He noticed it the instant the nerd walked in, looking pale as a ghost and burdening an obvious stiffness in his midsection.
'Huh, wonder who did it this time?' Katsuki Bakugou thought disinterestedly, chest huffing in slight annoyance.
A fat, swollen black eye was smack dab in the middle of Deku Midoriya's face. So Disgusting. Whoever did that clearly had some pent up anger they needed to get out and saw the quirkless wimp as the perfect punching bag. Which he was.
He leaned back in his seat, uncaring that he was putting himself in danger of splitting his skull in half or whatever those idiot teachers were always babbling about— it didn't matter. He was going to be the number one hero in no time! He was above all these other runts! Well— before today he would've been absolutely certain of that statement— but that changed when the last person came through the door this morning, mere seconds before the bell rang.
He forgot her name already, which wasn't surprising considering her quirk was lame as fuck. Like, ear jacks? That's laughable. How the hell did she expect to become a hero like that?
He had, in fact, laughed out loud when she announced proudly to the whole class that she had ambitions of becoming a hero, earning him a startled frown from the girl.
Their teacher, who hadn't been too invested in the lesson to begin with, stared at Deku for a few seconds before shaking their head and telling him to sit down in their damn seat, then proceeded to lecture him on timely arrivals. Tch. Serves him right.
Bakugou normally would've ignored the green-haired boy's existence entirely, but it was so damn frustrating trying to concentrate on the board when he was shaking like a wilting leaf right in front of him! He briefly considered just throwing Deku out the window but then he would have to deal with his constant jabbering about how he was always so mean and what not, as if he gave a fuck. Needless to say, he wasn't in the right frame of mind to entertain any hint of verbs directed towards the nerd. Not now. Not after what happened.
The new girl kept shooting worried glances in Deku's direction, and oh how did that make things more infuriating. Once the others caught on, they would fill her in about his situation. Said situation being that he's a quirkless weakling. Then she'll know who to prioritize worrying about.
After what felt like a goddamn eternity, with the bell signifying the end of class and the start of lunch, he made sure to shove his way past the nerd, adding in an excessive bit of unnecessary force, taking pleasure in watching him nearly fall on his ass. His sadistic grin immediately reverted into a snarling frown when he saw the new girl rush to his side, checking up on him.
'Tch! Whatever!' He thought with disdain, as he stomped into the cafeteria.
He felt his anger spike again as the nerd had the gall to stop by the vending machine near him to catch his breath. Was he so beat up and out of shape that he could barely handle a walk around the fucking tables? Pathetic! However, he did feel this required further investigation…
"Deku!" He gave the shorter teen no time to properly respond as he slammed him into the wall, earning him a pained squawk.
"K-Ka- Bakugou!?" His surprised correction served to confuse the rageful blonde even more.
"Why're you acting so weird!? Who did this to you!?"
Deku looked actually taken aback by the second part of that, though he resumed his fearful stuttering as he coolly retorted:
"J-just bullies being b-bullies Bakugou. I'm sure you'd understand that." Then the little shit went and smiled at him.
Even if it was wobbly, twitching, and clearly forced— it ignited to life a shackled demon struggling for freedom deep within Bakugou's soul. With no delay, he had Deku bashed up against the side of the vending machine, hanging by his uniform jacket like a ragdoll. By now, their altercation was being observed by a large number of the cafeteria goers, who all subtly stopped speaking so they could better listen in on what was happening.
"What's that supposed to mean, huh!? You calling me a bully you shitty nerd!?" He sparked mini explosions in his palm for an added intimidation effect.
"W-well, we definitely aren't f-friends! I don't see friends treating each other like this!" The nerd bit back, testing Bakugou's limits a considerable amount.
Deku was actually growing a spine? What brought this on? No— he told him not to get a big head about the sludge villain a couple days ago. Surely he took his death threat seriously. Because if he didn't…
He was going to have hell to pay for thinking he was better than Katsuki Bakugou in any capacity.
"Oh you think you're better than me just because of what happened with the sludge villain!? Is that it!?" He was nearly on the verge of strangling the shitty nerd.
