So far in the work day, the office was not receiving much action. A number of assistants and lower-tier heroes had to go out and help with basic needs, but Deku and I weren't called into any sort of action as of yet.

For what seemed like the billionth time today, my phone rang. I routinely picked it up. "Hello, this is Uravity from the Deku Agency. How can I help you?"

"Huh, I always knew you two nerds would end up together somehow."

"What the... h-hey! Shut up!"

Wait... I know that voice!

"Wait... Bakugo?"

"Hey, Uraraka. Put me on the line with the deserter. I've got a few words to have with him."

"Well, we're on duty right now. We can talk to you after."

Abruptly, the #13 hero rudely hung up on me, which was not out of character for him considering his past.

Although he mellowed out to a degree, Bakugo was also deeply affected by Deku's sudden disappearance. Despite them looking like rivals or even enemies at times, it was almost as if he lost a good friend of his.

Him and I were never really good friends before Deku left, but we did team up together a lot, and we bonded over our collective loss. We became friends on a more casual level after.

"Oh my god! Guys, it's the #13 hero!"

I walked out of my office to see Bakugo in his full hero costume standing in front of the reception desk, with her gawking at him like a fangirl.

"D-Dynamight! Will you please sign my-"

"Where's your boss?"

"I'm right here," I said. "I already told you, we're not available right now. Come to us in a few-"

"I'm talking about the real boss: Deku. Bring him out here."

As bold as ever, Bakugo grew since high school. He now stood at a height of 6" 2', with stature similar to a slightly shorter Endeavor, who is still the #1 hero as of now.

Fame seemed to follow him wherever he went, but he didn't give off the vibe that he enjoyed it. Reporters who were brave enough to follow him were far and few between.

Luckily for us, this meant that our agency didn't garner significant attention. At least, not right now. I'm worried a bit about an overflow of clients.

"And I already said no. I'll go tell him you stopped by, he'll probably contact you after we close."

Bakugo scoffed and started to get irritated. "I'm not leaving without giving him a piece of my mind, round-face!"

I furrowed my brow at him. "Round-face?"

"Hey, what's going on out here?" The man himself walked out of his office into the main lobby, where us three were, and where all of the attention was.

His expression quickly turned from professional to shock. "K... Kacchan?"

"DEKU!" Mini explosions spurted from his fingers. "You and I need to talk!"

"I... I would! But I'm on my way to stop a villain with a powerful physical quirk who's attacking a bank. Can I contact you when work is over?"

"I'll go with you and we'll blow him to bits. Then we can settle this right after."

Even though it's been years, Deku still seemed to be at somewhat intimidated by Bakugo. And who can blame him? The #13 hero ought to be taken seriously.

Deku shook is head, suddenly changing his expression to one of a more serious nature.

"Dynamight, I'll call you afterwards. But now, I've got a villain to attend to. See you later." He jumped away as fast as light.

Oh. Uh... nevermind. Forget what I said about being intimidated.

"HEY YOU! YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO RUN AWAY FROM ME!" Bakugo lept straight after him.

I looked up out the window and smirked. The fated battle between men continues, huh?

At the scene of the crime...

A man ran out of the bank with a large protruding piece of flesh sticking out of his back.

His quirk must be like Shoji's. All of the money must be trapped in his back, though I don't know how he fights, so I need to be careful.

"Hey, stop!" I landed directly in front of the villain at about a 15 foot distance from him. Flipping my suit into Air Force mode, I charged up a blast in my fingers. "Give up now or you'll be sorry!"

The villain smirked. "Oh, a new hero in town!" The muscles in his legs grew to be a bit larger, to which he grabbed them with both of his arms and ripped flesh from.

He then threw the pieces at me. "It'll be fun to find a way to dupe you too!"

"SMASH!" I shot two blasts from my second finger, with one piece flying onto a building wall and another onto a streetlight. Both pieces stuck to the surface after the air pressure died down.

