Our houses were in the same neighborhood, so Deku and me were childhood friends. I was in charge of our little group, and he always tailed after me, alongside everyone else. But after we learned he had no quirk, it all took a turn for the worst. I know people aren't equal from birth. I knew even when I was 4, the truth everyone in society knows. Except, it seemed, Deku.

"Now I'm really pissed!" I told him. Glasses' voice suddenly started yammering in my earpiece. "Bakugou! Tell me what's going on? What's happening?!"

"Shut up and keep guarding!" I told him; I didn't have time for his nonsense. "I'm really fucking pissed right now."

"When did I ask you how you were feeling?" he said, in a condescending tone. I switched him off and got ready for my next attack.

"Uraraka," said that damn nerd, as I blasted at him, looking totally unfazed. "Go on without - "

I managed to land a kick on him, but he dodged again. Round Face really was running off.

"You don't have the margin to look away!" I told him - then felt my heart skip a beat. He was wrapping that damn capture tape around my leg!

I reacted with the first thing that came into my head, the same right swing he'd predicted before, and he dodged again. Just barely in time to avoid getting wrapped up.

I turned around to face him, and before I could make another move, he'd run off.

"Get back here! Deku!" I yelled at him, getting more and more frustrated. He'd done all this and still, he hadn't used that damn quirk. "You tricked me, didn't you?" I asked, feeling like everything was shattering. "Were you having a laugh all this time? Well? Your quirk is actually pretty flashy, ain't it? Why don't you use it? Mine is even stronger!"

No reply; still ignoring me. Running off, leaving me behind, no he would never leave me behind…

"I'm headed to UA. You can't stop me." Izuku, you really can't do anything, can you? "I'm the Deku who never gives up" All that stupid boasting, and yet what did he have to show for it? All he ever did was stand around, watching me do great things, never accomplishing anything on his own.

"You can read the last part of Izuku's name as Deku!" I'd told our classmates, way back when.

"Wow, Kacchan, you can already read?" the extras chorused. "What, you can't?" I said, wanting to laugh, of course they couldn't. "From now on, A 'Deku' is a person who's totally useless at everything!" I'd said, and he'd muttered "Stop it" while everyone else was saying "You're so smart!"

Why don't you understand?

"Wow, Kacchan, how many times did it skip?!"

"7! What about yours, Deku?"

"Zero."

Why can't you do anything?

The teachers and my classmates all said it. "What a fantastic quirk! It's flashy enough for a hero, Katsuki!"

I get it now. I'm just awesome, and everyone else just isn't.

And he agreed with em. "Your quirk is so cool, Kacchan! I wonder when mine will come in?"

"Whatever quirk you get, it'll never measure up to mine!"

He's just a pebble.

"He said he doesn't have a quirk. It's called being Quirkless!" "So lame"

Deku is the least amazing of all.

All of us, my little gang and Deku all together, playing together as kids with Deku, always trailing behind.

"Go, go, Bakugou squad!" And then, I'd slipped, just one little mister, and fallen off the log over the creek, and they were all yelling from the bridge, "You ok?" "Ah, he'll be all right. Kacchan's tough." "Don't keep us waiting!"

I was totally fine.

"It was nothing!"

There wasn't a scratch on me.

"Are you OK? Can you get up?" Deku, with his outstretched hand, down there…"If you hit your head, that'd be bad!" Don't look at me with that expression!

"Your looked like you needed help", there he was in front of me again, when that sludge villain…dammit, I am above you! I'm gonna prove it, once and for all, you know.

I finally found him, crouching, sweating and cowering like the fearful kid he is.

"It's ready," I murmured, preparing to take aim. "Why won't you use it? Are you looking down on me? Deku…"

"Kacchan!" He narrows his eyes and faces me again. "I'm not afraid of you anymore."

"I already know about all your stalking, you know," I told him. Oh yeah, he follows me around, never leaves me alone. "My explosions are sparked by the sweat on my palms, which is like nitroglycerin. Now, if the specs are as I asked, then I can store that nitrosweat into this bracer, and - "

"YOUNG BAKUGOU!" All Might's voice boomed over the radio. "Stop this! You'll kill him!"

"If it doesn't hit him, he won't die," I replied, almost rolling my eyes. What was All Might doing getting worried? I had the gun cocked and pulled the pin.