"No! Of course not! I-"
"-What do you think you're doing!?"
Bakugou dropped Deku unceremoniously, whipping around to get in the face of whoever just had the balls to yell at him.
"Eh!? New girl!?" He growled, surprised for the second time that day.
"My name is Kyouka Jiro."
"What's your problem!? Got something to say to me!?" He barked.
"What's my problem!?" She looked genuinely shocked. "What's your problem! Who do you think you are? You think you can just beat on someone in the middle of the school cafeteria!?"
"I don't have to give a shit about what you think, Ears!" He seethed, looking like he was ready to strangle her now.
"Oh, I'm so scared!" She threw her hands up in a sarcastic manner, though quickly reverted to scowling at him.
"Please, enlighten me on what reason you could possibly have that might, somehow, justify this. If you do, I would LOVE to hear it."
He laughed chaotically.
"Deku-"
"-Midoriya."
"-Excuse- !"
"-You call him by his actual name. Now go on."
"...He's quirkless." He started slowly, glaring holes through the new girl's head.
Jiro simply stared back at him, clearly unimpressed with the display.
"That's it?" She scoffed.
"So you're a quirkist asshole?"
"Hah!? Quirkist!? I'm not-"
"You're bullying him on the basis that he is quirkless. That's quirkism. Nothing you say can change that."
The blonde agonizingly palmed at his own face.
"You. Don't. Get. It." He emphasized each word by stalking closer to her, in a vain attempt to get her to back down, but she didn't move from her spot.
She glared back in defiance.
"Deku is a little, quirkless, freak! He mutters about every useless detail he sees— then puts it all down in these shitty notebooks! It wouldn't surprise me if he had notes about all the quirks in the school by this point! It's some stalker type shit only a villain would do!" He stuck an accusatory thumb at the boy in question.
"Then he has the nerve to come out and say that he wants to try for UA!? Says he wants to be a hero!? Tch! What a fucking joke! Without a quirk!? He's a Deku and that's all that he will ever amount to! I make sure to put him in his place!"
Jiro was appalled by the blonde boy's explanation.
"None of that makes any sense. How can you not see what you're doing is wrong?"
"He is trying to be a quirkless hero! I'm stopping him before he gets himself and many others killed!"
"Oh! So this is some roundabout way of protecting him!? By picking on him in front of the whole school!? Forget being a quirkist ass— you're just a prick!"
A collective gasp rang throughout the cafeteria, with few people covering their mouths to try and snuff out the sound. No one wanted to invoke the blonde's ire in the blood frenzied state he was in right now. Bakugou literally looked like he was about to kill a man— had killed a man.
"I am going to be number one…" He trailed off, hinting at a guttural undertone of primal anger in his voice.
"I will surpass All Might… and be the greatest hero to ever exist."
"Pfft, could've fooled me! With an attitude like that you'll never crack the top hundred."
"I'll kill you." He grinded his teeth.
"Go ahead." She closed her eyes, splaying her arms out widely. "Use your quirk and beat up the girl who transferred into this school literally today— that will look really good on your record!" She cracked an eye open, stifling a laugh upon seeing the blonde's god of war-like expression attempting to smite her down.
"You see, if I had someone like you picking on me for half my life, I'd probably feel pretty bad about my chances too. But I do know something Baka-go, and it's that you don't deserve a single ounce of his respect. I've known Midoriya for only half a day and I can already tell he's far surpassed you, and it's not even close. He doesn't judge people for things out of their control— nor try to make their daily life miserable. If you need help, he'll be there, because that's the type of person he is and I don't think anyone will be saying the same about you. They'd dread the day they were fated to have seen you arrive at the scene of a hostage situation. So, go ahead, keep going on about how you will be the greatest and how your so much better than everyone— when Green here becomes an amazing hero-"
"-I'm going to be the greatest! Better than All M- !" Bakugou attempted to interrupt, but found himself shut up before he could get going.
"-Midoriya is ten times the hero you will ever be! So dream on, Baka-go!" She declared it strongly, passionately, as a radiant smile overtook her features.
