"Fuck off and DIE!"
Katsuki released an explosion directly to a fish-headed villain's chest at point blank range.
The fish-headed villain slammed back against the wall of the damaged building, driving the air out of her lungs, spewing pink mist from her mouth.
Katsuki coughed, trying to clear the mist away with his hand.
"Katsuki!"
Turning, Katsuki saw Uraraka walking through the mist, towards him.
Katsuki growled, falling into a fighting stance.
"W-What's wrong, Katsuki?"
Propelling himself forwards, Katsuki delivered a double-footed kick to Uraraka's chest before she could react.
Uraraka was thrown back, tumbling over and over until she came to a halt.
"Urgh, I guess you saw right through it." A haze passed over Uraraka, revealing the fish-headed villain in her place.
A large concrete pillar swung through the mist, clearing it and slamming into the fish-headed villain, crushing her against the wall.
"Home Run!"
Uraraka removed the pillar, its weight cancelled by her quirk, allowing the fish-headed villain to slump to the floor, out cold.
"How did ya know it wasn't me, Kacchan?" Uraraka looked to Bakugo, tilting her head, the pillar resting on her shoulder.
Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Tch, you've picked up that stupid, fucking nickname from the nerd."
"What do you mean, Kacchan?"
One of Katsuki's eyes twitched. "Exactly that!"
"You should be paying more attention, kid!"
A barrage of rubble, covered in silver energy, fired at Katsuki's back.
Throwing his arm behind himself, Katsuki released a large explosion, blasting the rubble back at the telekinetic villain with increased speed.
A blur blew past Katsuki, the air pressure forcing him to take a step back to regain his balance.
The rubble smashed into the far wall, the space the telekinetic villain had been occupying now empty.
"Eh?" Katsuki looked at the fallen rubble in confusion.
A body slammed into Katsuki's side, sending him flying through the air, forcing him to use his explosions to stabilise himself and land.
Looking around himself, Katsuki tried to see where the attack had come from, only seeing Uraraka fighting a villain with some kind of high-pressure air breath.
Was that the villain that had attacked him?
With Katsuki's eyes still on the breath villain, he felt the air behind him beginning to stir.
Firing an explosion from his left palm, Katsuki flipped into the air, dodging the blur, watching it as it suddenly slowed down, revealing an orange-haired villain, a man in his late forties, slightly out of shape.
Landing, Katsuki released a series of explosions, carrying himself into the air, over Uraraka.
"Round Face, use your quirk on me!"
Uraraka dodged a blast of air, turning to look at Katsuki above her, before nodding and slapping her hand on Katsuki's bare shoulder as he flew by.
With his gravity gone, Katsuki's travel speed with his quirk increased massively, kicking off the wall and at the blur villain, delivering a kick to the man's chest.
The orange-haired man stumbled back, before blurring away, coming to a halt at the other side of the room, next to the telekinetic villain.
Using his quirk to force his weightless body to land, Katsuki watched as the telekinetic villain fired more rubble at him. Igniting explosions in his palms, Katsuki rocketed forwards with immense speed, twisting and turning to dodge the rubble attack, slamming his shoulder into the telekinetic villain's stomach.
The villain wheezed and dropped to his knees, gasping desperately for air.
Wrapping his hand around the villain's face, Katsuki fired a small explosion, slamming the telekinetic villain's head into the wall, taking him out of the fight.
Turning to facing the blur villain, Katsuki watched as the man cursed and yelled, urging his quirk to work.
"So, your quirk has a recharge time, great, I can use that." Katsuki grinned, becoming a blur of explosions and rage.
The air whistled around Katsuki as he kicked the orange-haired villain in the face, before twisting and delivering an explosion-powered open palm strike to the chest.
Groaning, the orange-haired villain flopped to the floor, trying and failing to move.
Growling, Katsuki looked around for his next fight, quickly catching sight of three more villains entering the room, one with red hair, one holding a chainsaw and the last dressed in what looked like a bargain-store ninja costume.
Nearby, Uraraka held her concrete pillar in front of her, shielding herself from another blast of wind from the villain's mouth.
