Sunday came and Deku was off again. He wasn't isolating himself anymore. He still didn't engage with anyone, but if he was downstairs and someone talked to him, he would offer a small smile and nod. He didn't turn away. He didn't hide. Maybe my words had reached him or maybe his friends had spoken to him and encouraged him out.
Icy Hot had to remind him to visit Recovery Girl and when he came back, he came back with good news. He could talk again. He would keep his reply's to a minimum, but at least he opened his mouth now and his voice sounded fine when he did. I thought that was odd that he had gone from silence to sounding fine, but then again, he could have been keeping his mouth shut because the nurse had told him to until it was fully recovered. My questions hadn't been specific enough to know that.
I would have marched over to him and dragged him away by his collar to demand proper answers now that he could speak, but I didn't. I already knew that if he couldn't tell me about what was going on before, like Pinky, he would be sworn to silence about the matter by the teachers still and Four Eyes and Icy Hot rarely left his side, like it was a miracle that he was even outside of his room, which it kind of was. But on top of that, he felt off. He didn't look my way at all, but he was acting so different to the day before. There was a more confident air around him that was just so unlike Deku that it made me uncomfortable. I just accepted that he was out of his room, good for him, and left to do some training.
The girls and some of the guys in class avoided him still, going as far as leaving the space he was in, but no one said anything, and his two close friends just seemed happy to see him smiling again, even if the smiles felt wrong. Sometimes I thought I spotted a concerned frown on either of their faces, but then Deku would smile, and they would relax again.
Monday came and went, and everything was the same. He was attentively quiet behind me, but sometimes I could almost feel him staring into the back of my head and when I turned to glare at him. He smiled then turned his attention back to his work, but that smile, his eyes, they were unsettling again. Something in his eyes was taunting me, inviting me to play some game I had no clue about, and I hated it.
Tuesday and Deku whispered something to the teacher to get himself out of our heroics class before we had even gone to change. Mr. Aizawa glared at the boy but nodded and then turned his attention to someone else. I paused when leaving the room, my glare fixed on the nerd. He saw me looking and faced me with a wide bright smile and shot me that damn look again. This time I went to march over, my shoulders squared to wrangle him when Mr. Aizawa shot me a firm glare.
"Bakugo, shouldn't you be getting ready" he glared at me. Deku's damn smile was gone, and I could only grumble and turn back to leave the room to get ready. Deku only sat on the sidelines with the teachers and watched that day.
Evening came and after dinner I hunted the nerd down. Every time I saw him the uncomfortable feeling in my gut grew and I was going to get answers this time, even if I had to beat them out of him. We had gotten in trouble for fighting before, but I didn't care about to consequences. I was getting to the bottom of this shit. Now.
I found him cleaning dishes in the kitchen by himself.
"Oi, Deku" I growled, and he turned to face me. At first he looked quizzical, but the moment he saw it was me he smirked.
"What is it?" he asked, turning back to wiping the plate in his hand.
"Come with me" I told him, and he put the plate down.
"What for?" he asked, picking up the next dish. Even though he wasn't facing me I could see the hint of an amused smirk on his lips.
"Just do what I say" I barked, and he shot me a sideways glance before putting that dish down too. This time he didn't reach for the next one. He stared back at me for a long time, his smirk gone, like he was trying to figure me out right then and there. I glared back.
"Fine" he said and put the clothe down and I turned to lead the way out.
He was silent walking behind me the entire way to Ground Beta. I knew from last time I fought him here that there were security bots around, but this time I wanted them there. I had a sickening feeling in my gut, and this was my way of figuring out of my gut feeling was right or not. He followed me into the first wide street and then I stopped to face him.
"Reminds you of old times right?" I dared to smirk. His green eyes flicked around the gloomy empty street, but he wasn't nervous. He should have been nervous here alone with me again.
"Should it?" he asked with that damn amused smirk back on his fucking face and I wanted to smack him right then and there.
"It should," I huffed back, "now, you're going to tell me what the fuck is going on" I warned him with a glare.
"And why would I do that?" he replied, his smirk growing and his eyes shining like I was below him. I gritted my teeth.
"Or I'll fucking beat it out of you" I hissed, lowering my stance slightly.
"I'd like to see you try" his smirk broke out into a sick smile and his eyes gleamed with the challenge, "Kaaa-cchan" his smile grew, and my gut dropped. The way he said that nickname, how he dragged out the 'a', I had heard it before, years ago and he must have seen the drop on my face before I brought it back to a pissed snarl. This wasn't Deku.
