Chapter 21

.:. Fight at the USJ .:.

In most worlds, Midoriya Izuku was best described as kind with a mild streak of timidity. He was the kind of boy who would never raise a hand against a friend, never let his temper get the better of him. The kind who would channel his anger with more negativity towards himself than others, internalizing those darker feelings and letting them build up over time.

In most worlds, Midoriya Izuku also had not been subjected to a near full year of training under Gran Torino before enrolling at UA.

Even the kindest souls would have their edges hardened a little under his purview, and Izuku was no exception. He wouldn't ever become a sassy back-talker who'd purposely pick fights with anyone he didn't like, nor would he lose that deeply embedded kindness that defined him. But he also wasn't as willing to stand by when he felt he'd been treated unfairly.

Bakugou looked just as stunned as everyone else after Izuku slapped him. "What did you say?" he whispered.

"I said, fuck you, Kacchan," Izuku repeated coldly, corners of his eyes burning as he met his once-friend's stunned red glare. "Fuck you for only treating me like a human after I get a Quirk!"

Using harsh language like that—especially towards Bakugou—felt odd and alien even to Izuku himself, but right now, he didn't care. All he could feel was a cold, simmering rage as understanding finally dawned on him.

Ever since Crash "manifested" at school, Izuku had noticed how Bakugou treated him differently.

Everyone treated him differently of course, but it was most noticeable with him. They still weren't as friendly as when they'd been kids, but he'd been more... civil, maybe? While the insults continued, they had toned down considerably. No longer did he snarl at Izuku or occasionally shove him out of the way just for seeming to simply exist. His irritation seemed to be the same sort of general irritation he felt towards everyone, not targeted at Izuku in particular.

The strangest part had been how Bakugou tried to rope him into the challenges with Hachinose. He never just asked, "Hey, want to join in?" He'd more demand his participation, hollering out for the school to hear, "Oi, Deku, stop being a coward and get over here already!" Sometimes he'd even skip his usual challenges to Hachinose because he'd spend the lunch period looking for Izuku to cajole him into joining.

At the time it had confused him, but the first schoolday after the entrance exam results came in, Bakugou had marched straight to Izuku's desk.

"So you got in too, huh, Deku?" the blond asked with a haughty huff.

"Y-yeah, I did," Izuku confirmed, feeling simultaneously pleased and also confused at Bakugou approaching him. "Congratulations on getting first! I can't believe you got over one hundred points!"

"Tch, it was obvious I'd score first," Bakugou scoffed. "But how the fuck did you only score fifth?"

"Fifth is pretty good!" Izuku quickly protested with a frown. "And you saw all the top ten scores! I kinda feel like something happened at one of the sites actually, because one person had a lot more rescue points, and the recording I got mentioned something about having to reevaluate scores because of some technical issue...?"

He jolted when Bakugou slammed his palms on the desk, the noise plenty loud and jarring without his Quirk behind it. "Stop with the mumbling!" he snapped, and Izuku quickly squeaked out a "sorry" while the blond scowled. "But dammit Deku, you're supposed to be better than that! I don't want some average schmuck as my rival!"

Izuku jolted in surprise again, but for a different reason now. "Wait, rival?" he repeated.

"Yeah, Deku, rival!" Bakugou rolled his eyes with a huff. "Seriously, you finally have a fucking decent Quirk. If you're getting into UA too, then you better be good with it. Having a fucking nobody from the same school get in with me is lame as hell, so I'm expecting you to actually be good at this shit, got it!"

At that moment, Izuku felt several emotions swell up in his chest, eyes going wide. "K-Kacchan," he whispered, voice wobbling as tears began to form.

"Don't call me that, and stop being such a crybaby!" Bakugou shouted, and Izuku quickly wiped at his eyes while the blond turned to sit at his own desk. Even as he wiped away the tears he felt his face split into a large smile though, more tears threatening to form.

Rival. Kacchan called him his rival. It wasn't the same as when they were kids, still not friends, but it was closer to how things had been. After all, this meant Kacchan had finally started acknowledging him again—if not as a friend, then as something closer to an equal.

He finally, finally acknowledged Izuku.

