the final victors of the sports festival!! DRUMROLL PLEASE!” he heard booming from the loudspeakers. He rolled his eyes at the enthusiasm, everyone already knew who won, why did they care so much.
The podiums rose and, who would’ve guessed the winners are-
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuckfuckfuck-
That was a muzzle. On the first place winner.
This couldn’t be happening
(bile rose in his throat, he swallowed it down because otherwise he would choke. Hunger burned in his stomach. He can’t remember the last time he’d eaten because he made the mistake of asking what was for dinner. Their faces from that moment were still engraved in his mind, as though he was a pest ravaging their fridge, worthy of being put down)
Breathe. Could he breathe? HIs mind was torn one half wanting to run and be silent, if he never spoke they couldn’t use it against him. But-
He looked at Bakugo, the typical hero asshole who thought a powerful quirk was all he needed, but all he could see was pain.
That settled it. He would do something. How could he live with himself if he let someone else go through that.
So he spoke without thinking. Not loudly but enough to be heard.
“Midnight-sensei!”
She looked very confused but still replied “Yes?”
Now she was under control and. And fuck again because holy shit did he not think this through, she was a hero! A full blown hero and he- he was going to get expelled before he could even help-
He heard screaming picking up from the crowd. Confused, because did he really get caught already?
Those. Those were fucking black tentacles. Eldritch horror could now be added to his list of trauma to talk about with his imaginary therapist.
Any attention he might have gotten from calling Midnight was completely redirected to-
Was that fucking Midoriya? The ball of sunshine with a perfect quirk who seemed genuinely interested in Hitoshi?
Could the anger on that face really belong to Midoriya?
He was still in disbelief when Midoriya went up the podium and untied Bakugo. It didn’t hit him until the guy passed out.
Bakugo was okay now. And he didn’t do shit about it.
The guilt coiled in his gut by the time Present Mic came down to the arena. He barely listened to the instructions, he had memorized the route home from UA after the first week in case the bullies followed him here. Which they hadn’t seemed to, but still. He could get home just fine.
Present Mic turned to Midnight- shit he hadn’t released control yet. He quickly did, but fuck there was no way that she wouldn’t notice that big of a time gap.
He was definitely screwed.
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Nezu took a sip of his tea.
When Death Arms was hired to do this, he saw it as a non-issue. He was a part of the many heroes hired for extra help with potential villains at the Sports Festival. Honestly, his entire job description had been that when the kids get on the podiums underground make sure they’re standing normally so their legs don’t get caught up in the mechanism And to protect them from any potential villains, obviously. Apparently that was too vague, and he for some reason felt inclined to use restraints that were only there if that warp-user brought in villains to attack the students isolated.
He sighed but he should have known. Humans pretended they were better than animals, but they were still perfectly capable of needing to control with force. He never expected an actual hero to be so blatant about it though, most just stuck to words.
The only reason he was hired was because Snipe was patrolling with Hound Dog, who had gotten a whiff of Shigaraki’s blood and a shredded bit of clothing from the Warp User. The Warp User was less promising scent wise but identifying Shigaraki was necessary.
Aizawa, Yamada, Chiyo, Lunch Rush, and Nemuri had obvious roles to play. Cementoss was on standby for repairs in case the audience got too excited and broke something, which had happened a couple years ago. All Might, with his time limit needed to not be in public until the planned time. Maijima and Vlad King had both wanted to see their classes compete, so they were in the stands on opposite sides to help react in case something happened there. Ectoplasm was using his quirk to help with management of all the food trucks outside, and all of the organizing mayhem that came with the sports festival.
Oh. Ectoplasm could’ve just sent a clone to be with the winners, and they could have avoided this.
Foresight really was 20/20, even for rats.
Well, at least the press statement draft was coming along nicely
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Hizashi looked to see a confused Midnight.
“Mic? W-Why are you here, where are the winners? They were just there. And why was Bakugo…” She didn’t need to finish the statement.
“Do you remember the Brainwashing kid who fought Midoriya in the 1v1s?”
“Purple hair right? What about him?”
“I think he used his quirk on you, which explains the gap in your memory. You should watch the security footage on your phone, you wouldn’t believe me otherwise.”
As part of the huge security revamp that Nezu did, all teachers had access to security footage via an administrative password so it would be easier to track any suspicious activity.
“That bad huh?” Midnight said with a weak chuckle.
