Welcome back to another chapter!

10 months later

. . .

Bakugo sat on his bed, absentmindedly tapping at his phone screen. His eyes seemed to be looking through the device rather than at it. He sighed, his head resting on his hand which was supported by his elbow. His back was starting to hurt from the slouched position, but he was oblivious to it. Over the course of 10 months, Bakugo had fallen deeper into the pit of regret. He was still that annoying bastard with anger issues on the outside, but on the inside, something was eating away at his personality and his motivation to become a hero. He barely noticed it, though, unless he thought long and hard about his feelings. He switched hands, holding his black-cased phone with his left hand now and wiping his sweaty palm on his jeans, not taking his eyes off of whatever he was doing.

In two days the entrance exam would take place. The moment he'd been anxiously waiting for since the moment he found out that he too could become a hero, bathing in fame and glory every day. He never thought about being anything else. It had been his focal point until the Deku situation. But he'd pushed down the memory, instead now looking toward the future. But inside, he could never forget what he had done. He'd always known-no, thought- that the annoying green-haired nerd would be there to challenge his obvious entitlement to a position in UA. He refused to admit it to himself, but he would have rather pushed Izuku to the bottom of the scoreboard than kill him. He rubbed his spiky hair, the tips crunching a little from the dried hair gel that coated it. He flicked a translucent fleck of it off his finger, cursing under his breath. Bakugo then slammed his phone on his bedspread, storming down the stairs. His mother was gone at a gathering or something with her friends, so Katsuki had the house to himself until his father came home from work, which would be in a few hours. He glanced at the clock. It was 3:57 in the afternoon. His dad worked late, from 2:00 to 7:30, unless he worked overtime. Mitsuki would most likely be gone for 4 hours at least, most likely coming home after even his father did. When she got together with friends, she was gone for hours on end. Bakugo yanked open their front door, slamming it behind him, not bothering to lock it.

As he strode down the street with his hands and his pockets and head down, he bumped into a green-haired woman. She was shorter than him and a little plump. As she turned around, he immediately reeled backward a couple of paces.

Inko Midoriya.

He felt his muscles tense and he bit the inside of his lip, tasting blood leaking from the tear in the skin. Inko's face wore that of an empty shell, ripped of personality. He figured the blank face was from her loss of her son.

He stood, staring stupidly at her. Inko sniffed, looking up at him.

"Katsuki Bakugo?" she asked timidly. A sudden flare of hope lit her face. "Do you happen to know if Izuku ran off? I know you two are friends, so I figured he might have told you." She glanced down at her feet, shifting them awkwardly. "If you'd known already, of course, about him and his disappearance. Ten months ago he just... left. I'm just so worried about him. He's an honorable son. He'd have told someone if he were going to run off. I don't know if I did something to him or if he got into an accident." She wiped her reddening eyes, face flushing.

Katsuki continued staring at her, Deku's leap playing on repeat through his head. He finally got a hold of himself and muttered weakly, "I-I don't know. He just disappeared. I'm sorry, he was a good kid." The teenager was unusually short with his reply. His lie would have been smooth if it didn't carry a note of guilt, but Inko didn't seem to notice. She must be lost in thought or have detected a twinge of sadness in his voice instead of his true emotions.

"Oh." She paused. "I'm sorry for bothering you," the woman finally spoke. "Carry on." She rushed off before Bakugo could stop her. He kicked the sidewalk, wanting to let out a yell, but he didn't. He'd wait until later.

The boy took a full lap around the block before stopping at a gas station to get some chips and a coke. His stomach was rumbling a little and he didn't think he'd be able to eat the boxed American crap his mom had decided to try tonight. Snacks would have to do. He walked inside, passing a few 7th-year girls giggling beside the vending machine in the corner. He scoffed, pushing past them to grab some hot wing-flavored chips on a rack beside them. He spun around, turning a blind eye to their stares. Bakugo grabbed a bottle of plain Coca-Cola on his way to the checkout, slapping his purchases on the counter. The cashier's eyebrow rose in mild surprise, but the young man, probably in his twenties, swiped the barcodes over the scanner anyway. Katsuki drummed his fingers on the counter, putting a look of boredom on his face. Slow as ever, the clerk set his items back on the counter.

"Would you like your food in a bag?" the curly black-haired man said meekly. Bakugo simply snatched the snacks off the table, stalking out the door where he had come in a few moments ago. He tore open the bag while yanking the cap of the coke with his teeth, chugging it down and stuffing the chips in his mouth, crunching on the crispy, orange-powdered spiciness. He relished the burning feeling on his tongue and tramped proudly back home. He'd only been out for 20 minutes and would have plenty of time before his mom and dad would come home. He wasn't looking forward to that.

As he approached his home, he spotted something odd. The door. It was open just a hair, but Bakugo noticed it right off the bat. He jogged up to it, examining it suspiciously before shrugging. He didn't care if someone had peeked inside. There wasn't anything interesting inside, anyway. He chugged down the last drops of his drink as he kicked the door shut with his foot, this time locking it behind him. He set the empty bottle on the counter and shoveled the remaining crumbs of chips in his mouth and tossed it in the garbage can, rinsing his hands off in the sink. He flicked his wet fingers a few times and glanced out the window only to see something terribly unsettling.

Not unsettling. Plain freaky. Chilling. It sent a cold thrill of pure freaking terror down his spine.

Written on the glass in bloodred lipstick or marker were four words. Terrifying words.

"Look in your room."

He swallowed, his leg muscles pulling him up the stairs before he realized it. He tripped on the top step, falling on his shoulder. Katsuki stumbled to his feet, pulling open the door to his room.

Inside was something more terrifying than what he'd seen written in the glass. Laid out on his bed was...

Izuku Midoriya's last outfit.

Washed, dried, everything.

Bakugo's heart was pounding in his head. He could feel the rapid beating like a hammer against his skull. His hands were shaking from the adrenaline pulsing through his body as he stared, horrified, at the clothing on his bed.

Someone, something, knew about him. About the incident, rather. His stomach churning, Kacchan reached across the bed and pulled the shirt closer, running his hands along the seams of the fabric. He didn't know what to do about all of this. But he knew he had to destroy the evidence.

Bakugo dashed down the steps three at a time, grabbing a wet rag and washing off the red lettering on the window, rinsing it out before tossing it into the sink. He dashed up the stairs again, pulling the outfit off his bed and a piece of scrap paper with a few math problems worked out on the back in his chicken-scratch manuscript. He scribbled a note on the black side, tearing it off. It read:

"Found this. Thought you might want to have it. -Kacchan"

He leaped down the stairs yet again, bounding out the door.

He dashed as fast as he could down the sidewalks, avoiding the disapproving stares of the older folks that lived in his neighborhood. Bakugo skidded to a stop in front of Midoriya's house, panting as he quickly set the outfit and the note on the porch right in front of the entrance. He spun around and ran back, sliding back inside his house and locking the door immediately.

Bakugo sighed, plopping down on the couch in his living room. He stared in disbelief at the wall, trying to digest all of what he had seen. The words, the clothes, Izuku's mother... It didn't make sense. Who besides his friends would know about this? He knew that one of his buds was on vacation and the other two didn't have to balls to pull a prank like this on him.

As he sat thinking about all of this, it dawned on him.

The yellow eyes. They knew.

Thank you so much for reading. I really appreciate your time. This was SuPeR fun to write. Yes, I know I say that about literally every chapter, but I especially liked this one. Even more than the last one. I hope you enjoyed it too! Make sure to leave a comment :)

Special thanks to those of you who have reviewed!