He finally changed his opinion after Izuku revealed Crash.

Somehow, blinded by his happiness at the sudden change, Izuku hadn't realized the implications of that before. Not until now, standing at the edge of the ruins zone in USJ while tired and sore from dragging dummies out of buildings. Not until after hearing one of the most encouraging and supportive things Kacchan had said to him in years.

Funny how that was what made him finally realize what was going on in Bakugou's head.

"That's why you changed?" he spat. "That's why you finally started treating me decently? Because I had a Quirk?" His fists clenched at his side as he glowered at the still-stunned blond, teeth baring angrily. "No. Screw you! Just because I have a Quirk now doesn't change anything else about me! The only difference is I'm physically stronger, so why is that enough to make you finally treat me like a decent person?"

He punctuated his last question with a shove against Bakugou's shoulder before turning away, fists clenching at his sides. "So screw you, Kacchan," he said one last time.

That would have, for the moment, been the end of it. Even though the past year had put some steel in Izuku's spine, he wasn't used to this sort of fighting; the rage was already draining out of him, replaced by a hard, sick, insulted feeling in the pit of his stomach. He just wanted the confrontation to be over and go their separate ways.

Unfortunately for everyone, that was not the end of it though. Izuku's shove seemed to bring Bakugou back to his senses, pride and indignation cutting through his confusion. "Who the hell do you think you are?!" he demanded. Izuku turned just in time for the blond to grab him by both shoulders, returning the shove with a bang and a flash of smoke.

The explosion wasn't heavy by any means, definitely on the weaker end of his capabilities, but it added enough extra force to knock Izuku to the ground. He rolled and skidded a bit before coming to an abrupt halt in a pulse of blue and green. For a moment he just lay there on the ground, fists tensing. He lifted his head and rolled his shoulders once to test for any injuries from the abrupt fall, wincing.

And then a beam of bluish green shot towards Bakugou Katsuki, accompanied by the collective shouts of the assembled students and Thirteen.

For a terrible half-minute, Izuku was untouchable. He paid no attention to the confusion of noise in the background. Bakugou dodged his initial charge, but Izuku didn't let his momentum carry himself away, spinning on his heel to throw himself at the blond once more. He shrugged off whatever explosive force wasn't absorbed by his quirk as Bakugou fought back. A sharp blow to his temple left him only mildly dizzy, and barely even registered on his consciousness.

Right then, he wasn't just fighting Bakugou; he was lashing out against more than ten years of mistreatment from all sides. Ten years of jabs and pranks and silent treatments and ostracization. Ten years of Quirkless Deku.

And while Izuku was lashing out, Bakugou wasn't holding back either. Nearly every strike he made carried explosive force behind it, his face twisted into an almost feral snarl. If he made any sound, Izuku couldn't hear it over the rush of blood in his own ears. Come to think of it, he was probably screaming too, but he didn't really care about that, too focused on the fight.

When Bakugou tried to dodge another charge Izuku jumped, landing just slightly behind the blond. His built-up momentum carried over, creating a small crater on impact that had Bakugou nearly toppling to the ground and everyone else nearby stumbling. Izuku needed only a single step to steady himself before he spun to face his childhood friend with a snarl, blue-green light still fading around him.

Somehow Bakugou maintained his footing and didn't fall, already lurching forward with another fist aimed at Izuku's face.

Except this time when Izuku dodged, there was no bright flash of light from an explosion behind it.

Then, without warning, Izuku felt his own Quirks... vanish.

Shock and confusion crashed over him like a wave of cold water at the abrupt disappearance, his initial anger vanishing instantly. Crash and Glow Ink had become persistent presences, always there in the back of his mind even if he didn't focus on them. He hadn't even realized it until now, when that presence suddenly blinked out of existence, and it was jarring enough to make him halt his own movements.

As he stood in mild shock trying to comprehend what happened, greyish fabric suddenly wrapped around Bakugou and pulled him back. At the same time Izuku felt something barrel into him and shove him away from the blond, placing even more distance between them. It only took half a second to recognize the unfortunately familiar sensation of Gran Torino using himself as a human weapon against Izuku (which, wow, the fact he could recognize Gran just from that probably said a lot).

