This is what it has been like to be Katsuki Bakugou.
There was one day, one moment, in which everything changed.
That one unsightly character with the chicken legs and the meek demeanor, the one that spoke to you in a timid voice and could barely hold eye contact.
He survived a bullet.
"Go visit him in the hospital, he's your friend isn't he?" That's what Bakugou's mother urged him to do.
Yet Bakugou was far too proud for that.
That little pipsqueak was tough, and it pissed him off. Had he been feigning weakness the whole time? Meanwhile he had been captured by a third-rate villain. Scared and trapped within the confines of a slime monster, unable to break free and slowly suffocating to death….Deku had actually survived a bullet that was inches from ending his life. He not only pulled through, but he made a full recovery. He walked as if nothing had happened, talked as if nothing had happened, and looked as if nothing had happened.
Meanwhile, Katsuki was drowning in a cesspool of vulnerability. He believed with all of his heart and his soul that he was special. His quirk was extremely powerful, a quirk with such raw destructive force had not been seen since Enji Todoroki, also known as Endeavor. He knew nothing but praise, and this positive feedback loop birthed his superiority complex.
Yet, he had been humbled by a slime villain.
Before he could fully process what had happened to him, another blow was struck.
The death of Deku.
He didn't know why it had hit him so hard. At first he chalked it up to shock. Surely it was due to the suddenness of it, and nothing more. With time, he would heal and he would move on.
He could not.
"Why?!"
Tears welled up in his eyes.
"Why am I crying over this?!"
Would he….miss Deku? Did he care about him?
It was confusing. He didn't know how to make heads or tails of his feelings. So, he lived his life in a haze of sorts. His classmates noticed how somber he was. It was unexpected to say the least. The school bully and bad boy took the death of a boy he tormented harder than anyone else. Some of his classmates turned against him because of this - in their minds they believed that Bakugou simply missed having a punching bag around.
Thus, one of his own lackeys attempted to attack him after class on the school grounds. Perhaps he smelled blood so to speak, he sensed Katsuki's vulnerability and he wanted to be the new top dog. So he pounced on him….
And Katsuki took the beating - like Deku would.
As he laid on the ground bruised, staring up at the wild blue yonder, he couldn't help but ask himself….
"Did you see that, Deku?"
He had heard that Deku's mother was in a coma due to an attempted overdose. She was heartbroken, and it was Katsuki's mother that urged him to at least write her a note for well wishes.
"Sure, I'll do that," He said. He was never good at being sentimental, but he tried as hard as he could in the memory of a boy that he hated to admit that he missed.
When he entered U.A. it was more of the same really. He lived every day in a fog, and his classmates didn't know what to make of him. He didn't speak much, and his gaze was sullen just a tad. Yet when it came time to compete, he was always fired up. It was as if a switch had been flipped, but as soon as the competition died down, so did his temper.
He found himself becoming closer with certain classmates such as the brash and rambunctious Eijiro, who was fond of Katsuki's own fierce determination in the heat of battle.
Their bond was cemented during an unexpected attack on the school grounds by a group called the League Of Villains. An all powerful beast known as a Nomu ran roughshod on the unsuspecting students, and yet Katsuki stepped up to the plate to give it his all to slow down a beast that he knew was far more powerful than him. Inspired by his determination, Eijiro took a cue from Katsuki and they teamed up to hold off the monster until All Might arrived to save the day.
As the two students laid on the ground badly beaten, bloodied, and bruised, they managed to smile at one another in spite of their shared pain. Or perhaps….it was because of it.
From then on the two of them became inseparable.
There was also an unexpected addition to their brotherhood….
A girl named Ochaco Uraraka.
He noticed that she seemed to hold the two of them in high esteem, almost as if she was in awe of their bond. At first Katsuki found her stares annoying, yet when he fought her at the sports festival he found that she had that same passion to win that he had - and he respected her for it.
Because of that, he went all out on her….
And won.
Eijiro was split on Katsuki's decision to go harsh on her. He felt that a man should never hit a lady, but he also believed that a man should always give it his all. It was quite the conundrum, but Katsuki answered his question for him.
"Would a villain pull their punches on her?"
That was all that was needed to be said.
The final battle was between Katsuki Bakugou and Shoto Todoroki. They were the two favorites, and all eyes were on them. As expected, the battle was fierce. Katsuki's explosion was used in a strategic manner to whittle away Shoto's ice. Even when Shoto went on the defensive and attempted to erect an ice wall, Katsuki countered by using his quirk to accelerate his movement, making him harder to hit.
His goal was to close the distance on Shoto, who was well aware of Katsuki's plan. No side wanted to give an inch, but one miraculous maneuver changed the trajectory of the fight. Katsuki spun around like a top and used his Quirk to enhance his destructive force as well as his terminal velocity. In essence, he turned himself into a makeshift tornado of terrible power. He shredded through Shoto's ice defense like paper mache, but through the torrent of destruction Shoto heard his ferocious classmate snarl at him - "Use your full power!"