As the wind died down Uraraka pivoted on one foot, spinning and slamming the concrete pillar into the villain's side, sending him to join his comrades in unconsciousness.
Three more villains took his place, one nondescript, clean-shaven with short, brown hair, another with a visor over the top half of his face and the last with some kind of gold, metal helmet as a mutation.
The visor villain looked to Uraraka, firing twin energy beams from his eyes, forcing her to use her concrete pillar as a shield.
"Damn." Uraraka sighed, the end of the pillar had shattered, the pieces floating in the air. "But I can use this!"
Using her now much shorter pillar, Uraraka slammed it into the floating rubble, knocking it at the three villains, releasing her hold on it the moment before impact.
The counterattack didn't faze them, the brown-haired villain, who had grown three wooden claws from between his knuckles, slashed through the rubble, while the visor villain blasted any that came close.
Finally, the helmeted villain headbutted away any concrete that got into his range.
"You'll have to try harder than that, girly!" The visor villain sneered at the brown-haired girl.
"How about this?!"
Uraraka threw the remaining half of her pillar at the visor villain. At the same, she discreetly grabbed a lump of concrete from the ground and negated its gravity, before hurling it after the pillar.
The visor villain fired his energy beams, blasting the pillar apart, the shattered pieces floating in the air. The lump of concrete shot through the suspended rubble, disturbing it.
"Release!"
Uraraka placed the fingerpads of both her hands against each other.
At the last second the rubble projectile's gravity returned, slamming into the villain's face, smashing his visor into fragments of plastic and glass, breaking his nose in the process.
Seeing Uraraka's release of her quirk, Katsuki shifted his body as his gravity returned, using it to deliver a downwards kick to the red-haired villain.
Landing, Katsuki turned to face the chainsaw guy and the knockoff ninja, the red-haired villain collapsing against the wall, small locks of purple flame and smoke escaping his mouth.
Katsuki sneered at the fallen villain. "Stay down there, Puff the Magic Dragon."
The red-haired villain coughed. "What the f-fuck are you talking about-"
Katsuki released another explosion, weaker than normal, directly in the red-haired villain's face.
A shout made Katsuki turn, bringing up his left gauntlet to block a swing of the villain's chainsaw. The blades chewed through the metal alloy, stopping just before it hit flesh.
"No way outta this one." The chainsaw villain smirked, his eyes burning with rage and disgust as he used his free hand to clamp down on Katsuki's right arm.
An acrid smell had filled the air, the sweat collection tank had been ruptured, liquid dripping from where the chainsaw pierced the gauntlet.
The knockoff ninja charged at the restrained Katsuki, twin blades drawn.
Katsuki grinned. "Still not good enough."
Swinging his free right arm, Katsuki fired an explosion into the chainsaw villain's gut, forcing him to release his grip on Katsuki's arm and his own chainsaw.
Unclasping his left gauntlet, the chainsaw still lodged in it, Katsuki span on the spot, the force of the rotation sent the gauntlet flying off his arm, at the two villains.
Steadying himself, Katsuki pulled back the handle of his remaining gauntlet and removed the pin.
A massive fireball issued from the gauntlet, engulfing both the villains and the damaged gauntlet.
The ruptured tank of the gauntlet flying through the air ignited, turning the gauntlet into a grenade, shrapnel peppering the two villains, before the chainsaw exploded as well.
Katsuki stood, watching carefully as the smoke began to clear. The unconscious form of the knockoff ninja was revealed first, followed by the twisted remains of Bakugo's brace and the villain's chainsaw.
The now chainsaw-less villain still stood, shrapnel dug into his skin on his left side.
He didn't look deterred, if anything, Katsuki noted, he looked angrier.
A man after his own heart then.
Reaching down, the villain picked up the melted remains of Bakugo's gauntlet, a red glow surrounding it, before it transformed into an exact copy of the villain's destroyed chainsaw.
"So that's your quirk, then?" Katsuki sneered at the villain. "I've seen better."
Katsuki and villain charged at each other, the former dropping to his knees to dodge under the swing of the latter's chainsaw.
Uraraka released a shout as she fired concrete chunk after concrete chunk at the wooden claw and gold-helmeted villains.