If Gran was the one shoving him, that meant...

Izuku's head turned to see Aizawa had wrapped Bakugou in the gray scarf-like weapon he always wore around his neck, revealing a pair of yellow goggles below it. HIs glare was menacing on a good day, but right now he looked almost demonic in his rage, his eyes glowing red and hair floating above his head in a dark, waving halo.

"What is going on here?" he demanded sharply.

In that moment, Izuku realized two things. One: Aizawa must be using his Quirk to cancel out his and Bakugou's own Quirks, which meant he must be Eraserhead.

And two: they were screwed.

"They fought each other using their Quirks during a rescue exercise." Shouta's voice was tinged with exhaustion, fury, and disbelief as he stood in Nedzu's office, rubbing his still-sore eyes. "I take my eyes off them for five minutes to check on another group, and come back to a glorified fist fight and a crater in the ground."

They had just spent the past two hours talking to the two brats and getting statements from all the witnesses about the fight. He felt perfectly justified in his current ire. He had expected to use Erasure at some point today, but not to break up a fight. The only remotely "good" thing was that the fight hadn't lasted very long, only getting physical around a minute before he and Gran arrived.

That was still a minute longer than it should be.

"To be fair, I'm almost surprised a confrontation didn't happen sooner," Gran muttered. "From what I know, that Bakugou brat's been giving Midoriya a hard time most of his life for being Quirkless. I figured Midoriya would clock onto what caused his 'change of heart' eventually, or already had."

"And you didn't think to warn me?" Shouta muttered, shooting the old man a sour look.

"Didn't think it'd escalate that far. Kid's usually not one to lose himself to his temper like that. I didn't think he even had it in him to actually hit someone without a Quirk, I just expected him to shout a bit. Hell, wasn't even sure he'd be willing to do that much, honestly," he added under his breath.

"Well, Thirteen and the students who witnessed it say that Bakugou was the first to use a Quirk," Nedzu commented. "However, Midoriya did still slap and shove him first, albeit without a Quirk. Based on their accounts, it's hard to determine which of them would hold greater responsibility for the fight."

"So punish both of them," Shouta said flatly. The primary instigator behind the fight didn't really matter when both kids used their Quirks so clearly and willingly. Based on what little he saw, neither of them could justify their actions as self defense, they had both been going at each other with obvious hostile intent. They'd both allowed the situation to escalate, so they needed to be punished either way.

"Of course, I already planned on doing that," Nedzu agreed easily. "The primary question is how."

And that was indeed the question. Shouta had already issued the usual threats of expulsion, but given it was a first offense and the pair's apparent history, he couldn't justify carrying it out just yet. A simple detention and even an in-school suspension wouldn't cut it, either. Their parents had already made it quite clear they'd be grounding the boys (and Midoriya Inko's glare was surprisingly ominous, even to Shouta), but it fell upon the school to make sure this wouldn't happen again.

"You said they had a history?" he asked Gran tiredly.

"Yeah, though I don't know the full details," the old man confirmed with a nod. "I know Midoriya got bullied a bit and that Bakugou brat was one of the main instigators. I don't think it ever got too physical, mostly just slinging insults and the like. Just sounded like the brat had a superiority complex, which I think we pretty much confirmed today. From what Midoriya said, things pretty much resolved themselves over the past year though."

"Clearly, they didn't," Shouta replied flatly. Otherwise he wouldn't have to break up a superpowered schoolyard fight today. He really wasn't pleased with how things went, and how close they'd been to disaster given the two boys had particularly destructive Quirks.

He was particularly irritated about having to leave an injured student to break up the fight. Satou, Kaminari, Komori and Kodai had teamed up, with Kodai using her Quirk to shrink debris, but in the process they'd unintentionally destabilized part of the floor and caused it to collapse. Cementoss had reinforced the buildings before the exercise, but accidents could still happen. She and Komori had managed to jump to safety, getting stranded on the other side, but Komori had rolled her ankle in the process, and none of the team had Quirks suitable for crossing the gap.