Hm... so he can grow flesh, throw it, and it sticks. Not a bad quirk.

I need to be careful to avoid getting stuck, otherwise I won't be able to get him or the money.

"I'm sorry, but you're not going anywhere!"

The man lunged forward. Using One For All: Full Cowling to enhance my speed, I lept up and landed behind him in an instant.

Before he could react, I turned to him, lunged forward, and delivered an open-palm strike to his back. "SMASH!"

The money stored in his back flew everywhere, and I knocked him quite a ways down the sidewalk. Due to the strike, he fell forward onto his face.

Shit... how will I keep the money safe and capture the villain?

The man got up and started running away.

I heard an explosion behind meand turned around to see Kacchan instantly behind me. "I'll keep watch over the money and return it to the bank. Go get that guy!"

Kacchan opting to stay back? Is this the right person?

Regardless, I went after the guy, sprinting behind him.

"You are going to be punished for your crimes!"

"Not if you let me get away!" He took off flesh from his back which used to be holding the money and threw it back at me.

I jumped and floated above it. As I fell back down, I yelled: "Manchester... SMASH!" My foot landed completely flat on his back, which kept him on the ground.

Keeping One For All activated through my body to keep him on the ground through his struggles, I handcuffed the criminal.

Remembering the money, I instantly jolted back to see that Kacchan had it all stored up in a bag which he handed to the a bank employee. He saw me and grimaced.

"Great work," he said sarcastically. "Now we cam get to the fun part."

Back at the office...

Returning to my desk, Uraraka saw that I was back and jumped up to greet me. "Deku! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

"What happened?"

"Oh, it was just a bank robber who had a good getaway quirk. How come they called me in? He wasn't so bad."

Uraraka gasped and smiled. "Deku, last time they called in a hero, he got away! So they called in us! Good job getting him down this time!"

"Thanks," I said. "If it wasn't for Kacchan, I would have left the money unattended."

"Oh, speaking of, did you two talk?"

"No, of course not. I'm on the job. I did agree to talk to him after a fair bit of yell-arguing."

"I was going to say. You got back rather quickly."

"Thanks for keeping watch over the office while I was gone," I said with a smile. "I'll be on my office if you need anything."

As I walked back to my desk, I wondered why Kacchan was so upset. I know he's always been angry, but this time in particular felt odd.

He chilled out to a degree that most saw him as an Endeavor type. Not angry, but just not nice. Today, he seemed almost like usual.

Is he really that upset that I left? Didn't he hate me?

Years Prior...

"DIE!" screamed Bakugo, who exploded a large chunk of concrete into the air, sending numerous large pieces of debris into the sky across the training ground.

Clasping my hands together, I activated my quirk, made the strongest jump I could, and lept to the a piece of that was between the largest and closest I could find.

Touching that piece, I activated my quirk once more and lept to another large piece that was falling down.

My goal in this training exercise is to prevent as much collateral damage as I can. Bakugo will be fine, but this is training for the real thing!

Grabbing another piece and floating it, I jumped once again to another piece, but they had started falling at this point. One chunk fell and hit me downwards.

I started plummeting with the rock downwards.

"Dammit, round-face! Why does this keep happening!?"

Bakugo lept up and blew up the chunk above me from the side, leaving no heat or debris to damage me. I landed in the ground with a thud, which hurt, causing me to release the chunks I was holding.

"You idiot! It happened again!"

I was just trying to collect my breath. It's fine, Ochako. Just take a breather... and... don't...

Oh no...

My face felt flushed and I ran to the trash can to throw up yet again, to Bakugo's disgust.

"You have tunnel vision. Watch where you're going so that something doesn't hit you out of the air. You're vulnerable when you jump like that."

"S-Sorry..." I said, still trembling from my sick stomach. He handed me a water bottle and sat down on the side of the training ground.

"Want me to ask Cementoss to refill us on concrete?"

"I think I'm good for the day."