The helmet villain dodged and weaved, smashing any blocks of concrete he couldn't avoid with his protected head. Next to him, the wooden-clawed villain hacked and slashed at the projectiles, but Uraraka could see his claws beginning to wear and splinter.
"I'm too slow, I need to send them faster." Uraraka paused. "That's it!"
Uraraka made her plan, and enacted it.
Picking up concrete chunks, Uraraka removed the gravity of each one, until she had around forty concrete blocks floating in the air.
Touching the fingertips of both hands to a nearby pillar, Uraraka cancelled the weight of as much of it as possible. Taking a step back, Uraraka shoulder-charged the pillar, its cancelled gravity meaning it tore free easily, small fragments of rubble floating in the air around the areas of breakage.
Turning, Uraraka charged towards the villains, the pillar held over her shoulder, ready to swing it.
"Improvised Super Move, HOME RUN COMET!"
Swinging the pillar at the smashed rubble she'd suspended in the air before, Uraraka watched as forty concrete projectiles shot at the helmet and wooden-clawed villains, holding her fingerpads together to release her quirk at the last second.
Neither of the villains could withstand the force of the assault, the wooden claws trying to protect the villain's body snapped and failed, leaving him defenceless against the rubble. The helmeted villain hadn't fared any better, his golden helmet had a crack running down it, his body covered in red marks where the concrete projectiles had impacted.
"DIE!"
Uraraka turned to see Katsuki deliver an explosion to the chainsaw villain's chest, slamming him back against the far wall, unconscious.
"Is this fucking all of them?" Katsuki wheeled around, looking for more villains to fight, his breathing slowly returning to normal. "They're so goddamn weak!"
"That's okay, Kacchan." Uraraka shot Katsuku a peace sign. "That just means we can go help the others even faster, right? Everyone else is probably still in the USJ if we are."
"Tch, you can go if you want." Katsuki cracked his knuckles. "I'm gunning for that warp gate bastard."
Uraraka shook her head. "You can't, it's 'cause you charged at that guy that Thirteen couldn't use their quirk on him to suck him up!"
Katsuki growled, grinding his teeth together. "Thirteen's was pretty much useless in that situation, their quirk's slow to start up, and the warp clown would've just opened a portal up to reflect the attack back on them."
"W-What?!" Uraraka exclaimed. "Thirteen's quirk is super strong, they-"
Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Stop being such a Thirteen stan, they're a rescue hero, so they're unaccustomed to combat, plus they've never had to improve their quirk reaction time."
"You got all that for analysing Thirteen?" Uraraka questioned.
"No, well, I figured out some of it myself." Katsuki paused. "The rest I got from listening to the nerd's analysis of Thirteen's quirk."
"I thought you hated Deki?"
Katsuki sighed, muttering under his breath. "So did I."
Uraraka leaned forward. "What was that?"
"Nothing." Katsuki answered quickly. "Anyway, I'm going at the warp gate, he's these clowns' escape strategy, I cut it off, they're up shit fucking creek and there ain't no paddle in sight."
"All this chit-chat has left you open!"
Katsuki turned, wrapping his hand around the chameleon villain's head and firing off an explosion, dazing the villain, his camouflage fading away.
"His reaction time, so fast." Moaned the chameleon villain, his head gently smoking.
Tossing the villain aside, Katsuki looked to Uraraka.
"Besides, if this is the kind of shit tier they're sending after us, everyone else will be pretty much fine."
Uraraka tilted her head. "Ya know, you're kinda cute when you're not shouting, I didn't realise you could be so calm and rational."
Katsuki wheeled around, his eyes flaming. "What?!"
The gravity girl's cheeks set aflame, realising she had said that particular thought aloud. "I mean, I guess-"
"I am not cute!" Katsuki snapped. "And I'm always calm and rational, pink cheeks!"
Uraraka's embarrassment faded, before being replaced by laughter.
"Don't fucking laugh at me!"
This only made Uraraka giggle even harder, her hand shakily pointing at Katsuki. "You, you looked so funny when you said you're not cute, it was even cuter than before."