She would absolutely be changing her shoes after this. Shouta would put in the application himself if she didn't do it first. At least they'd managed to move her and Kodai to safety before they got the call from Thirteen over the comms about the fight. It had been lucky he and Gran had been at the closest building when Thirteen called them, and that the space-themed hero had called them before it escalated to Quirks.

Which he was still very irritated about.

"Inko-san did inform All Might and Sir Nighteye of a general history of bullying," Nedzu piped up. "Sir looked into it some more. There were some injuries in elementary school, but nothing severe. The worst of those could be at least partially attributed to children not realizing the harm their Quirks could cause. Fortunately, it seemed by middle school that it mostly boiled down to being ignored or mocked, with most people being more neutral than hostile, though obviously that is still far from good."

"And Bakugou's name never came up once?" Shouta asked skeptically.

"It did, mostly in elementary school. There was one incident from middle school that stood out though, which actually happened the week after we became aware of Midoriya." Nedzu opened a drawer and pulled out a small sheaf of papers stapled together, placing them on the desk. Shouta took them almost warily and skimmed over the first page, recognizing the format of a typical incident report.

His eyebrows raised higher as he read it. Apparently some particularly nasty students had attempted to not only steal Midoriya's shoes, but also place a dead bird inside his shoe locker. Bakugou had stumbled upon them in the act by chance, having been sent by the teacher to run an errand. The blond's reaction had been just as explosive as Shouta would expect of the boy, putting a swift end to their plans and dragging them to the principal's office—quite literally, at that.

The rest of the file detailed the school's reaction: first suspending, and ultimately expelling the guilty boys after an investigation. The dead bird got them a visit from the police for potential animal abuse as well. It ended with a rough transcript of Bakugou's conversation with the school administration during the investigation, including a comment about not accepting that sort of behavior. 'Insults and name-calling is one thing, but those bastards were going too far,' he was quoted as saying. 'The nerd's weak, but that's no excuse to trash his stuff or try to make it physical.'

"So he didn't condone severe bullying," Shouta said when he finished skimming it. "Or at least beyond name-calling and insults." That was still an issue, but based on Shouta's interactions with him, most of that could be chalked up to Bakugou's general demeanor rather than outright bullying. The boy had a naturally abrasive personality, still not ideal but that could be worked on.

"Which is why, coupled with Midoriya's comments, we did not think that his past behavior merited any serious concern when assigning classes," Nedzu said with a nod. "The fact he defended Midoriya while still presumably Quirkless seemed to suggest the worst of the bad blood between them had passed. In retrospect, we could have been more mindful of their history. It is too late to change that though, and what's done is done. As it stands, today's incident doesn't seem like justification enough to put them into different classes, as the fight does seem to be a one-off despite their issues."

"No, separating them would just prolong the problem," Shouta agreed with a sigh. "If they had bad blood, splitting them up won't change anything." If anything, it could just make their next inevitable clash worse, especially if they separated the two after today. The fight would just leave festering feelings that could worsen if not addressed directly and swiftly. "We need to try to address it and move towards resolving their issues."

"I'm guessing a regular detention probably won't be enough," Gran huffed. "I feel like putting them in the same room with extra work would just build up more resentment over being stuck there."

"Bakugou would definitely blame Midoriya," Shouta conceded with a nod. While he'd been the first to bring Quirks into the mix, Midoriya had still been the one to make it physical with the slap and then the shove. Based on Shouta's observation of the short-tempered blond, he would absolutely blame Midoriya for the fight's escalation, logic be damned.

Shit, he really wasn't looking forward to them having in-school suspension tomorrow. They'd be stuck under the supervision of whatever teachers had a free period, and for that reason they couldn't exactly keep the kids separated. Shouta didn't look forward to what he might walk in on when his turn came.

Gran seemed to reach the same conclusion. "Don't know how to go about this in the long-term, but it would be better if we could come up with some task for them to do tomorrow," he muttered. "Keep them occupied so they can't fight."

"Like what, extra homework?" Shouta drawled, unable to help himself. "I saw their transcripts from Aldera. That will only occupy them so long." He'd been mildly pleased to realize that for once the short-tempered kid obsessed with strength and winning was actually smart instead of a muscle-headed idiot. That should have made Bakugou easier to reason with. Key word being should. In this specific instance, it made it much harder to distract him from any grudge against Midoriya.