There were many things Bakugou could have chosen to do at that moment. Unfortunately, about ninety-two percent of them fell into the 'saying good riddance to my future career as a pro hero before it even starts territory.' The other remaining eight percent were options one most often took when presented with a life or death situation. That left essentially two choices left, and if the circumstances had been in his favor, well, he definitely wouldn't have chosen—
"...I won't forget this." He said ominously, before walking away.
—Flight.
The collective school body of the Aldera cafeteria bore witness to a downfall of a titan. They all watched, bug-eyed, as Katsuki Bakugou— the most popular, feared, powerful, and most likely to be guaranteed for a successful future career in pro heroics, boy on campus, kicked open the push doors of the cafeteria, before storming away, not because he was trying to build up enough to distance to run in for a nasty right hook— but because he had been defeated. Mentally… perhaps even emotionally? Morally? Whatever— he definitely still lost that— everyone saw it. Hey, They'll take a win when they can get one.
There was a minute of utter silence to allow for that event to be digested, as everyone came to terms with what this once-in-a-lifetime moment truly meant. For one boy with rocks as hair, the obvious answer came swiftest to him. He stood up, before excitedly announcing:
"The new girl just kicked Baka-go's ass!" His shouting was quickly followed by an uproar of approval, a healthy mixture of cheers and laughter.
She gasped as she was swamped by a crowd, almost letting out a scream herself when they lifted her onto her shoulders and began marching her throughout the halls of the school. She was getting carried an uncomfortable amount of times today! Chanting her praise along their route. she had initially wanted to just tell the blonde off and then go eat lunch with Midoriya somewhere, but an angel on her shoulder decided to possess her and speak through her at that moment. Because damn, did she mean everything she said, and she would've given that asshole a whole speech and a half too, had it not been for her wanting to wrap things up so soon, knowing her friend must've not only been in tremendous pain, but be incredibly embarrassed about being put on the spot like that.
She tried to let them know she wanted down, but her voice was drowned out by their constant jeering.
"Let's go, New Girl! She beat Baka-go's ass! Let's go! Let's go- !" and so on.
Finally, after approximately one minute and three quarters— the students who were carrying her started getting really tired, which felt slightly insulting. They also realized that lunchtime was halfway over and they were all still very hungry. So they promptly dropped her off the by gardens and booked it back to the cafeteria.
"What the fuck was that?" She spoke aloud to herself, flabbergasted, to say the least.
'It doesn't matter— I need to find Green.' She thought, panicked that she lost sight of him again. She could try troubleshooting? But then again, she hadn't ever been on campus before today and it wasn't like she was here for the orientation… she didn't know the layout of the school— her only reference being the outdated map on the Aldera website. She sighed, he could be anywhere.
A gust of wind blew a strand of hair in her eye, and she angrily swiped it away. In her motion she caught a blot in the furthest corner of her peripheral vision. She instinctively gave into her curiosity and felt her eyes blink in rapid succession. It's… because she was facing the wind now— duh. Anyway, from what she was able to identify as the blot from earlier, actually happened to be a pair of hanging red high-tops, which she, and perhaps she was a little slow to recognize, acknowledging that they belonged to said boy she was currently searching for!
He was on the roof. If she wasn't worried before, now she for sure was. She lucked out as a lower classman seemed to know who she was looking for when she asked and directed her towards a set of stairs that lead up to the roof. He didn't really need to throw in that he was 'crying buckets,' but ugh, whatever. It's fine. It'll all be fine.
She was almost hesitant to open the door that led to the open plato of the school roof, but a fervent shake of the head set herself straight. She had nothing to be hesitant about. She was just someone who was concerned for their friend. She owed this to him. Bare minimum.
"Hey Green? What's up?" She asked, gently shutting the door behind her.
The boy gave no indication that he heard her, apparently content with sitting completely still.
"This is a nice s-spot, isn't it? You get a view of the whole garden, and the open s-sky! It's much better than the view on the other side- the one across from us- all you get is a bunch of roads and b-buildings." He hummed lightly.