“Yeah, you have no idea. As for me, I’ll go check on the kid. He doesn’t seem like the type to do that unprompted y’know?”
“Right. Still kinda weird not remembering so I’ll focus on catching up for now. See ya later?”
Mic nodded. “See ya.”
By this point most of the kids were heading towards the waiting room because no one wanted to deal with the crowds. That was technically part of his job, but the kid was definitely more important.
He didn’t want to draw attention so he slowly joined the back of the flow of students and searched for the eye-catching lavender.
Ah. There he was.
He was in a small hallway that branched off the main one, on his phone, trying to act bored. It would be easier to talk to him since he would have to pry him out of a conversation. He slipped into the offshoot, and waited for the few students that were behind him to pass by. Hopefully the more open space would make the kid feel more comfortable than a room.
“Your name’s Shinsou right? Mind if I talk to you for a bit?”
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All Might had finally gotten those weird black things to go away. Now, he really needed to get out there, his cue had been a while ago. He felt bad, his co-workers had been stalling for a while now. He’d apologize later, there was no way he could face the public like that.
He unlocked the door and quickly ran past his supervisor, probably yelling at him for taking so long, to jump into the stadium with his signature smile.
…No one was here.
The crowd roared very loudly, yelling out questions that garbled when combined with everyone else.
Well, he was always good at charming the public. Hopefully someone would tell him what was going on.
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As soon as the students started drifting off beneath the stands, Hitoshi quickly did his best to merge with the crowd. He could not be noticed right now.
When he saw an offshoot, he went in because 1. No sane person would immediately think to check here and 2. He didn’t really want to be surrounded by other students right now.
He pretended to look at his phone. Breathe. He could breathe.
Think Hitoshi. Start from the worst possibilities and work from there. He was probably going to get expelled or maybe even charged for illegal quirk use. They would probably connect the dots by tomorrow after reviewing the Sports Festival footage. If he got expelled then his foster parents would probably get worse, no one wanted a kid like him without charges. But they might keep him for the funding since they kinda needed it. Let’s go with that since he can’t prepare for the other option right now.
If they kept him they would likely isolate him which might be better actually. He would be fed less though. Well without the hellish UA practical courses he’d have time for a job. Could he get a job? Who would even hire him… Oh! The nice old lady who worked at the cat cafe that he loved because they let him use the wifi, which was useful for underground hero fansites. She might actually hear him out since she liked him, and with that money he could buy food for himself. He had already figured out how to sneak out the window so getting there would be no problem. Okay. This would suck, but he could do it. Hopefully his new high school was the ‘we’ll leave you alone because we don’t like you’ rather than the ‘we will make sure you have a new bruise every day because we don’t like you’ type.
He opened his phone and doomscrolled so he wouldn’t have to think about the unpleasant reality of his dreams being crushed. That was for Future Not In Public Hitoshi who had the privilege of a pillow to muffle his sobs.
He was about to like a video of an orange cat not understanding what the camera was and trying to boop it with its nose, when he saw a certain cockatoo-haired hero walk in from his periphery. His worst case scenario had not accounted for being figured out that quickly. Well fuck.
“Your name's Shinsou right? Mind if I talk to you for a bit?”
Hitoshi may have looked at Present Mic like he was bored but his thoughts were currently a tornado that were bouncing off the edges of his skull like that pre-quirk era DVD logo.
“...Okay.”
The blonde man in front of him did not look at all deterred by his response. Normally the dejected stare and one word responses made people back down at least a little.
“Well, first off congratulations on getting so far in the festival! You did great out there.” He was definitely getting expelled. This was called softening the blow right? At the very least it’s a testament to how nice UA is that he was even trying to soften the blow at all. He was fine. He had come to terms with it. Could anyone come to terms with something after barely a few minutes?
“I noticed that during the awards ceremony Midnight blanked out and she said the last thing she remembered was hearing a student call out to her. She had no memory of Izuku coming out whatsoever, which is kind of hard to forget.” Yeah no kidding. The hatred in those green eyes would stick with him forever. “That lines up remarkably well with your quirk. Would you tell me if that was you?”
If he said no, the hero would probably bring up more evidence until he admitted it. Asking was probably just a formality at this point. Hitoshi just wanted this over with.
He looked to the floor. Teachers never liked when he acted like they were on equal ground. “Yes.” He prepared for the blow.
