AN: Hi there! Hope you're all having a nice day!
I would like to sincerely thank anyone who's made it this far... I know it's only day 4/30, but it means a lot to me.
Right now, I'm trying very hard not to say self deprecating things about this chapter and how unnaturally short it is compared to the kinds of incredibly wordy things I tend to write. I wrote out a whole chapter on the actual fight between Midoriya+Uraraka/Bakugou+Iida, but then I realized that most of it is exactly the same as what happened in the manga and I did not want to waste anybody's time, so here we are - a short chapter that gets emotional real fast.
Chapter 4: It's Always About Me
"How did you defeat me?"
Bakugou faced away from Deku, but her hesitance was palpable.
"You're quirkless and… you're nothing to me. How did you defeat me?" His voice was low and dangerous, his shoulders hunched. "You only win by outsmarting me, or cheating - I don't know how you got into U.A. in the first place. It's like you could read my attacks even before I knew I would use them myself."
He waited for a response. There was something more to her success, beyond just her observations. In All Might's class, Bakugou had tried a new technique: a smokescreen attack that allowed him to get behind his opponent and blast them in the back. Somehow, somehow, Deku had predicted his actions when he had tried to attack her. It was simply unbelievable to him - he had never pulled a stunt like this before, and yet Deku had pivoted to punch him square in the jaw after he had gotten around her.
"Things are changing. I… I have never used my quirk, Kacchan, but I know it's there." She chose her words carefully. She was on edge, and Bakugou could tell she was heavily filtering what came out of her mouth. "I will be a hero, just like you."
"Ha! This isn't about you, Deku! I'm better than you! You are nothing compared to me!" He wasn't sure what she meant, exactly. She had never used a quirk because she didn't have one.
"It's ALWAYS about me, Kacchan!" Bakugou furrowed his brow, a little taken aback. He hadn't heard the usually patient Deku raise her voice like this before.
He turned to face her, angry sneer across his face.
"Don't you see that? You scream at me, and you hate me, and you complain about me, and you want me to leave you alone - everything you do is about me, Kacchan!"
A strange feeling washed over Bakugou as he looked at Deku. She had her recovering legs planted firmly on the ground, and even with her arm in a sling she seemed so intimidating. It was unlike anything Bakugou had experienced before, as though angry and afraid. Almost as though his stomach dropped a few inches, and he found that tears were welling in his eyes as he looked back at his childhood acquaintance.
"I don't know why you're like this, Kacchan, but I didn't do anything to you." Deku finally took a deep breath. "I never asked you to hate me. I follow you because you are the image I have in my head of a hero. You are talented and successful… and I want to be like you. That's why I follow you around. But you know what? It's not worth it anymore. I… shouldn't want to be like you."
Deku turned to go back inside without another word, but Bakugou could see her shoulders shaking. She didn't mean that… she couldn't have meant it. Besides, it's not like he cared.
A tear rolled down his cheek, soon accompanied by silent sobs that coursed throughout his whole body as he ran for U.A.'s front gates. He didn't need her. He didn't need anybody.