This Quirk Nonsense Ch. 5
Equivalent exchange.
What do you exchange for your body to be 100, 1000 times stronger than the average human? What do you sacrifice for you to be a hybrid of a bird and a human?
He still didn't understand how parts of the world can still be constricted by the laws of physics that Newton found, but also be able to break the limits of human abilities through quirks.
There must be an undiscovered law of physics that can explain all of this quirk nonsense. But how should he research this?
The I-Island thing seemed like a good place to start some experimenting but this basically felt like a stupid extracurricular that elementary schoolers did to get into a good middle school and high school.
The blond boy sighed.
"Is there a problem, Bakugo-san?" A concerned voice rang out next to him.
Katsuki turned his gaze to his classmate-slash-friend(?) in his I-Island Class. The Yaoyorozu girl was pretty smart and reminded Katsuki of Izuki as they both wanted to please others. But he would rather have his pseudo-little brother in this class with him—Izuku was definitely smart enough to do so anyway.
Giving a small shrug, Katsuki replied back, "Nothing much. I just think that I should leave this program soon."
Yaoyorozu stood up abruptly. "What? Bakugo-san! You can't do that! You're the smartest and most accomplished student in this class!"
"But what are we even doing other than solving science problems? I lasted an entire year because I thought that the program was going to go into more detail about quirks but we're not doing anything remotely related to that."
The black-haired girl grabbed the blond-haired boy's hands quickly to his surprise.
"Bakugo-san, I assure you, we will definitely be able to learn more about quirks later in this program. Please do not quit midway."
Katsuki was a bit taken aback and flustered. Why was this girl so adamant about him staying in this program? It wasn't like he helped her anyways. He was taking the number one space from her and the kids he has seen in school would try to drag down anyone in front of them in order to get first.
But… he guessed there were some good kids, just like his brother and just like this girl in front of him.
Katsuki gave a small smirk that he normally never showed.
"Fine, I'll just stay until then."
Yaoyorozu smiled back.
.
"I'm thinking of leaving the program," Katsuki said a year later. "We didn't even learn more about quirks this year anyways."
"What?! No, Bakugo-san! You can't! Please just stay one more year!"
.
"I'm definitely leaving this year," Katsuki muttered under his breath.
"Bakugo-san!"
Yaoyorozu definitely has super hearing on top of her creation quirk. Katsuki knew it for sure.
.
He stayed in the program even until middle school.
What is up with that Yaoyorozu girl's ability to influence him like this? He was pretty sure her quirk was a creation quirk, not a quirk that could influence his actions.
.
Katsuki is in his first year of middle school when he saw the Number Two Hero that Izuku loved to gush about when a villain attacked Mustafu Mall.
He is not impressed.
Rather, he is horrified—outraged—disgusted.
The Number Two Hero's apathetic attitude to the collateral damage made the blonde feel sick to his bones. The smirk on his face, the haughty attitude—it was something that he felt was so familiar yet even more wrong than the explosive sparks produced from Katsuki's own hands.
Hero for the people, my ass, Katsuki thought with disgust.
But the most horrific, unimaginable thing was that the civilians were cheering for a man who looked so self-righteous while the stench of burning flesh seeped through the streets.
Did quirks make people's brains abnormal too?
He wasn't quite sure of that but he knew one thing was for sure.
That hero—Endeavor—didn't deserve those flames.
.
Katsuki is in his second year of middle school when he contemplates burning the book that he has still not cracked in the past eight years.
Ah, Bakugo Katsuki? Yeah, he's a genius. Once in a generation, I would say.
His quirk is very strong… not to mention his intelligence. I wouldn't be surprised to see him be as strong as All Might in the future.
Katsuki ignored the same whispers that he heard all his life. His strength. His powers. His intelligence. People always had something to say about Katsuki, ranging from awe to contempt.
To be honest, like any other human, Katsuki felt smug and a smirk tugged at the corners of his lips when he heard them call the boy a genius.
But just as quickly, Katsuki snorted and huffed with self-loathing.
How could he be a genius but still be stuck on studying the same fucking book for almost a decade?
The archaic German cookbook taunted at him for most of the past decade but no matter what Katsuki tried, he couldn't crack the code. But there was definitely a code. After all, the author taunted at him with every code Katsuki tried.
Izuku looked at his brother with an understanding frown. The blonde would pick up the book at least once a month, write out dozens of pages of notes, and yell and grumble in frustration and throw it in a dark corner. And then he would pick up the book again and this cycle continued for many, many years.
.
"What if… it's not the words, but the placement of the words?"
Katsuki looked at Izuku with a raised brow, signaling him to go on.
"Like, look—you told me these two words," Izuku pointed to a word and a word in the left corner of the page. "This one means to bind and the other one means wood right? But you also told me these two words combined into something when they are together. So connect these two words together with a line. Oh, but I think some of the words can aren't completely linear lines. Maybe circular instead? I'm sure there are a lot of filler words that don't make up a combination.
At those words, something clicked in Katsuki's mind and he quickly got out a thin piece of paper to draw over the page without writing directly on it.
And soon enough, circles, lines, rectangles, and triangles filled the page to make a diagram encased in a giant circle.
A gasp escaped both Katsuki and Izuku's mouths.
"Izu… YOU'RE A FUCKING GENIUS!" Katsuki exclaimed and abruptly hugged the dark-haired boy.
"Oomph!" Izuku felt air being knocked out of his lungs but still continued to smile. He was proud and overjoyed that he was able to help Katsuki with the project he had been working on for the past eight years.
"Wait! I just remembered!" Katsuki let go of his friend and ran up to his room, almost kicking the door open with excitement. He quickly ran toward his drawers filled with trinkets that he collected over time and searched through it excitedly. And when he finally found the item, he held it up with even more excitement and exclaimed, "Aha!"
It had been a while since Katsuki stared at the pendant that the haggard old man gave him a few years ago. He knew that the pattern of circles, lines, and rectangles must have some meaning but he couldn't figure it out for the life of him, so he just threw it aside for the past several years.
.
"Wait, Izu, I don't think that the words that we didn't use are fillers. Rather, the words that are left seem to be descriptions… but they don't exactly make sense."
"What do you mean, nii-san?"
"It says this circle is for making paper into wood. But what kind of thing would…" And Katsuki grabbed the paper with both hands and a spark of energy emitted from the paper.
Katsuki threw the offending item to the ground in shock and pulled Izuku back, both boys slightly frightened at the sudden burst of energy.
And when the energy subsided, they stared at the tiny wooden bear that replaced the paper in amazement.
Author's Note:
Sorry for the long hiatus! School took up a bunch of time and I have no creativity while in school.
Thank you for reading!