"Oh, come ON!" He said. "I won't keep training with you if you always quit when we're finally making some progress."

My stomach feels so gross... this is the third time I've thrown up this session...

I groaned and clenched my stomach. There's no food in my body... I should probably stop and eat something light.

Bakugo noticed and sighed. "Fine, I'll let you off easy today, on one condition."

I looked up in excitement. "You have to tell me what happened to Deku."

EEK!

"Nevermind, let's get back to training."

My attempt and standing was stopped by Bakugo, who grabbed my arm and pulled me back into a sitting position. "You are so indecisive."

"Look who's talking!" I yelled back at him in response. He seemed a bit surprised. "I'm sorry... I just don't want to talk about it."

"You really don't know, do you?"

"No. It's been a month since that happened. I assumed we were just going to move on and stop talking about it."

He stomped his foot into the ground. "How can I stop? The asshole really got one fluke victory and decided to high-tail it?"

"Bakugo, you're the strongest kid in the class. Maybe even the whole school. And you feel the need to complain about your one loss?"

His expression was growing exponentially angrier by the second. Although I was afraid of him as most were, I didn't care much about his temper anymore.

"I'm a loser that lost to a FUCKING dropout like Deku! How am I supposed to accept being the strongest of this school of extras?"

Excuse me?!

"A school of extras?! Like me?"

"No, like-"

"YES. Like me. If you want to talk to me about something so sensitive at least be somewhat respectful. I'm going home."

My hands were shaking from a myriad of feelings. Nausea, anger, sorrow, shame, I couldn't pin it down to one thing. I turned to walk away.

"HEY! You get back here! We had an agreement!"

Responding instead to walk faster, I heard running footsteps.

I can't take this anymore...

My heart started to feel immense pain. Nausea and stomach pains were already there. I started to run.

I felt a strong grab on my arm which stopped me in my tracks. "I'm faster than you!"

"Leave me ALONE!"

"You've gotta know something!" he said, sounding somewhat desperate. "Weren't you two a thing?"

I yanked my arm away and continued walking. Tears were starting to come down.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Finally losing my patience, I turned around and slapped him.

...

He looked up at me with an angry look until he saw my face wet with tears and me trying to forcibly hide my gritting teeth.

"Ah! Uh..." He seemed very unfamiliar with the situation. "S-Sorry..."

"Why the hell do you even CARE? You weren't even friends; you just gave him shit for the year and a half he was here!"

I wiped my nose and continued. "And no, we weren't dating. I tried to tell him I loved him after our freshman year but it essentially got shut down. so I just hoped we could hold out for a bit longer until he got comfortable with it, since he probably knew too."

My vision was so blurred at this point that I couldn't see my adversary's face anymore, so I looked down.

"But NOPE! He left RIGHT when everyone else had to deal with the same loss as he did! He won the Sports Festival, signed his papers, and left without a word, like we were never even friends!"

I took a break to catch my breath between my crying, then continued.

"It's just..."

I fell onto my knees and covered my face, practically forgetting that one of my classmates was right in front of me.

...

For what seemed like minutes, but was probably only about twenty seconds, I just cried there. Bakugo didn't respond, so I expected that he had left, but right when I was about to look up, I felt his hand lightly placed on my head.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you that far."

I heard his footsteps walking past me, so I got up and followed from a short distance behind him, rubbing my eyes and sniffling.

We didn't talk for a while, just going back to the dorms and hoping nobody would walk by, which luckily no one did.

"He..." I looked up to listen, but he struggled to get out what he wanted to say. "He was... He motivated me."

Huh?

"He always ripped off my moves and stuff. And we kept being put in competitive settings."

I wouldn't say he ripped you off as much as he took after you, but...

"And he always managed to clutch shit out in the end. That is until the Sports Festival where he swept everybody. You too."

That's true...

"I finally had a real challenge. It sucked after reigning over him my whole life, but it was a challenger. And then..."

"He just left."

"... Yeah."