I lunged forwards, my palms sparking and ready to take the fucker down. He filled me with so much rage and hate that my negative feelings toward Deku felt like nothing in comparison. I raised a hand towards him, ready to explode his ass when a wall of fire stopped me, and I had to divert my blast to get myself out of the way. The fire dyed away, and the imposter smirked at me, opening his mouth to let smoke out. I knew he had that quirk, but I hadn't stopped to think he would have improved it that much. I cursed myself for underestimating the bastard.
"You really want to know what I did to that girl?" he smirked, smoke coming from his mouth with each word. I snarled at him.
"She trusted little Izuku so much. It was her own fault for letting me get so close" he looked pleased with himself, and it spurred me into action again. I raised my hands for an AP shot. It was a powerful attack for someone so close, but I wanted him gone. I wanted to see him on the floor in pain.
He took a deep breath and blew out more fire. This time it swirled and moved like a massive snake that bared it's fangs down at me. Breathing fire, okay, but shaping it and controlling it, I didn't remember any of that. The snake of fire bared down on me, and my AP shot cut through it, but the imposter had moved to the side while I couldn't see past his fire. The snake gathered itself back up, smaller than before but just as fierce, blocking him from my view.
"She was so fun to play with," I heard him laugh on the other side as the snake came forwards again. Another blast, and it recoiled, smaller again. I glimpsed his green hair past it and turned my aim to him.
"Then your pink friend had to come interrupt us" he sounded disappointed, irritated and finally it all clicked.
Pinky had walked in; she had seen what the imposter was doing or trying to do to Pink Cheeks. She had stopped it, but by being witness she had been dragged into it. She may have helped her friend, but now I knew why the school looked to her for starting the rumors, for poisoning Deku, why she had been glaring at him that day. It explained why Pink Cheeks hadn't come back.
"You raped her?" I spat with venom. I wasn't close to the girl at all but knowing that he had hurt someone in our class, while pretending to be Deku made me sick. It made me angry. I already had a million reasons to hate the bastard, but now I had even more.
"Sadly, I didn't get that far" he laughed. The fucker laughed. I fired my AP shot, the snake bending it's body in the way to defend him, my shot cut through it, but I missed my target. He had stepped to the side just in time to avoid it. But the fire snake was gone, fading away and I charged through the remaining hole in its body. I could feel parts of me singe from the fire, but I didn't care. I wanted to get close enough to hurt him, and I did.
He hadn't expected me to jump through his dying fire snake and fire a blast right in his face. The force pushed him back and he smashed through a glass fronted shop that had surprisingly gone undamaged from past exercises. The last of the snake fizzled away and I marched up to the store front. I had planned to step in after him, to beat the shit of him while he was down, but instead I had to raise an explosion to defend myself as shattered glass flew my way. They were small pieces, enough to be destroyed in the blast, but my arms, legs and cheek still got nicked as fragments flew by.
With the fire and explosions I was sure a security bot must have picked us up by now. Pros would be on the way to stop us. I just had to buy for time. I stepped away from the window so he couldn't see me as he got back up. His quirk was not how I remembered, but I knew where they had come from at least and that fact burned with unfairness.
"So that was you on Monday?" I called out in a hiss. I could hear him moving inside the dark shop, "Where was Deku that day?"
"Izuku? he was sleeping" he chuckled from inside, I could hear his shuffling footsteps getting closer, "I just made sure he didn't interfere for the day" I bared my teeth. That's why Deku didn't remember Monday. He had slept through the entire day. If anyone had walked into his room, they would have known right away that this one was an imposter, but no one thought to do that. Why would they have, when it looked like Deku was right with us the whole damn day.
"And Sunday?" I pushed. I knew that who I had seen Saturday night had been Deku for sure, but I hadn't stuck around to see him come back and then he had been off since Sunday. The imposter took his place on Sunday. He stepped out through the broken window, his green hair a mess, blood running down from his forehead and making him squint through one green eye, but his twisted smirk was still there as he turned his head to face me.
"You were always so good at telling us part Kaa-cchan" he smirked, "yet you didn't do anything to stop me till now" I glared at him. He was right and his words stabbed at me, but he had been gone so long that I could have almost forgotten his existence.