"I was thinking more like hard labor," Gran replied. "Have them clean up the gyms or something, or run laps around the campus looking for trash. Leave them so exhausted, they don't have the energy to even think about fighting."

Before they could ponder it further a shrill beeping sound echoed through the room, making Shouta and Gran jump in surprise. While they snapped to attention Nedzu spun his chair around to face his computer, tapping the keyboard a few times until the beeping stopped. "The hell was that?" Gran grumbled irritably, poking his ear.

"Just an alert about another explosion in the support labs," the principal replied cheerily. "Since there are so many accidents, we set up a separate part of the fire alarm grid just for that area! It sends an alert to my computer, and only triggers the rest of the alarms in the main building if the fire isn't contained in a timely fashion."

Well that explained why UA didn't have weekly evacuations, Shouta thought wryly. Or maybe even daily, going by Power Loader's drunken griping at the party on Saturday. He'd always wondered about that, but had never particularly cared enough to actually look into the explanation.

Nedzu suddenly paused in his typing, ears briefly twitching as his head shot up with a glint of inspiration in his eyes. "Aha, perhaps that is the solution," he mused, and began typing with even more fervor. Shouta shot him a suspicious look, feeling an instinctive pinprick of wariness.

"You got a plan in mind?" he asked, hiding his sudden caution behind his usual bored drawl.

"Well, lab explosions tend to leave a mess that must be cleaned, don't they?" Nedzu asked, still focused on his computer. "And we happen to have two students who are in desperate need of discipline."

"Still doesn't address the risk of them going at each other's throats," Gran grumbled.

"Oh, but it does," Nedzu replied, and finally turned to face them, his ever-present smile somehow getting bigger. Shouta knew that look, and he knew it wouldn't end well.

For the kids.

"After all, nothing helps people work out their differences quite like some light mortal terror!"

Meanwhile in the 1-H support lab, several students stood in a circle near the back, unleashing fire extinguishers upon a dying blaze. The final ember was swallowed up by the white foam, and the room filled with a sudden silence as the students stopped their assault.

"Fire contained, sir!" one of them hollered, and Maijima Higari, better known as Power Loader, released a heavy sigh.

"It's not yet. You missed a piece of debris that landed right there." He pointed to a piece of smoldering wood on one of the tables, that fire thankfully much smaller since the tables were fireproof. It had already started to burn itself out, but the students still yelped and descended upon it with a flood of foam. Higari watched for a moment before sighing and returning to his desk.

Week two, and already five separate explosions and/or fires. At least this time it wasn't one of Hatsume's inventions that blew up. No, today that honor went to Kihara Jinsei. The mind-boggling part was that they were working with wooden prototypes this time, so there shouldn't have been any parts that could blow up.

Did make it more flammable though.

Higari was starting to suspect that Kihara had an explosive Quirk. As in, it made what he touched explosive. It obviously wasn't their registered Quirk, but it could be a delayed activation. That, or they just had the opposite of the "magic touch" some inventors had. Instead of making stuff they touched magically work, it broke stuff. Usually those people avoided support development though.

He pondered which option was more likely as he checked his computer to update the principal on the fire's containment. At this point the reports were second nature to him, just quick little messages explaining the details of what triggered the alarm. Maybe Nedzu would have an idea about the possible second Quirk.

When he checked his messages he found one already waiting from the principal, an unusual sight, and sat a bit more alert.

'Good afternoon! I just saw the alert for the fire. Has there been any severe damage to the testing chambers? Any messes? If so, then please do not worry about cleaning it today. Tomorrow I'll send two volunteers from Class 1-A to spend all day cleaning. Perhaps they can also test some early prototypes for your students!'

Higari read over the message in silence for a moment. "What the hell did those kids do?" he muttered to himself, but then shook his head. No, forget it, it didn't matter. All he knew was that 1-A went to the USJ today, so if two students were being volunteered to work in the lab that probably meant something happened there. And that meant...

"Dammit, he used Erasure," he groaned, letting his head hit the desk. No matter what happened today, either way he'd most likely owe Kayama at least two thousand yen. Curse whoever started those damn betting pools.