Katsuki sucked air in through his nostrils, turning to leave. "Fine, I'm done, go help those extras if you want to."
"Wait, wait!" Uraraka waved her hands in front of herself. "Taking out the villains' getaway is a pretty good idea, I'll come with you!"
"Tch, whatever." Katsuki set off out of the building, Uraraka falling in step beside him.
A silence fell over the two heroes-in-training.
"So, what's the deal with you and Deki?" Uraraka looked to Katsuki as the two went down the stairs to the ground floor of the building.
"None of your fucking business is what it is." Katsuki snapped in reply.
"He said you used to be friends, before you got your quirks."
Katsuki replied. "Before I got my quirk."
"Huh." Uraraka placed a finger on her chin. "What about Deki? He said he used to think his quirk was just strength."
Katsuki snorted. "Then he fucking lied to you, the nerd's been hiding that broken ass quirk since he got it. He's still lying about part of it now."
Uraraka frowned, displaying clear confusion as they walked out into the street. "He was hiding his quirk? Maybe he was just worried people would be scared of it?"
"If you've got half a brain you should be scared of the nerd's quirk." Katsuki paused. "We're lucky he's such a All Might fanboy, with a quirk like his, if he wanted to he could rule this fucking country, hell, he probably could without it as well."
"What?!"
Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Deku's, the nerd's, quirk can take other q-"
A golden cord of energy wrapped around Katsuki's neck, cutting off his sentence, and lifting him into the air.
"Kacchan!"
Uraraka lurched forwards, reaching out with her hand, towards the golden cord.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Uraraka paused.
A tall woman with snow white hair walked out from behind the corner of the building, the other end of the golden cord in one of her hands.
"Unless you want to be sent into your worst memories."
The woman smiled, but her eyes remained cold.
Uraraka turned and raced at the woman, pressing the fingerpads of one hand to the opposite upper arm, cancelling her own gravity. Activating the springs in her heels, Uraraka soared into the air, flying at the woman.
"Release!"
Her gravity restored, Uraraka dropped towards the white-haired woman.
Flicking her free hand, another golden cord materialised, shooting out and wrapping around Uraraka's waist, trapping her hands and holding her in the air.
"Too slow, little girl." The woman sneered, watching as the brown-haired girl struggled to free herself, all in vain.
"DIE!"
Katsuki released an explosion, his palm wrapped around a section of the golden cord, around a foot before it reached his neck.
A cloud of grey smoke obscured Katsuki, before dissipating to reveal he was still trapped, the cord having tightened around his neck, choking him slightly.
"Fuckin bitch." Katsuki wheezed, his face slowly turning red.
"You've got some fire in you, haven't you, cutey."
"Don't call me that, you hag!" Katsuki exploded, swinging and kicking with all his might.
It didn't work.
"Let me go and I'll beat the shit out of you!"
"So tetchy, there's definitely some high-quality trauma in that lovely head of yours." The woman smiled, before looking at Uraraka. "But I'll start with the plain one first."
Uraraka looked mildly offended.
"Like you can talk, that old woman hair is the only notable thing about you!" Katsuki roared, his eyes alight. "That, and your thing for tying up teenagers."
The golden cord around Katsuki's neck extended, snaking up and across his mouth, gagging him.
"Shush, shush, you'll get your turn next." The woman laughed. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, introduction. You may have heard of me, my father named me Nigata, but the media much preferred Lady Trauma."
Uraraka frowned. "Who?"
One of Nigata's eyes twitched.
"I'm a supervillain, emphasis on the super."
The blond-haired boy burst out laughing, slightly muffled by his gag.
Nigata's eye twitched again, mentally commanding the cord to cease gagging Katsuki.
Katsuki slowly stopped laughing. "Fuck, you're old."
"You little shit-"
"Lady Trauma is a fucking relic, she vanished like thirty years ago. No recorded death, no recorded capture, just gone, poof!" Katsuki grinned, his eyes darkening. "So either you're some pretender, a copycat, or you're looking pretty good for a granny."
Nigata sucked air in through her nose, making her cord silence Katsuki once again.
Yet it did nothing to diminish his smug smile, aggravating her further.