Jiro found a semi comfortable position beside him, glancing over at his face, she could see the glistening stains leftover from tear streaks on his freckled cheeks.
"So… I heard you were crying buckets." She chuckled a bit.
"If its too much pain, I'm going to get the nurse—"
"I-I wasn't c-crying because of the p-pain. Don't worry, I stitched myself up- my Mom taught me how. She used to be a nurse, too." He laughed wetly, though also wheezing throughout.
"No one has ever done anything that kind for me on my behalf before. That was beautiful. Thank you, Jiro. I really mean it. What you said means a lot to me." He sniffled.
"H-heh, it's no problem Green. I'll be honest with you, too. I seriously thought I was going to die today." She gulped, finding it weird she was nervous to admit it so openly.
Midoriya froze at her words, but before he could say anything else she pointedly shushed him with her jack.
"If you dare say 'I'm sorry for not saving you sooner than I did,' I swear Baka-go isn't gonna be the one who's kicking your ass."
He promptly kept his mouth shut.
"When I thought I was for sure going to die, I thought about all the things I wished I had done. The way I wish I could conduct myself- just… everything that I could've done to improve myself but I never put in the time and effort to actually do it. I'd never be able to sing or play my instruments again. I'd never get to be a hero. I thought about how I'd never get to see my dorky parents again." Her voice cracked at the end, the shell of her calm adaptable facade slowly but surely unravelling itself.
"I thought about how I wished I could've been more confident, and if I had been more confident… maybe things would be better than they are now. I think I vowed to myself, or more like prayed to whatever god was listening in that train that if I made it out of this alive I would forever choose to live in the moment, instead of letting my fears of insecurity puppeteer me like some kind of doll. S-so I guess that's why I ended up saying what I did. I just… I really wanted to show you that I appreciate you rescuing me and giving me the chance to give back. I won't waste it anymore. I promise."
Green was struck by a loss for words.
"Also, I would be lying if dealing with that Baka-go joker seemed like cannon fodder in comparison to those real villains we had to deal with. A stupid bully isn't going to have their way with me around. I can't believe it! All that for what!? Because you're quirkless!? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! Wait a second– you're quirkless!?" Her eyes narrowed in on him, as he guiltily shrunk under her gaze.
"Um… so to make a long story short, I was basically powerless until last night."
"Interesting."
"Also, I had no idea that I could transform into an alien that could move at super speeds."
"Did you say alien?"
"I did. That's what my transformations are: aliens. But they are from another universe, so not from around here. I mean, I think that's how it works? I guess if quantum mechanics is to be believed-"
"-Green, we're getting off track here."
"-O-oh, sorry! I didn't mean to start muttering again!" He winced through his apologies.
"But yeah. I've only turned into two aliens so far; Jellytronic and Slipstream."
"...Jellytronic?"
"I made the name up. It's supposed to be like jellyfish and electronic, but mixed together, but they still kind of make the same sound that electronic makes with the first part of it, you know?" He blinked at her odd expression.
"Did I say something wrong?"
"Nope. Nothings wrong. Keep going?" She clapped her hands in her lap, easily deflecting, as he continued chattering again obliviously.
"I don't even know how many I will be able to turn into! It could be just those two, or maybe ten, fifteen, or heck, even a thousand!"
He shook his head in dismay.
"The most I was made aware of is that it implied that my transformations are immensely powerful."
"I sense there is more to this than you are letting on? Other than that it's completely nuts."
"There is." He admitted. "But I don't really have the energy to explain something like that right now."
"...So you're aiming to be a hero? You want to apply to UA? At least that's what I heard from various sources."
Midoriya perked up at her mentioning of UA.
"I… yeah, basically. I've wanted to be a hero for as long as I can remember. Even when I was diagnosed as quirkless, I never stopped thinking that I could be the world's first quirkless hero. Now- now I have an actual shot at my dream." He said, clenching his fist tightly.
He turned to her, determination present in his normal eye.
"Jiro, will you help me not waste my chance either? By going to UA with me to become heroes?"