BONUS: The First Costume Change

Sekijirou sighed as he and Shiozaki Ibara stood at the door to the 1-H lab at lunch, facing a mildly exasperated Maijima. "So, let me get this straight," he said. "Your costume has given you no problems yet, and does not neglect anything about your Quirk, but you want it changed anyway."

"Yes," the vine-headed girl confirmed with a nod. "I'm not comfortable with the design anymore."

"It's a bit late to change it just because you don't like the design anymore."

"That's not it at all though," she replied, perfectly straight-faced. "I'm worried that it will slip." That had Maijima pausing, and Sekijirou suppressing another tired sigh.

"Slip?" Maijima repeated, and she nodded, clasping her hands together as she looked at him earnestly.

"The fabric only goes over one shoulder. What if a villain attack manages to slice through it? The robe is well-fitted, but would that alone be enough to keep it in place without the support? What if my entire robe falls down mid-battle? I thought it would be modest enough as it was, but the fact only a single shoulder has the support has me concerned now! I need to modify it, to add a second strap for my other shoulder!"

As she made her plea Maijima's eyes slowly moved towards Sekijirou, not that the girl noticed thanks to his helmet. Sekijirou just shook his head slightly and silently mouthed, "Mineta." That was enough to have the other hero nodding.

"Ah, I see. Alright, if it's just a second strap, it shouldn't be too hard..." As he began discussing the change with Shiozaki, Sekijirou decided he could leave them to it and headed for the teacher's lounge. Looked like he'd won the bet for first costume change, but not for the reasons he suspected. He hadn't predicted Mineta Minoru would panic at the sight of Shiozaki's costume and start spouting all the ways it could go wrong with just one strap. Now they just needed to get him to stop begging Tetsutetsu to get a shirt with shoulders.

At least he wasn't in Class 1-A with Yaoyorozu. Sekijirou could only shudder at the thought of his reaction to her costume.

Let it be known now that Aftershock!Bakugou IS more mellow compared to canon!Bakugou. Having Hachinose and other stronger students around knocked down his pride a peg. Even without that, we feel that a lot of fanon tends to exaggerate how bad it was—to clarify, Bakugou's actions were pretty despicable already in canon, but we sincerely doubt Bakugou regularly used his Quirk on or attempted to outright KILL Izuku in middle school the way some fics portray. Most of the bullying by the time they reached middle school seemed to be more verbal or shoves rather than straight-up physical assault, destruction of property and suicide baiting on a daily basis.

We won't deny the bullying was still bad (ANY bullying is bad) and undeniably happened in canon, but a lot of fan fiction depicts stuff that should have Izuku genuinely shutting down in the Battle Trial due to trauma or flashbacks. THAT is the kind of depictions we find exaggerated. Bakugou is an asshole and a bully, but his main issues with Izuku stem from trying to deny he sees Izuku as a threat. He's more of a reactive type, who responds to being "provoked" like if Izuku talks to him or how the teacher mentioned Izuku applying to UA. Going out of his way to make Izuku's life hell by tracking him down after school and such would be akin to confirming to himself that he DOES see Izuku as a threat, and thus a form of defeat.

We only saw one day of their life at Aldera in canon though (not counting the training montage), and it feels more like an exception rather than the norm. Otherwise Izuku's reactions to Bakugou once they reach UA would likely be MUCH different. (On that note, if you look at Chapter 5, we chose not to use a certain line from canon.)

All that said, we hope you readers understand why the school decided to go for "let's try to fix this" rather than "let's put them in separate classes". Under most circumstances, the second option would be more valid, but in this case their priority is to mitigate future damages since they can't keep them apart forever. Better to start working on resolving it now then risking a nationally broadcasted grudge match in the Sports Festival!

Also, a very important question for next time: What kind of projects do you think Power Loader would have assigned by the second week, and what projects would Hatsume already have at home to bring to class? Because the best, most traumatic ideas might get a cameo next chapter in a lovely montage of doom. (And on that note, thanks to Downix on the Discord for giving us an anime mad scientist to reference in Power Loader's POV!)