"My quirk allows me to force those caught by my cord to relieve their greatest trauma, regardless of whether they were on the receiving end or the delivering end." Nigata's eyes hardened. "I won't lie, this is going to be fun. For me, of course, for you, not so much."
Nigata closed her eyes.
A pulse of light travelled down one of the cords, to Uraraka, the brown-haired girl's eyes rolling back into her head as her body glowed faintly gold.
"Hmm, a bit of trauma, your parents are poor, boo fucking hoo. What else, no, no, no, god no."
Nigata opened her eyes, looking at Uraraka.
"You are so boring, you know that right?" Nigata flicked her wrist, the cord around Uraraka tightening and restraining her feet, before gagging her. "Sit tight while I deal with your friend."
The cord disconnected, dropping Uraraka to the ground, unable to move or speak.
"Now, smart mouth, let's see what tasty trauma you've got hiding in there."
A pulse shot down the cord to Katsuki, his eyes constantly twitching while the air around his body lit up with blinding golden light.
Images and memories flew through Katsuki's mind faster than he could recognise them, a pounding in his head worsening with every second the mental assault continued.
"Oh wow, I've struck gold." Nigata smiled. "No, I found the whole damn mine."
Another pulse shot down the cord, before Katsuki suddenly found himself in a white void, unrestrained and free.
"What the fuck?"
"Hello, Katsuki Bakugo." Nigata flickered into sight in front of the explosive teen. "Or do you prefer Kacchan? Or Ground Zero? Or maybe Lord Explosion Murder?"
Katsuki ground his teeth and lurched forwards, swinging his arm, explosions dancing on his palm.
Stumbling, Katsuki passed through Nigata harmlessly, almost falling, thrown off-balance by the lack of expected resistance.
"Nice try, but I'm in control here." Nigata smirked. "So I'll be taking that away."
The explosion in Katsuki's palm cut off.
"No, no, no!" Katsuki raged, trying to get his quirk to work.
"In this place, your mind, I rule it now, and I say you don't have a quirk." Nigata held up her hand, releasing an explosion from it. "In fact, I have your quirk."
"Give it back, you bitch!" Katsuki charged at Nigata again.
And again he passed straight through her.
"That's not very nice, is it now, Kacchan."
A growl slipped from Katsuki's lips, but he stopped himself from attacking her again.
It was useless anyway.
Nigata giggled, the very sound disturbing Katsuki. "In fact, I'm doing you a favour, I'm letting you see from little Deku's point of view. All those times you mocked him, putting him down, told him he was useless, you're just the same now."
"That nerd was never quirkless."
"You knew, and yet you never told anyone, not even poor little Izuku. All he wanted to be was your friend, he idolised you."
Katsuki didn't reply.
"You made sure everyone saw how much you hated him, but that was all a lie wasn't it?"
Still no response.
Nigata smiled. "A pretense, a front, to hide just how much you envied him. You were jealous of Izuku Midoriya, in fact, you still are."
"Shut the hell up, Granny Hair!"
"Now, now, I'm helping you here, aren't I? Maybe I should charge?" Nigata snapped her fingers, the same couch from Hound Dog's office appearing. "You can lie on it if you really want."
"Fuck. You."
"So childish, never mind." The couch vanished with a wave of the white-haired villain's hand. "Now, which memory should we start with? Hm, how about this one."
Katsuki blinked.
He was at Deku's seventh birthday party.
"What the-"
"Katsuki Bakugo, how dare you do that?" Mitsuki Bakugo stalked towards her seven-year old son.
Katsuki frowned, turning to look at a young boy, his lower arms and scalp covered in small rocks, wiping away tears.
Right, the nerd's seventh birthday party, the one where he'd knocked Rock Hair over with his quirk and made the little shit cry.
Or, at least, pretend to cry, Rock Hair had always been a little shit.
So that meant this was-
Oh, crap.
Mitsuki grabbed Katsuki by the wrist, her grip tight, dragging her son away to the edge of the party, out of hearing range of any of the other guests.
"You're not even sorry, are you?" Mitsuki glowered at her young son.