"After what we've been through? Being a hero seems like the only option we got left!" She laughed, giving him a playful nudge.
"H-hey be careful, we're on the edge! One wrong misstep and-"
"Oh, shut it you! Clearly you don't fear death, so I'm not worried!"
"How does that work!?"
"Cuz' I know you'll save me!"
He blushed embarrassingly at that, instinctively trying to avert his eyes, though yelping when he slapped the swollen part of his face.
"O-ok, maybe an ice pack or two, wouldn't hurt." He commented offhandedly.
"Hey! You're learning!" If either student was ashamed they were thirty minutes late arriving to their next class, they clearly didn't show it.
…
Izuku had an insane pain tolerance. There was no deception in that statement. It was just a fact of life that he was equipped to handle punishment. Pain, while a very physical concept, also requires a great deal of mental fortitude in order to cope with and handle it effectively. Izuku himself wasn't sure if he could honestly be considered 'strong' mentally, but he liked to think he was pretty sharp.
So what was his master plan that was certain to fool his mother when he got home to convince her that he was completely fine and didn't have a massive black eye and a bullet wound?
"Hi mom! Ohh, I'm so tired from staying up super late last night without thinking about the consequences it would have on my sleep schedule! You know, I think I'll just go take a nap right now and if I wake up- I mean, when I wake up, I'll grab a bite to eat. OK? Cool? Love you mom! Bye." He spoke so fast that Inko Midoriya had to stop what she was doing in order to properly comprehend the slew of words that just erupted from her son's mouth.
"Izuku, honey, why are you pretending to rub your eye like half your brain is going to fall asleep? And you've fake yawned, like, eight times now."
The teen stopped dead in his tracks, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Nothing. Just… tired." He supplied weakly, gulping upon seeing his mother's suspicious look that she got whenever she suspected he was lying to her face. That look scared him as a child. It still scared him.
"Ok, well if you're too sleepy, I guess I'll let you go to your room then. Before you go, did you hear about what happened with the train earlier today? They're calling it the Endeavor Train Incident, can you believe that?"
He snorted.
"Really?"
"Haha! Yeah, and there was one heroes name, but gosh, I forget it was um, I think it started with a-"
"S! Like for Slipstream!?"
"Oh that's the one!" Her cold tone sent a chilling bolt of realization through him.
Hold on a second… Did he just snitch on himself!? In front of his own mom!? He wanted to slap himself upside the head, remembering her strategy: Getting him to talk about heroes so he would inevitably confess to his sins somehow.
It was a tactic that he shamefully had to admit he was easily susceptible to.
"Except I don't remember the news giving the unidentified speedy blue hero a name other than unidentified speedy blue hero? Why would that be, Izuku?"
"Um, I don't know?" He tried, swallowing as his mother stalked towards him with her arms tucked behind her back.
"That's not it. Take your hand off your face."
He sighed. Her gasp wasn't unexpected, but the sudden hug was.
"Ack! Mom! Hurting- chest! Ouch!" He managed to cough out.
"Huh? What's wrong? You're hurt on your side too!? Were you- did you get into fight at school mister!?" It wasn't often she used her mad voice.
"M-mom it's not like that! I swear it! I got shot but it's not that bad! You know I would never start a fight on my own accord! Not unless it was absolutely necessary!"
The Midoriya matriarch shook her head sadly.
"You were shot? Izuku, were you on that train?"
He didn't say anything.
That was all she needed to know as fresh tears sprouted from her eyes. She looked guilty, then angry, guilty again, then shifted over to pure disbelief. So many terrible things were happening to her baby and she wasn't able to stop any of it.
"I'm sorry for getting angry at you baby. You must be so distraught right now, and I'm not helping you at all."
"That's not true at all Mom! You being here is enough for me!" He replied sincerely.
"You're too good for this world Izuku. Thank god that hero Slipstream saved each of your lives! That's how you knew his name, right? Because he told you when he saved you?"
"No."
"What? Then how…?" She blinked, startled by his response.
"... I didn't know the hero's name because he told me. I knew their name because I came up with it. I am Slipstream."
