It's one of my earliest try at a one shot, a full metal alchemist crossover. I almost forgot I had it until I found in a dark corner of my drive. Enjoy
Equivalent Exchange
"What's going on with Uraraka lately?" asked Sero out of the blue.
He was sitting with Kirishima, Ashido, and Hanagakure at a fast-food restaurant not far from school. It was a few weeks after the USJ, just the day before their homeroom teacher announced that the Sports Festival will be in two weeks. They decided to get together, kick back a little before diving into training with intensity. They tried to get the others to join them, but most of them had other commitments for today, ignored them like Todoroki or yelled at them until they went away, like Bakugou.
Kirishima was trying to subtly sign him to not bring up the topic, while Mina looked at him a little weirdly. Toru just slurped her smoothie with frightening enthusiasm.
"She's been acting very strangely. I know what happened at the USJ was tough but she just changed all of a sudden." Sero elaborated, causing the hardening user sitting next to him to banging his head against the table. Mina sighed, looking depressed all of a sudden before she explained to him.
"Her mother died a few days ago." she said, causing Sero to widen his eyes and look away, feeling guilty. He didn't want to pry into anybody's business, he was just worried about a classmate. "We, the girls, talked with her the day she learned the news. She wanted to leave school to support her father, but he convinced her to remain for the sports festival at least." she leaned back, looking like she lost her appetite.
"Man, that sucks." he whispered lowly, feeling bad about ruining the mood.
Mina looked sadly out the window, while Torou softly tried to cheer her up. Kirishima looked around a little frantically, trying to find something to take their minds off of the sad topic. Thankfully he found something, because his face brightened up and pointed out the window.
"Isn't that Bakubro?" he asked excitedly, causing the others to look out the window as well. Their booth was placed in a way that they were able to see most of the surrounding street from their seats. It was really Bakugou, he was exiting a supermarket across them, packed with two big bags.
"Wow, it really is him. Wonder what he is doing. Grocery shopping?" asked Toru, tilting her head in wonder, based on the position of the hat on her head.
"Strange. I remember him mentioning that his parents do every shopping and he also said that he has something to do today when I asked him to join." wondered out Kirishima, his words causing Mina to smile mischievously.
"Oh, so it's kind of secret? Maybe he is doing something that he wants no one to know about." Mina seemed to forget her previous depression and seemed very excited about what kind of secret Bakugou had.
"Maybe he runs a cat shelter?" asked the invisible girl randomly, causing Sero and Kirishima to look at her strangely.
"That's more of Aizawa's thing." commented Mina absentmindedly." Maybe a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Come on, let's find out." Out of nowhere, she pulled a pair of dark sunglasses, placing them on and posing like some secret agent.
"Roger." Toru, sporting the same sunglasses for some reason, saluted.
"Where did the glasses came from?" Sero wondered, but was completely ignored by the girls.
"He's leaving. We got to catch up to him." declared Mina before grabbing Kirishima by his wrist and dragging him along as run out of the restaurant, Torou following swiftly.
"Guess I'll have to pay." Sero, who remained at his seat, sighed gloomily.
The four of them caught up to Bakugou not long after he left the shopping district and began to walk towards a bunch of apartments. Mina and Torou were peeking from behind the corner of a building, while Kirishima was leaning to the wall with his arms closed, and Sero mourning after his wallet next to him.
"Guys, it's not cool to spy after a friend." Kirishima tried to dissuade them, but with no success.
"Oh come on, Kiri." chided Mina, taking her eyes off of Bakugou for a second."We know almost nothing about the guy. Don't tell me you aren't at least a little bit curious of what he may be up to?"
"I am, but that doesn't mean that I would go behind his back to-" started to say the hardening user, but was cut off by Toru.
"Guys, Bakugou disappeared." she informed them silently, causing the pair to stop their argument instantly.
"Where did he disappear?" cried out Mina as all of them walked out from their hiding place, to see the street empty, no sign of the blonde firecracker.
"Guys." called out quietly Sero, sounding scared.
"Maybe he was kidnapped by Ufos." theorized Torou, ignoring the tape users call."Or maybe he went into the severs."
"Guys." tried once again Sero.
"Doesn't matter. We lost him, end of the story. Let's just go back." said Kirishima, feeling he was in danger for some reason.
"Guys!" Sero's call now was much more urgent, causing Mina to turn to him in frustration.
"Geez, Sero." annoyed Mina turned around to face Sero."What is so damn...impor...tant..." her words died in her mouth as she saw Bakugou standing behind them, an enraged expression on his face. if looks would kill, there would have been nothing but a smoking crater left of the four young students.