"So what if I'm not, old hag?" Katsuki felt the words leaving his mouth without even thinking them, it was the same thing he'd said back then.
SMACK!
Mitsuki backhanded her son.
Katsuki failed to hold back tears, feeling them run down the stinging red handprint on his left cheek.
"M-Mom, I'm s-sorry-"
SMACK!
Another handprint joined the last, this one on his right cheek, making a matching pair.
"Don't you dare speak back to me like that, you little shit!" Mitsuki hissed, before muttering to herself. "This is why I said we should have sent you a no-Quirk school, you're such a fucking brat with everyone telling you how great your stupid fucking quirk is."
Katsuki still heard.
Katsuki cried harder.
"Look at Izuku."
Turning his head, Katsuki watched the nerd running to Inko, who scooped him up into a hug.
"Why can't you be well-behaved? Like him?" Mitsuki sighed. "Instead you go round hitting other kids and swearing all the fucking time."
"Mom-"
"You don't deserve that quirk of yours, a perfect hero quirk. All I see when I look at you is a villain-in-waiting."
Katsuki's tears intensified.
"Izuku has the heart of a hero, the mind too, and he doesn't even have a quirk." Mitsuki paused. "He deserves that quirk of yours, not you."
Katsuki was practically howling now, his face covered in a mixture of tears and snot.
"Now, you're going to stay here and watch everyone else having fun until I decide you can rejoin the other kids." Mitsuki started to walk away. "Oh, and start thinking about how you're going to apologise to the poor boy you knocked over."
Katsuki was left alone, trying and failing to stop the great, heaving sobs that wracked his body.
He hated her, he hated the old hag. When he was the Number 1 Hero he'd lock her up with all the villains. In Tartarus.
He hated them all, he hated the smug grin Rock Hair was shooting him.
Most of all, he hated Izuku Midoriya.
The weak little boy with no quirk, who always got back up.
Except that was a lie, the nerd had a quirk.
Katsuki remembered that day at the playground, where the two had pledged to be a hero duo.
Izuku beamed. "We're gonna be great heroes!"
"Course we are, Ground Zero and Detroit, we'll be unstoppable!"
The green-haired boy opened his mouth, breathing red flames.
"That's almost as cool as my quirk." Katsuki pointed a thumb at his chest.
"Wait, wait, watch this." Izuku reached out with one hand, wrapping in around Katsuki's forearm.
Izuku held up his other hand, explosions dancing in his palm.
That was the day Izuku Midoriya stole his quirk.
The nerd had cried about it at first, telling him he'd used the wrong quirk by accident, before returning the quirk after a few minutes of trying and failing.
Katsuki had run off as soon as he got it back, almost smacking into the nerd's old man in his hurry.
After that day, the nerd pretended it had never happened, feigning no memory of it when Katsuki had asked. At first, it hadn't bothered Katsuki all that much, he could understand why the nerd might want to hide a quirk like that, the stigma that came with a quirk like that.
And the little shit had gone and got himself diagnosed as quirkless.
He was taunting Katsuki.
'I could take your quirk anytime I wanted to and there's nothing you could do to stop me.'
Katsuki's eyes flicked to Izuku again, watching the seven-year old boy smile from his mother's arms, while she talked to Katsuki's old hag.
The nerd suddenly pointed at Katsuki, before climbing down and running over to the blond-haired boy.
"Come on, Kacchan." The nerd beamed, bouncing up and down with nervous energy. "It's my birthday, I told your mom I wouldn't be able to enjoy it with you here, so you're free!"
"Tch, get lost, Deku!" Katsuki snapped. "Why would I want anything to do with someone as worthless as you, not even showing a damn quirk."
The nerd's face fell, before tearing up as he ran away, back to his mother.
Katsuki watched the green-haired boy tackle Inko's leg, holding on tight.
"That wasn't very nice, was it?"
Looking up, Katsuki saw the nerd's father standing next to him, a frightening intensity in his eyes.
"It still scares you, even now? When Izu took away your quirk."
Katsuki froze.