Shoto was taken aback.
So Katsuki had known that he held back his true power….
Deep down Shoto wanted to obtain victory, but it would be a hollow one if it came at the cost of his soul. At least, that was how he saw it.
So, he didn't unleash the inferno.
And thus, he lost.
Katsuki was furious.
To win like that was no win at all.
He had to be restrained by All Might during the medal ceremony, and a muzzle was placed on his visage. He had been practically frothing at the mouth, but he couldn't help it. Deep down he wanted to be the best, he wanted to win, and for the person that he marked out as his biggest rival to not take their fight seriously rubbed him the wrong way.
Yet, there was a time that he did see it in action.
After the festival Katsuki became an intern to Best Jeanist. He wanted to change Katsuki's "bad boy" image so to speak. He wanted to dress the hot-headed youth akin to his own likeness, and he wanted him to act like a gentleman. Unfortunately, he had been barking up the wrong tree. Katsuki snuck away from him one night, and that was when he ran into the menace that had been plaguing the streets….
Hero Killer Stain.
He was in the middle of hurting another pro hero, but Katsuki intervened. Stain was taken aback at first by Katsuki's offensive fury. The sports festival champion used his explosions to maneuver about the air with minimal effort, and it made him hard to track. Still, Stain had guile and experience on his side, and thus he managed to knick Katsuki with one of his blades.
"I don't like killing kids…." Stain began to say. "...But you have no future as a hero."
Stain liked the blood off of his knife and Katsuki collapsed onto the ground in a heap. He couldn't move, and he didn't know why. Thankfully he was saved in the knock of time by Shoto and Tenya.
Tenya was out for blood since his brother had been hurt by Stain, so he attacked recklessly and he got in the way of Shoto's efforts to support him with long distance ice attacks. Katsuki was enraged at Tenya's lack of composure, so he barked at Shoto to use his ice Quirk in order to separate Tenya from Stain while using his fire Quirk to keep Stain on the defensive. However, Shoto was apprehensive to use his fire Quirk, and finally, Katsuki snapped at him.
"If you won't use your Quirk to save a classmate then what good are you?!"
Those words were the spark that ignited the flame. Finally, he unleashed the full power of his Quirk, and it was just in time too, as Katsuki managed to regain movement. Katsuk's first move was simple - slap some sense into Tenya while Shoto held off Stain. Katsuki grabbed Tenya by his collar and yelled at him at the top of his lungs -
"You're supposed to let me be the hot-headed one! Stop trying to make me be the voice of reason!"
And just like that, Tenya snapped out of his stupor.
The trio engaged upon Stain and used a combination attack to bring him down. Shoto used his ice to cool off the radiators on Tenya's legs. While he boosted himself towards Stain, Katsuki fired off an explosion that was akin to nitro to boost Tenya that much further. He then hit Stain across the head with a roundhouse kick. This maneuver, the "Super Recipro Extend", as he called it, was enough to knock Stain out.
Thankfully they managed to put an end to Stain's rampage, and although they were scolded by the Chief Of Police at the hospital the next day, he decided to let them off of the hook for the sake of fairness.
Katsuki had gotten his first taste of being a true hero and he quite enjoyed it. He also learned a valuable lesson, one that he would never admit. It is true that a hero must strive to win - however that doesn't mean that a hero has to win alone.
His classmates saved him, and it didn't hurt his pride nor his ego. In fact, he even thanked them, which shocked them to their core.
"If you tell anyone that I thanked you two you're both dead!" Katsuki barked at Shoto and Tenya.
Still, in the back of his mind he thought about the little pipsqueak that preached about being a hero and how Katsuki was nothing more than a bully.
"If you keep picking on people, then I'll never forgive you!"
Tch! Katsuki wiped the unpleasant memory from his mind.
"I did what you would do. So do you forgive me now?"
Asking for forgiveness from his deceased friend.
That was what it was like to be Katsuki Bakugou.
Bonus chapter! Originally I wanted to include this within the climax, but I thought that it would be inappropriate. Consider this a gift of sorts, as the characterization of Bakugou was a pretty important thing for me to cover, at least in my opinion, since it will set up what is to come later on down the road. This chapter might be the only one of its kind, but if you would like more "bonus" chapters then please let me know.
That aside, work has been great even with the hectic shutdown. I was gone for a little over a month but now I will finally be returning home to spend time with my fiance. Again if you would like to support my work you can check my profile which has a link to my blog site. If you have any issues getting to it then let me know.
Again, thank you so much for the comments and reviews/critiques of my work. It encourages me to keep going and to one day write the novel that I have planned on finishing.
Next chapter will be the climax of the arc and the turning point of the story.
Stay tuned!