“Could you walk me through your side of things? What went through your head?” Huh? He hesitantly looked up. Present Mic looked weirdly genuine about that. Maybe if he explained himself he would get quietly transferred to another school rather than a mark on his record?
“Okay. Uh- I was just standing with everyone else and you announced the winners and the podium rised and I saw Bakugo and-” He took a breath, “the muzzle on him” he gritted the word out with force. “And I just…” He stopped the part of his brain that was trying to share his tragic backstory™. “I didn’t like seeing him like that. It made me mad. I kinda spoke without thinking. I had a half-formed plan in my mind to have Midnight untie Katsuki but then I freaked out after realizing that I actually brainwashed a hero, and then Midoriya came in so I forgot to release control on her until later. I swear, I didn’t want to have Midnight do anything other than that. And I think you know the rest.”
Okay. He did it. Was his explanation good enough? Did he make it seem like he was mad at UA? What if they just needed his side for legal reasons and they would expel him no matter what he said-
“Thank you for telling me. You might be called later in the week for a more official statement, but otherwise you’re off the hook!”
“What? B-But I used my quirk on someone. There’s no way I’m not get punished.”
“You’ll probably get a punishment, but knowing Midnight it’ll probably just be one of those questionnaires that ask if you regret what you did, or helping in the cafeteria at lunch. I’ll definitely ask you to not do that again, but I get where you’re coming from.”
Hitoshi had to be hallucinating right now. Right? (Hitoshi subtly pinched his leg. Nothing changed)
Present Mic tapped his ear (were those hearing aids or an earpiece? they kinda looked like both) and he talked to someone that was not here. “Okay. Yep, I’ll be there.”
“Sorry kid, I gotta go… Wait.” The blonde's eyes lit up with some kind of mischief. He was a bit scared now, but it was a light fear compared to earlier.
“You 1,000% can say no, but would you like to help us arrest a hero?” Hitoshi blinked. Now that was a sentence that he never thought he would hear. Like ever. It seemed his confusion was taken for hesitation by the man in front of him though.
“Uh, that probably sounded bad without context, this is the guy who did that to Bakugo. Having him stunned would make it a lot easier, but you of course don’t have too. And I’ll make sure you don’t have to deal with the press. Honestly that's my least favorite part of hero work, at least I can punch villains.”
Hitoshi held back a snort. His brain had also caught up with the concept of him helping arrest a hero and his mouth was finally functioning.
“I’ll do it.” It’d be cathartic to arrest someone who thought muzzling was okay.
And maybe, he could pretend he was a hero too.
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Katsuki was tired.
He was tired of being seen as dangerous for being himself. He was tired of all the bullshit loops it took to be a hero. He was tired of the mess of emotions in his chest whenever he looked at Deku.
He was tired of the fear he wasn’t good enough because Deku got so far with nothing, and he had so much and he still wasn’t strong enough.
Not when the Sludge Villain attacked, not now. He should be able to handle these things if he was going to be a hero. So when Deku finally woke up he decided he would talk to him, because ignoring it wasn’t working, and was also cowardly. He was not cowardly.
Recovery Girl had left to make sure all the chaos didn’t harm anyone in the stands. There was a decent amount of noise from the beeping of the monitors and the muffled roar of the audience. He could do this.
“Deku… why did you save me?”
Deku blinked. “... Why wouldn’t I?”
Katsuki hated how Deku barely had to think about his response. He fought to keep his voice from breaking, so he made it brasher. “Because it’s me. I shouldn’t need saving. Especially not from you.”
Deku’s face got more closed off. “Is that all you came here for? To say you were fine by yourself?” Fuck, this was not how this conversation was supposed to go.
“You shouldn’t have saved me, Deku.”
“What, did I make you look weak? Were you hoping to get out yourself? Those restraints would have made it so using your quirk would blow your other hand off and you know it!”
He knew. He knew all too well.
“Kacchan,” and god he still used that damn nickname even now “you may be strong but that doesn’t make you infallible. I-” Deku sucked in a breath. “I’ve analyzed you for a long time. Quirks, they may be my main focus, but I’ve had plenty of time to analyze your actions. You always do this. You just- you always act like I don’t matter! You push me away! Why?” Oh fuck Deku was crying now.
Katsuki… he wasn’t good at this. But he needed to say something. His mouth didn’t want to though. Fuck, what does he even say to that?
‘The truth’, whispered a part of himself that he normally ignored. ‘Remember?’ And for some reason his mind brought up a memory from when he was maybe 5, before Deku was diagnosed.
