"If you want to be a hero so bad, take a leap of faith off the roof and hope for a quirk in your next life!"
Izuku Midoriya was having a bad day.
"I cannot simply say 'you can become a hero even without power'. I'm sorry- if you want to help people, you could be a police officer. They're often made fun of, but it is a noble occupation nonetheless."
A really bad day, and as he walked absentmindedly from the building where All Might had forced him to accept reality, the sound of explosions brought him back to the present. He stared blankly at the crowd surrounding the crime scene before joining it, even knowing that none of it mattered. Izuku nudged to the front, despite his negative thoughts. There was no point, he couldn't be a hero, so why-
The sludge villain!
Izuku stared on in horror as the crowd's whispers told the story.
A hostage situation.
A junior high schooler.
Ongoing for minutes, and Izuku knew from personal experience how horrible the suffocation was.
All Might had been chasing the villain, so where was he now?
It's all my fault, Izuku thought, hands clasped over his mouth as tears welled in his eyes. I'm sorry, surely a hero will-
All thoughts ended as Katsuki Bakugo's fearful eyes met the crowd, and skinny legs ran forward on red high-tops before his mind could even process the situation. Izuku could barely hear the heroes yelling, could barely hear his own thoughts as to why he would jump into such a situation. He threw the contents of his backpack, striking true on the sludge villain's eye. He saw Katsuki take precious breaths as the villain flinched enough to free his mouth, but couldn't hear the boy screaming at him to look for the strike coming from above. Izuku felt the pain, a sharp crack in the back of his skull as the sludge struck, enhanced by his classmate's explosion, and then knew no more. Izuku knew true nothing, true death. He didn't hear the screams of the crowd, the gasps of the heroes powerless to help, or the lamented wailing of his classmate still stuck in the sludge.
And then, there was light- but it wasn't peaceful. It was hot and painful, and Izuku could feel fire in his veins as he burned, burned, burned, and as he regained conscious thought, he couldn't help but wonder if there really was a hell and tell himself that he deserved it.
Izuku stepped forward on shaky legs as he burned- When did I get up?- and opened his eyes to see Katsuki Bakugo, free from the sludge villain, staring at him with wide eyes, jaw dropped, and a flushed face. He looked taller than before, but considering the circumstances, Izuku knew he wasn't in the right mind to make such observations.
"Kacchan…" He spoke with a voice higher pitched than he remembered before collapsing forward, unconscious to the world around him.
Katsuki Bakugo was having a fucking shitty day. First, he had to deal with that Quirkless shit nerd Deku admitting he had the gall to try and compete with him by applying to the most prestigious hero program in the country. Then after putting the nerd in his place, he let his big mouth run and said some really fucked up stupid shit- because as shitty as Deku was, even he didn't deserve to have someone tell him to go kill himself. Yeah, he fucked up, but Deku was an optimist and there was no way he'd actually go through with it.
Until he did.
And that was after Katsuki was only temporarily immobilized by that sludge bastard (because there was no fucking way he would've lost to sewage shit). Fuck off, he had the situation under control. Or so he told himself- because if he really did, then he wouldn't have just watched Deku's skull get crushed and blown up by the sludge villain with the help of his own quirk.
Shit.
And then, in the middle of his screaming (because he doesn't fucking cry, dammit), Izuku's mangled corpse blew the fuck up in a great pillar of fire. It sure as hell wasn't from his quirk, which smelled sweet from nitroglycerin because this smelled like ash and fire and burning flesh- fuck! This shit burned hot, and Katsuki could see the sludge villain steaming and feel himself sweating from the heat. Perfect.
With the villain distracted- from burning or the physical display of it all, Katsuki could give two shits, he let forth the biggest explosion he could from the palms of his hands, blowing the sludge villain apart and finally getting free. And as if the situation couldn't get any more horrific, Deku's body stood on its own and still on fucking fire and… and...
Bakugo felt his cheeks heat up and gaped with wide eyes because the last time he saw Deku in the nude was after gym class and he was pretty fucking sure he didn't have tits and a… a…
SHIT.
Girl-Deku, what the actual fuck, opened his-her eyes and stepped out of the fire before she spoke in a definitively female voice,
"Kacchan…"
And then promptly fainted and fell forward. Bakugo had a split second to catch her before she fell on her face. He did his best to glare while holding a naked body at the gawking heroes on the sidelines before adding his own commentary.
"Will you fuckers actually do your god damn job and help us out here?!"