"I'm sorry, I should have taken that quirk away from him, my mistake." Hisashi Midoriya smiled, placing a reassuring hand of the blond-haired boy's shoulder. "I also should have erased that memory back then, it's taken such a long time to get another chance, I'm sorry you had to remember that, Katsuki. For a child that young, well, it isn't a pleasant experience."
Hisashi's hand glowed red for a few seconds, before it faded away.
Katsuki Bakugo forgot all about Izuku taking his quirk that day at the playground.
But feelings still lingered. The distrust, the fear, the hatred.
And most of all, the jealousy.
Katsuki forgot, but the feelings lived on.
It almost worked.
If only Hisashi hadn't overlooked the fact that Katsuki might have written down the events of that day at the playground.
A writing that seven-year Katsuki found just over a week later, along with a warning that his memories had been changed.
That, Katsuki never forgot.
Katsuki gasped, sucking in air. He was back in his properly-aged body, on his knees, in the white void again.
"Fascinating, you fear little Izu, don't you?" Nigata smiled. "You fear that one day he'll take your quirk, just like he did back then."
"That memory, the nerd's father altered it." Katsuki's breathing began to slow as he calmed.
"Not really, that quirk he used altered your perception of that memory."
"His quirk was Fire Breath." Katsuki looked up. "He didn't have some kind of mind-fuck quirk."
Nigata laughed. "Where do you think little Izu copied that quirk he used to take yours?"
Katsuki's eyes widened.
A quirk that took quirks, the power of an urban legend.
An urban legend that was Izuku Midoriya's father.
"It's true."
Katsuki looked up, Nigata was gone, in her place stood the nerd.
"You can't trick me like that, you old hag."
The nerd quirked an eyebrow. "I'm not an illusion, Kacchan."
"Don't call me that!"
The nerd laughed. "I'm a figment of your unconscious, you know that, right? I'm saying what you think the real Midoriya would say, and a little bit of what you want him to say."
"Fuck off, Deku!"
Midoriya sighed, a chair materialising next to him, before he sat on it. "I scare you, don't I? But you envy me even more."
Katsuki didn't reply.
"Not because of my quirk though." Midoriya looked to Katsuki. "You're jealous of me because you're scared I'll be a better hero than you."
"What am I if I fail as a hero?" Katsuki looked down. "I have the perfect hero quirk and I feel like a failure, I don't feel like a hero."
Midoriya said nothing, allowing Katsuki to continue.
"Ever since my quirk appeared all everyone told me was that I was destined to be a hero, except them." Katsuki paused. "The hag and my old man, after my quirk manifested, they changed, they built these expectations I could never reach, they still do now."
"All I ever wanted was their praise, for them to be proud of me. All they ever did was compare me to the nerd, to you. How you never gave up, even without a quirk. That you had the heart of a hero, and I had the heart of a villain."
"I hated you for it, I thought that if I made you give up on being a hero my parents would be proud of me instead. I think I knew at the time that would never work, my parents will never be proud of me, but admitting that to myself would have been giving up."
Katsuki's shoulder sagged, his eyes losing their fire.
"You don't get to give up now!" Midoriya's burnt with Katsuki's lost fire.
Midoriya jumped to his feet, his chair toppling over with a bang.
"You're Katsuki fucking Bakugo, get up and fight!"
Katsuki looked up.
Midoriya was gone. Nigata was back.
"Impressive." Nigata cooed. "Your subconscious actually managed to fight back for a moment then, very uncommon for someone as damaged as you. I wonder, how did you do it?"
Katsuki grinned, the fire reigniting in his eyes.
"I'm Katsuki fucking Bakugo, that's how!"
Surging to his feet, Katsuki threw his hands back and fired twin explosions, accelerating his body at Nigata, feet first.
"Really?" Nigata rolled her eyes as the double footed kick rocketed towards her. "I control your mind now, you can't hurt-"
"UP YOURS!"
Katsuki's kick landed, sending Nigata flying.
Rolling over, Katsuki used the momentum to get back on his feet, in a combat stance.
"This is my mind, I'm in control." Katsuki growled. "You can't fucking keep me down, you two-bit, forgotten relic. I'm gonna be a hero, and you're certainly not going to stop me!"
Katsuki fired more explosions, shooting himself at Nigata again.