"Maybe you're just rusty" he broke into a smile, and I lifted a hand to blast him again. He took a deep breath, but I was faster, blowing him away down the street. He twisted in the air to land with a roll and blew fire my way the moment he stopped. I thrust my hands behind me and blasted myself into the air and over the flames, readying myself to come down on top of him with another blast to end it, but his fire came to life again and twisted below to rear up at me. I lowered my hands to blast below to keep the flames from me, when they stopped and died away with nothing to feed on. I looked back. Mr. Aizawa was in the street, his scarf in his hands and his glowing gaze on the imposter. I could still feel the popping in my palms, so I knew he hadn't erased my quirk too. I landed with a crouch between them. In the time it took me to hit the ground, Mr. Aizawa had thrown his scarf forward to entangle the imposter, who only smirked back in defiance.
"Care to explain, Bakugo" spoke Mr. Aizawa with a warning tone, but he never took his eyes off of his captive.
"That's not Deku" I replied, my glare fixed on him too.
"I can see that" retorted the teacher and I could have yelled at him. The imposter broke into laughter.
"Where's Deku?" I yelled at him, marching closer to clobber the bastard.
"Izuku is far away now" he laughed back at me as I closed in. Mr. Aizawa didn't say anything to stop me. He was listening intently.
"I sent him on a little errand to keep him busy. Seems dear mummy went missing" his smile grew, and I stood over him, my hands popping in his face.
"What did you do you, fucker?" I hissed through bared teeth. His green eyes bore into me.
"Who knows," he smirked, "but I wish I could be there to see it. The look on his face when he realizes he's too late," my heart stopped, "and then when the door closes behind him. BOOM!" he broke into wild laughter, and I actually had to take a step back. He stopped suddenly when Mr. Aizawa, who had been reeling in his scarf as he came closer, pulled it tighter around him.
"Where did you send him?" demanded the teacher.
"Wouldn't you like to know" he smirked back.
A black void opened up behind him and started to swallow the imposter up. We both moved forward to grab him when an arm came through, sprouting blue flames, to keep us back. Mr. Aizawa lunged for me, pushing us both down to avoid the roaring blue flames, and then it was gone. The portal was gone. The flames were gone. The imposter was gone. We got to our feet, Mr. Aizawa turning to me.
"I hope you have an explanation for this"
I did.
"How did you know he was an imposter?" asked Mr. Aizawa as he slumped in a chair opposite me. He had led me to the principles office where All Might, and the principle sat and listened.
"He's been acting weird since Sunday," I told them with a scowl, "Monday too. That was him who hurt Pink Cheeks. Not Deku"
"Young Bakugo," spoke up All Might from where he stood beside the principle's desk, "how do you-"
"He told me," I shot back, "It wasn't that hard to figure out with all this shit going on around here," Mr. Aizawa shot me a look for swearing but the mouse principle seemed unfazed by it.
"So when I asked him, he admitted to it" I turned my firm gaze to the principle at his desk, "It wasn't Deku" I said firmly, and he nodded.
"Unfortunately with both Uraraka and Ashido as clear witnesses to the incident and both saying it was Midoriya, there is little we can do to persuade the police on the matter" he replied Mr. Aizawa tiredly.
"If they're so damn sure it was him, why didn't they just take him away right already then?" I narrowed my eyes.
"That was due to myself," spoke up the principle, "it was due to my interference that he remained in school until a court hearing was decided on, but then-"
"But then he was poisoned and lost his voice" I finished for him, and the principle nodded. I looked down, "that was that bastards doing too" I hissed.
"How can you be certain?" asked Mr. Aizawa.
"Who else could it be!" I shot back angrily. What a fucking stupid question. We had literally just had someone in our grasp who was trying to fuck up Deku's life and he asks that. Fucking stupid.
"We can inform the police investigating the incident, but without evidence there is no guarantee" the principle warned with a frown.
"Tch" I turned my head away to snarl.
"What he said about Midoriya's mother-" All Might trailed off, "and where is young Midoriya?"
"The police had been attempting to contact her since the incident last week, but there was no reply. After that the police visited and found the Midoriya home empty" reported the principle and I looked back to see him shaking his head. All Might looked to the ground.
"That fucking little psychopath took her" I hissed between my teeth. No one said anything in reply.
"We shall inform the police that there is a look-a-like of Midoriya out there causing havoc and inform Uraraka's family too. She may feel a little comforted knowing that it wasn't her friend who did such things" announced the principle, "Bakugo, I hope you understand how sensitive this issue is for the school and it's students and ask that you do not say anything to anyone" the principle informed me, and I glared back at him.
"He's not some fucking look-a-like" I hissed back with disgust.
"You know something?" Mr. Aizawa narrowed his tired eyes at me.
"I know everything" I spat back at him. All Might stepped forward, hands raised to calm us.