Bakugou took a deep breath and looked like he was about to let go of any and all restraints he had, no matter how little they worked, and kill everyone in sight in a berserker rage. The four teens braced themselves for the oncoming explosions, Kirishima hardening his body in instinct and stepping in front of his friends hoping to block most of the blast.
They were all very surprised when in the end the explosive teen only let out a tired breath, his shoulders slumping in defeat.
"If you are gonna come, make yourselves useful." he said before he thrust the bags into the hands of the two boys, and calmly, for himself walked past them. "You coming?" he asked when none of the others moved after a while.
They could only nod dumbfounded.
-0-
"This is your apartment?" asked Mina curiously as they stopped. They walked for a while, still coming to grips with the fact that Bakugou didn't kill them in cold blood. They arrived at an apartment complex and walked up to the second floor.
"No." answered Bakugou gruffly as he stood before the door searching his pockets for the key." Me and my folks live in the neighboring apartment."
"Than who lives here?" wondered Sero, trying to look past Bakugou to at least see a nameplate."Mido..riya? Who is Midoriya?"
Bakugou didn't answer instead he opened a door while yelling "You still alive, nerd?". With a little aprehesion, the four students followed him into the house.
The inside of the apartment could be best described as chaotic. Various books and journals littered the floor, some of them open, some closed. Sometimes they even formed a barricade or large towers that were a moment from tumbling down. The walls were full of papers that showed various strange diagrams.
"Is this some cult or something?" asked Toru as she tried to see some of those strange symbols closer while trying not to trip on the books.
Despite the apparent chaos, the place itself was clear, as if somebody regularly cleaned the room but didn't care about putting the books on a proper bookcase.
"Come on, the kitchen is here." told them Bakugou when they stopped to look around the room.
Stepping into the kitchen they had to blink in surprise. Unlike the rest of the house, there were no books or strange pictures in here. The kitchen was clean and well-organized.
"You can place the bags on the table." said Bakugou as he began to check the contents of the cupboard, and soon put away the groceries they helped him carry.
The four friends stood around unsurely before Kirishima gathered up the courage to speak to the explosive teen.
"You said you don't live here, but why are you here, bringing groceries? And who is this Midoriya?" he asked. Bakugou didn't answer at first and continued to put away all the things he brought. Kirishima was worried that his friend wouldn't answer but after a few minutes he began to speak so softly, they had to strain their ears to hear him.
"He is my childhood friend. Nerd would starve if I haven't continued to look after him." he murmured causing the others to let out questioning sounds. In the end, he scoffed to himself, straightened up, and began to leave to room, signaling with his head to follow him.
They stepped into the living room where once again they met the chaotic system of books and notebooks. Mina nad Toru immediately spied the most interesting things in the whole room: pictures.
"So cute." cooed at a picture that showed a four-year-old Bakugou playing with a small, green-haired child. "Who knew Bakugou was this cute as a little kid." she eagerly showed the picture to Toru, cooing together at that ball of adorableness. Bakugou simply ignored them and with a grunt told them not to stop.
They arrived at a door that had an All Might-themed nameplate that read Izuku. The colors on the nameplate were slightly faded and it looked like it was broken into pieces once before it was glued together with great care.
Bakugou knocked on the door, but when there was no reaction he simply opened the door and went in. Mina and Toru followed without hesitation, while Sero and Kirishima shared a look, before going after them.
The inside of the room was interesting, to say the least. It was a small bedroom filled with a lot of hero merchandise, mostly All Might toys and the like. Though they were a little hard to make out because everything was buried under books and various ripped-out papers containing an array of symbols.
They were surprised when they caught sight of the sole occupant of the room. He was sitting at the desk that was placed across the door, his back turned towards them. He was writing something, not taking any notice of his guests. From behind, all they could see a black, baggy shirt, bandages that covered his right arm from his shoulder to his fingers, and the shaggy black hair filled with green highlights that reached just below his shoulders and reminded them of the hairstyle of their homeroom teacher.
Bakugou walked up to him and put a stack of notebooks next to him that he pulled out from his bag.
"You still alive, nerd?" asked Bakugou, with a kind tone that no one heard from him before. The green-haired boy didn't answer, continuing to write without stopping.
As Mina walked closer, she heard him softly murmur something.
"-monia 4 L, Lime 1.5 kg, Phosphorous 800 g, Salt 250 g, Saltpeter 100 g, Sul-" he whispered to himself as he wrote down various symbols in his notebook, before turning to a new page.
"Right. Dinner will be in an hour." said Bakugou simply before began to usher the four friends out of the room.
-0-
"So, what's the deal with this guy?" asked Sero, maybe a little bluntly from Bakugou as they sat down to eat.