Nigata looked panicked, before snapping her fingers.
Katsuki blinked, he was back in the real world, his neck once again wrapped by the golden cord, his mouth gagged.
"That mind of yours, it's a hellscape." Nigata glared at the blond-haired boy.
Katsuki snorted, biting down on the cord, tearing through it.
"You get used to it after a while."
Glancing over at Uraraka, Katsuki watched her worming her way out of the golden cord Nigata had bound her with.
I need to keep this relic's attention, buy Round Face time.
Reaching out, Katsuki grabbed the cord, wrapping it around his hand and beginning to pull.
"Let go of that." Nigata looked worried.
"Make me."
Katsuki ignited his left palm, jumping into the air, overshooting Nigata, using the trailing cord to wrap around the woman's ankles, binding them.
Uraraka burst in from the side, placing her hand on first Nigata and then Katsuki.
"You fucked up, you underestimated me, you unestimated us both." Katsuki watched as Nigata tried and failed to free herself. "And now, you're going to feel the consequences."
Uraraka grabbed hold of Katsuki's waist and pushed, sending him into the air.
"Improvised Super Move."
Katsuki ignited one of his palms, the other holding the other end of the golden cord.
"G-Force Tornado!"
Katsuki spun in the air, round and round, spinning Nigata as well, pulled by the cord attached to her ankles, the speed increasing with every rotation.
"NOW!"
"Release!"
Aiming his palm, Katsuki swung his arm, cord gripped in his hand, sending Nigata flying. The cord twisted around the horizontal top bar of a lampost as Katsuki landed on the street, Nigata suspended by the cord, upside down.
"Fuck you, you brat!"
Nigata flicked her wrist, aiming another cord at Katsuki. Her shot went wide, her aim disrupted by her dizziness, or it would have, if Katsuki hadn't moved the end of the original cord into its path.
The second cord wrapped around the first, pulsing with the golden glow of Nigata's quirk.
"You reap what you sow." Katsuki tied the two cords together, and then to the next lamppost over.
Nigata twitched and convulsed as she hung from the lamppost, trapped in her own worst memories, unable to shut off her own quirk.
"Yeah, enjoy that!"
Katsuki rolled his eyes. "She can't hear you, she's trapped."
Uraraka nodded her head. "Then, let's go get that warpy guy!"
"Fine." Katsuki set off for the main plaza. "Come on, Uraraka."
Uraraka beamed, before running after Katsuki.
"What's the plan?"
"I'll distract him." Katsuki replied as they left the Ruins Zone, heading straight on. "You get close and use your quirk on him, send him into the fucking stratosphere, like you did with the ball in Goggles's test."
"Right." Uraraka nodded her head, before pointing. "Look, it's Deki!"
Izuku stood in the main plaza, looking worse for wear, his gym outfit ripped and torn, smeared with blood. The white monster, covered in bark-like armor, towered over him, while the navy-black monster stood beside the pale man.
"Shit, the nerd's going to get squished!" Katsuki accelerated, sprinting at full speed.
Izuku said something Katsuki couldn't hear, before his left arm began to glow every colour of the rainbow.
"DETROIT SMASH!"
Izuku punched the monster, a massive tornado of wind shooting upwards from the point of contact, the force of it knocking everyone, even Katsuki and Uraraka, off their feet.
The wind tore through the facility, ripping part of the USJ's roof away, shattering every last pane of glass. The white monster, its bark armor cracked and exploded, soared out of the cloud, landing somewhere in the Landslide Zone.
"I didn't know Deki had that kind of power." Uraraka pushed herself to her feet, as the wind and dust began to clear.
Katsuki brushed himself off. "He didn't, he must have taken, no, copied it."
Uraraka's eyes widened. "Oh, crap."
Katsuki looked up, and his stomach turned.
The nerd stood tall, his left arm still raised from the punch.
At least what was left of it. Everything from just above the elbow had been blown clean off, the blood and bone covered the nerd's front and the ground around him.
And yet, he was still smiling.
I was horrible to you, I made your life hell, and you never once gave up.
In truth, Izuku Midoriya, you were my hero.
You still are.