"Tell us what you know young Bakugo" he asked calmly. I looked off to the side and bit my lip. It wasn't my story to tell, but if it helped them understand and helped prove Deku's innocence then I would. I lifted my head to face them all. It was a long story.
"That psychopath you met today and who has been trumping around the school like he fucking belongs here is Deku's older twin brother. He's always been a little nut job though. Always made Deku's life hell and no one even noticed. Growing up everyone just thought Deku was clumsy and a cry baby who injured himself all the time, but that wasn't it. It was his brother. He would always find ways to hurt him.
I don't know why the little fuck was like that, but he always was. It only got worse when he developed a quirk and Deku didn't. Shit, even I didn't realize what was going on until I caught him doing it. I only left them alone for a minute and came back to tell them that lunch was ready when I saw him holding Deku down in the pond. I pushed him off and yelled at him, but he wasn't sorry and when my mum came to see what all the noise was about, the little bastard ran to her crying that Deku had fallen into the pond and how scared he had been for him. The little fuck.
After that, I knew what to look for and I saw it too often.
Deku tripping onto the road. He only just missed being hit by a car, but his brother had pushed him.
Throwing a ball over the fence and pressuring Deku to go get it, only to find an angry dog on the other side.
The time he tried to force feed Deku wet cement.
Making him eat silica packets.
The time he thought throwing knives at Deku and telling him to catch them was a fun new game.
Or when he poured bleach into Deku's cup.
And that's only the times I had been there to see it. Just imagine how bad it must have been at home.
Deku was in and out of the hospital all the time and was fucking terrified of him. They used to sleepover all the time and Deku would stay in my damn bed just to be away from the little fuck. Finally I think their parents noticed or found out and the split up and took one of them each. Deku obviously stayed here with his mum and god knows where the crazy one went with their dad"
I was staring down at my knees with an angry scowl. I hated those memories, of seeing Deku being targeted and unable to escape. He had been such a wimp back then and I still couldn't understand why he didn't tell anyone what was going on. I had only found out by accident and being only four, there was only so much I could do to protect him.
After my own quirk manifested I felt more confident standing up to his brother and when I did, he didn't want to come around anymore. Only Deku ever came to stay, and he did most weekends just to be away from his brother. The nerd clung to me and back then I didn't shun him for it. To him I was his hero, but he never grew past seeing me like that, even after I turned on him.
After his parents split and his brother went away I thought Deku would start to relax, to become more confident and less of a scaredy cat, but he didn't. He still clung to me like a baby. I tried to push him away, to make him stand on his own two feet, but he wouldn't and when I started to turn nasty to him, he still tried to cling to me like his life depended on it. Maybe he was scared that if he relaxed his brother would be around the next corner, but his brother never came back. Not till now.
I had grown to be such an ass to Deku. At first I had good intentions. I had wanted him to get stronger and braver, but when he didn't I started to get angry at him. I started being mean, to push him away so he wouldn't cling to me, so he would grow, but he never stopped sticking close.
I had been both happy and pissed when he started at UA. Pissed at first because he suddenly had a quirk out of nowhere and I thought he had been hiding it from me since we were kids. I thought that if he had that power when we were so young that he should have used it to defend himself instead of relying on me to protect him. I later found out that that wasn't the case. But then I started to feel happy for him. It was our second year at UA, and he had come so far from a wimp to the hero he was becoming. He still had his panicked and awkward moments, but he was stronger now. I thought he was finally stepping out of my shadow. Something that pleased me and annoyed me. After so many years of him behind me, old habits die hard.
If I had been more comforting to him that night, if I had shown him that I was there for him physically by hugging him, maybe he would have opened up to me about what was going on when he left Saturday night. Maybe he would have stayed.
Judging from his expression that night and the fact that he hadn't come back, I guessed his brother had called him out to meet and took his place as he left to find him mum. It stung that he hadn't come back to find me or anyone else to help him. Hadn't called or sent a text. Maybe his brother had threatened him if he didn't leave right then and there and taken his phone or maybe Deku just didn't feel like he needed my help or protection anymore and that thought stung.
All Might had moved to take a seat beside Mr. Aizawa with his hands to his face as he hung his head. Of course that news was harder on him than the rest. He was close to Deku, and he hadn't had a clue.
"If you are comfortable with it, I would like you to make an official statement with the police," spoke up the principle from his desk, "it may be a huge help to prove Midoriya's innocence" I nodded.