~
“Mama!” Izuku cried to Auntie Inko. His knobbly legs shuffled to his mom. She pulled out a band-aid and some of that cream that Katsuki couldn’t pronounce.
Katsuki scoffed. It was just a scrape on the knee. Katsuki also got scratched, and he wasn’t crying. It did hurt though, more than he would admit.
“Why are you crying? It’s not even bleeding. I wanna keep playing.”
“Katsuki, crying is one of the ways the body says you’re in pain. He’s just telling me he needs help. Everyone needs help sometimes.”
“I’m strong. I don’t need help.”
“Sweetie, being strong doesn’t mean you don’t need help.” She gently patted Izuku’s knee. “Let me see your knee hon’, it looks scratched.”
Katsuki walked over, he didn’t need help, but he supposed he could take it this time. Auntie Inko took out another bandage.
She held up the cream. “This’ll hurt a bit okay?” He nodded, this certainly wasn’t his first scrape. She spread the cream onto his knee.
“Just so you know, you don’t have to be crying to be in pain sweetie. The important thing is to tell the truth so you get the help you need. Now you too go back to playing.
~
It was one of the few memories he had where an adult had been so gentle with him, but didn’t feel demeaning.
Back then, he hadn’t cared that much about what she said. But maybe telling someone how he felt would help. He may be scared, but Bakugo wasn’t a coward. And Deku had never left him. Even when he should have.
“De-” He really should stop calling him that, “-Izuku. You-You shouldn’t have saved me because I didn’t deserve it. I never have. Not now not with the sludge villain. I-I’m sorry.” Saying that felt like unlocking something that was clogging his lungs and now with all that extra breathing room more words kept spilling out. Language was too limiting to explain the guilt slithering in his chest but it was all he had. He supposed whoever made up Japanese never anticipated someone to fuck up as badly as he did.
“I’m sorry for a lot of things. I was so stupid. I thought that being a hero would make me a good person. Because heroes are good. But if they aren’t all good then doesn’t that mean I’m still a bad person?
“I thought that saving people would fix everything, and being stronger would let me save more people, so I had to be the strongest. UA showed me that I was never the strongest, I was just surrounded by weak people. I can’t believe it took me this long to realize that the only strong person there was you, because you didn’t take my bullshit and kept going despite everything. I thought that overpowering you would make me feel better, but all I’ve done is ignore the fact that I could’ve saved you then, but I chose not to. If that doesn’t make me bad I don’t know what does. I’m sorry.” He took a breath and sat in one of the chairs. The floor had become very interesting.
“I don’t think you’re a bad person Kacchan.” He was about to disagree but D- Izuku beat him to it. “I think you’ve made bad decisions, but there’s no such thing as being a bad person or a good person. And believe me I’ve tried to be a good person, but it doesn't just come to you one day, it’s a decision you make every day. You fight for it.” He… he never thought about it like that.
“I don’t think I forgive you.” Katsuki expected that, but it still stung. “Not yet. I do want to be friends with you. But… I need you to actually change rather than just say you will.”
He looked at Izuku. “... How should I do that?” He was kind of embarrassed that he had to ask that.
“I don’t exactly have a step-by-step guide in my pocket, but hearing you call me Izuku was nice. And I think we could both benefit from the free-therapy we were offered after USJ. After that, I think we’ll just figure it out on the way.”
He could do that. Maybe Bakugo couldn’t do everything, but he could do this.
--. .-. . . -. / -... . .- -. / -.-. .- ... ... . .-. --- .-.. .
Izuku hadn’t expected Kacchan to be the first thing he saw when he woke up.
He hadn’t expected to yell at Kacchan.
He hadn’t expected that to make him feel better.
He hadn’t expected Kacchan to be vulnerable.
He hadn’t expected a new beginning with the boy to start in the nurses office.
But maybe the unexpected didn’t have to be so bad.
.- / .-.. .. - . .-. .- .-.. / ..-. ..- -.-. -.- .. -. --. / ..-. ..- --. .. - .. ...- .
After their conversation, Katsuki just waited silently mulling the events of the day through his head. He had been less observational on the podium than he would’ve liked (for a valid fucking reason) but he remembered black tentacle things coming from Deku, which he had never seen before. Now was as good a time as any to ask.
“D- Izuku? When you came out to help me, what were those tentacle-rope thingies? And why didn’t you use them during the events?”