They helped the explosive blond make a simple curry after he refused to answer any questions before the food was ready. He took one bowl to his friend before coming back and sitting down. With a sigh Bakugou leaned back on the chair, eying them from the corner of his eye.
"His name is Midorya Izuku, we knew each other since we were in diapers." he snorted to himself as a thought came to his mind. "He was the absolute hero nerd. Also knew more about quirks than about anybody. He would have been all over you, asking about yours without stopping to breathe." he looked down as he remembered how his friend used to be before the incident.
"What happened to him? He acted as if he never noticed any of us coming in." asked Kirishima, looking a little worried about Bakugou's friend. The normally rash teen looked away, a sad look on his face.
"His mother died around seven years ago in a villain attack. The heroes he loved failed to save his mom. His father didn't want to take care of him and he would have gone into foster care. Instead, my family took him in, because not many would have treated a quirkless kid nicely. Not like I was any different." he mumbled the last part, ignoring their reactions."Three years later, he just...changed. From one day to another. Became like this, like he lost touch with reality." he grunted and shook his head, trying to quell his emotions."My folks and I took turns in looking after him, hoping that with time he would be better."
None of them know what to say, it was a really tragic story. Kirishima opened his mouth to say something when the sound of slow footsteps caught their ears. They looked towards Izuku's room seeing the teen in question slowly walk to the kitchen with an empty tray in his head. He placed it down and without a word began to leave, but stopped at the door. He didn't turn towards them, but they still heard his soft words.
"Thank...you." Bakugou scoffed in mock-anger, though he couldn't hide the small smile on his face.
"Get some sleep nerd." Izuku didn't answer but simply left leaving the five of them alone.
Bakugou turned towards them a really nasty expression on his face.
"If you tell anybody about this..." he trailed off, lifting his right hand and letting out a small explosion.
"Sure, you have our word." said Sero totally freaked out.
-0-
"What kind of quirk is that?" coughed out a roughed-up goon before falling unconscious.
A destroyed warehouse is shown, the interior full of stone pillars rising from the ground in strange angles and a lot of unconscious beaten-up villains. Most of them were simply lying on the ground, while some were held up by stone hands or were tied up by stone snakes.
A lone figure slowly walked through the remains, searching for something. He was wearing a long, tattered, hooded green cloak that concealed his identity. He crouched down to study a few papers lying on the floor, hid cloak shifting, revealing his right arm which seems to be made of steel.
"Alchemy." he answered the unconscious thug with soft words, his voice sounding as if he rarely used it. "An ancient practice of transmuting one element to another. It is not a quirk, it is a rare ability that appears in one man out of ten million." he placed the papers down and began to look at the walls, searching for something."You have to know the exact makeup of what you are transmuting and also into what. You can't make more from something less, the most universal rule of alchemy is equivalent exchange. Balance must be upheld." He began to walk towards the exit, revealing a pentagram in a circle engraved into the floor.
As he was leaving the circle he clapped his hands and placed them on the floor. Blue lightning arched around him as slowly the stone pillars, hands, and snakes moving back into the floor, leaving the unconscious thugs alone. In the end, even the circle disappeared, leaving the warehouse as if nothing happened.
"There is one ultimate taboo of alchemy. You can't bring back the dead. Human transmutation is forbidden." he murmured to himself as he exited.
A strong wind pushed down the hood, letting the expressionless face of Midorya Izuku bathe in the moonlight. He looked down on his right hand, the metal one as he reminisced on the path that led him to here. In his mind he saw the death of his mother, crying next to her coffin. Later, he found out about alchemy and learned all he could find about it, in hopes that he could bring her back. Then 3 years later, the fateful night when he broke the taboo and tried to resurrect his mother.
"Those who break the taboo are brought before the Gate, shown the Truth of the world. And those who can pay the price for it, those who can come back, those are the ones who are truly cursed." he said to himself as he slowly walked away, thinking how much he sacrificed only to get back half a man.
The mind he used when he didn't have a quirk but still wanted to help.
The arm that he tried to reach his mother with.
Low growls sounded around him, making Midoriya stop. Grotesque, half-human, half-animal chimeras walked out of the darkness, surrounding the young teen.
"Looks like I'm not the only one who researching it...Philosopher's Stone." he breathed the word almost reverently."And it's my duty to stop them." he added, his voice gaining a hard edge. He clapped his hands before placing his left hand on his right arm, blue lightning illuminating it as part of his metal arm transformed into a small sword extending from the wrist.
"After all, the only law that matters is that all exchanged must be equivalent." he stated before running forward and attacking.