"He shouldn't have left," spoke up Mr. Aizawa with a tired sigh, "he's only made himself look guilty by fleeing"
"He's not running," I retorted, "he left to go save his mum"
"The police won't see it that way," replied Mr. Aizawa with a hard stare and I bit back a reply, "and unless they find his mum alive and able to defend Midoriya's name, they may just as easily assume that his mum ran away with him which will only make him look more guilty of the crime" the principle nodded solemnly. I just glared at the floor with annoyance.
"I will arrange for the officers on the case to come by to take your statement," the principle told me, "for now, I think you should be in bed" and with that I was dismissed. The last thing I heard them discussing as I closed the door behind me was the involvement of the League of Villains.
Two days later there was an explosion reported in north Japan. A bomb had gone off in an abandoned building. A body had been found and the details weren't pretty, but it had been Deku's mum. There was no mention of a second body discovered at the site meaning Deku could have gotten out in time or been snagged by the League of Villains. Of course that band of twisted fucks would drag Deku's brother into the mix when they discovered him, but killing his own mum, was another level. I wondered about Deku's dad. They had never been close, but if something had happened to him, surely Deku would have known about it.
Our class had noticed the absence of Deku the day after I had fought him, but the school offered no explanation. Unfortunately all of that had gone out the window when they reported on the death of his mum. They listed Deku as a dangerous fugitive. That the general public should keep an eye out for him and labeled him a sex offender and rubbed UA's name through the dirt. Worse yet, they made it out that Deku had fled with his mum to avoid charges and after some assumed dispute, had killed her. They blamed Deku for his own mothers death. Luckily they hadn't called out Pink Cheek's name as the victim. That was the only blessing the school had.
Our classmates had been horrified. Some staring blanky at the screen, some turning away with tears in their eyes, some got up and left. Icy Hot had gotten up and walked away, furious at the media slandering his friends name.
I had kept Deku at an arm's length all these years until starting at UA and any information I ever picked up about him over those years had come from my parents, mainly my mum who still remained close to Deku's mum. From her I knew that Deku's dad still wrote to him every few months. Did he still write? Would he have warned Deku about his brother? It could very well be a topic they chose to never discuss which I could understand, but I found it hard to believe that Deku's dad would sit back and do nothing while the son he was responsible for went wild.
I googled Deku's dad, but didn't find anything about him being injured, missing or dead so I went on to plan B, which I admittedly felt wrong for doing, but I snooped around in Deku's room. Now that I didn't have to worry about either brother walking in on me, it was easy enough, but knowing that I was snooping put me on edge whenever I heard someone out in the hall.
I riffled through his desk draws, had a quick peek in his top dresser draw, but I found the letters in a box under his bed. A very small amount at that too. Only two of them. I opened them to read and saw that they were both dated to the beginning of the last school year. In fact the last one had been sent after our first school sports festival, congratulating Deku for the day and marveled that his son had a quirk. Turned out Deku hadn't told his dad about it till he had seen it on the screen. His dad must have assumed that Deku had gotten into UA but as part of the general studies classes instead. After that, there had been no more letters. Deku's room may look like a heaping mess on the outside with all of the All Might clutter filling every available space, but he was an organized person and despite searching for more letters, found that he had kept them all together and that there were no more to find.
As I tucked them away back under his bed I had a horrible suspicion forming in my head.
Deku probably dropped off his brother's radar as much as Deku tried to forget him. Shit, even I practically forgot his brother existed until this shit show but then if his dad had seen him on the sports festival being broadcast that day, surely his brother had as well. That would have put Deku back on his fucking radar and I didn't know how he would have felt seeing his once quirkless brother kicking ass – and breaking bones – at the sports festival at a prestigious hero school. Hell, I had felt like utter shit when I thought Deku had been hiding his quirk from me his whole life. Only, I could imagine that little psychopath reacting far worse than me, and that's saying something.
We were in our second year at UA, yes, but we hadn't had the sports festival yet, meaning that within less than a year Deku's brother had taken his time to get here. He teamed up with the League of Villains, took away Deku's mum and maybe his dad too and came to ruin his life. I knew that thanks to Deku having One For All, the league would be targeting him. They would either want him in the grasps to either try to take the quirk from him or kill him.
I shook myself. This line of thinking would only put me in a worse mood than before, and nobody would want me blowing the damn place up.
From what I could tell, Deku was north. He had gone that way to find his mum and the site of that explosion was his last known location as far as I was concerned. I had failed Deku. I had let him down. If I had done things differently, things would be different now and knowing that weighed on me, but I wasn't going to just sit here and take that shit, no, I had a plan. I just needed the right kind of support to make it happen.
Next chapter will be Deku POV - so hang in there :)