“I… honestly I don’t know. It was the first time something like that happened. My working theory is that my quirk forcibly evolved from the amount of emotions I experienced, but I’m still not entirely sure how stockpiled energy turned into whips. The whole thing was surreal honestly. I don’t know if I can repeat it”
“Also who is Ninth?”
“...What?”
“The last thing you said was something like ‘We’ll help you for Ninth’ and your voice was, like, layered or some shit. You spoke like Ninth is apparently a person, so who?”
“I don’t remember saying anything like that, and I can’t think of anyone named that…” The nerd pulled out his notebook and wrote something down.
If it was anyone but Izuku, Katsuki might have doubted it, but he couldn’t lie for shit, especially not when it came to him. Izuku couldn’t even keep a federal secret from him, which was kind of funny now that he thought about it.
The room drifted back into silence, and the two co-existed. It was nice.
..- .-. / .-.. --- -.-. .- .-.. / .. -. ... --- -- -. .. .- -.-.
Hitoshi was feeling a lot of things as they walked to go to where Death Arms was. Nervous, furious, excited. It was weird how even though he was scared, there was nothing more he wanted to do than arrest a hero. Which was such a weird sentence out of context, but it was true. Hitoshi started to hear muffled sounds as they walked.
Mic gestured to the door. “This is it. You can still back out.”
“No. I wanna do this.”
Mic opened the door, which made the sounds much louder. Death Arms was shouting and thrashing around saying something about ‘I just did my job’ and ‘I’m gonna call my lawyer’. Hitoshi already didn’t like the guy. So he spoke his mind.
“You really call yourself a hero behaving like that? You look like a feral racoon.” He actually looked like someone had somehow caught a banshee for a pet, spoiled it, and plopped it in the room, but he didn’t want to have to explain what a banshee was to this man for him to get the insult.
“I- YOU LITTLE-” Death Arms muscles slacked in the familiar way they did whenever he controlled someone.
“Allow yourself to be arrested. Follow the officers peacefully” Death Arms walked toward the officers and put his hands behind his back. “If you bump into him he’ll break out of it” He warned the three officers. They nodded and led the eerily cooperative man behind them.
“You did great, kid! I didn’t even have to say anything! High five!” Hitoshi gave him a quick high-five.
“Is that it?”
“Pretty much. You handled that really well. I’ll have to tell Sho later.”
“Sho?”
“Oh yeah. My husband, Eraserhead, more well known as the Class 1-A teacher. Don’t tell him I told you, but he’d had his eye on ya.”
Hitoshi had only two thoughts, ‘Oh my god my favorite hero noticed me oh my god oh my god’ and ‘I guess opposites really do attract’.
-- . --. .- .--. .... --- -. . / .-.-. / . -..- - .-. --- ...- . .-. - / -...- / .-.. --- ..- -..
Hizashi was already starting to understand why Shota liked this kid. He acted like a mini version of him!
Well, Shota didn’t know that yet. Every year Shota looked at applicants who applied for both hero and general courses who had (most often) mental quirks that simply didn’t work with robots, to scout for potential at the Sports Festival. He knew the kid was probably gonna get an offer from Sho anyway since he got to the final round, but he was still going to tell his husband how well the kid did today off-camera.
He couldn’t wait for Shota’s reaction.
(And if, a couple weeks later a certain purple-haired boy got called to the teachers lounge to discuss training schedules, then that was fine by him)
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Hero News®
UA’s Response to Allegations After the Sports Festival
Written by Takashi Murie
Edited by Sansha Nito
Published April 29th, 22XX 14:00
Everyone can agree that the awards ceremony for the nationwide Sports Festival was shocking.
[image description: a blurry photo of UA student Katsuki, depicting him thrashing in his restraints, likely taken from the audience]
After many people have called for answers and explanations, we finally have an official statement from Principal Nezu to share with the public.
“In regards to the unforeseen events at the Sports Festival,
The incident occurred due to our increase in security, we had many outside heroes on the grounds to prevent villain attacks. The pro hero Death Arms was chosen to watch over the winners for a total of 15 minutes. The restraints provided were instructed only to be used in the case of an emergency to capture a villain. We failed to account that Death Arms would consider a slight to his ego an emergency. I, on behalf of UA as a whole, apologize and assure that in the future direct handling of students will be done with UA faculty present.
As for the present, UA will be suing Death Arms and his agency for child endangerment, neglect…
READ MORE
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