The shot blasted out from my weapon and shook the entire building. Through the giant blast, it was impossible to see Deku for a moment. As it cleared away, he came into view, panting just having dodged away in time. "Are you out of your mind?" he asked, still glaring at me, but finally looking properly scared, like he was, at last, grasping the situation he was in.

"Use your quirk, Deku," I told him, "I'm gonna break you at your full strength!" No matter how much power you have, you'll never beat me. I can't wait to wipe that smug look off your face.

"Ha, isn't this fantastic? What's wrong, Deku? Come at me, man! You can still fight, can'tcha?" I called out at him. He stared for a s second, and then he turned to his mic. "What's the situation, Uraraka?" he was saying, like….like he was completely ignoring me.

"You've got some nerve!" I said, annoyed once more. He was just, acting like I wasn't even there, even after I'd shown him just how powerful I really was, he was just talking to that partner of his as if nothing I did even mattered.

"YOUNG BAKUGOU!" All Might's voice came through again. "If you shoot another blast like that, I'll end this match and your team will lose. Launching an attack with such an extensive damage radius indoors defeats the purpose of protecting your stronghold! It doesn't matter if you're a hero or a villain, that was just foolish! Once more and you'll earn yourself massive demerits!"

Dammit, dammit, dammit! "Ah, screw it!" I said, as Deku kept on muttering some nonsense, "the pillar by the window, roger!" "Let's just throw some punches!" I said, blasting myself overhead and reaching Deku. He was expecting me to come right at him and preparing a punch. I was ready for that. With one move, I blasted behind him, and aimed a shot at his back. He actually took some real damage this time.

"Here it comes, your beloved right swing!" I shouted, finally in the position to have the advantage. "Eat this!" One sharp swipe to the back and he was no longer grinning like he knew s something I didn't.

This was my chance to pay him back in kind. I got ahold of his elbow and tossed him over my head - one handed, with some help from a blast.

"You. Are. Beneath me!" I told him, as he landed on his back with a good loud smack. No more smirk on that damn mug now.

He was actually running away, scrambling over towards the other end of the room; he hit the wall with nowhere left to run. And still - and still, no matter what I did -

"Why won't you use your damn quirk already?" I asked, almost begged him. "You looking down on me? Ever since we were little kids, you've always been like that!"

"That's not it," he said, but what else could there be? Huh? "You looking down on me, dammit? Huh?" I asked him again, as he appeared to be almost crying. He was clenching his fist, and when he looked up again, there was that damn look, that passionate strange expression he always wears when he's about to do something that'll screw me over, like - like -

Then he said it,

"Kacchan, it's because you're so amazing that I wanna win! I wanna win, and surpass you! How do you not get that, dumbass?"

How can you say that, you damn nerd? If you really thought I was so amazing, you wouldn't look at me like - like that! "Knock that expression off your fucking face!" I moved forward, prepared to hit him with the biggest blast I had. And at last, I could see him preparing a punch - one that would finally, finally use that damn flashy quirk of his. Whatever reason, but he was finally taking me seriously, and shouting "DETROIT - " as if about to say what All Might always says. and I could feel the blood pumping and preparing - finally, a good solid fight with -

"Uraraka, I'm here!" He said all of a sudden. Out of nowhere -but he still wasn't dodging, so I went in with my strongest attack, bracing for the full force of that quirk, that wall to overcome - and Deku aimed the attack….straight at the ceiling.

"SMAAAASSSHH!" he was screaming like All Might would, just drowned out by the sound of my explosion. But next to what I'd aimed at him, the blast he'd thrown at the ceiling was…

I don't even know how to describe it. It made the baseball blast he'd used before look like nothing. Like a whirling tornado of energy blasted up through the ceiling, then the floor above…the floor above that - above that even further….onward and onward, until it reached the roof, with whirling energy all around us and debris falling every which way.

And from upstairs, I heard glasses shouting "THE WEAPON!" And suddenly everything clicked. 'the pillar by the wall', 'Uraraka, now'…the debris…round face's zero gravity powers…that was your plan, this - this entire time, you were ignoring me because -

"You're telling me that…from the very beginning…" you were planning this, playing me, using me? You were always scheming to get into this position, planning to make debris for Round Face, so she could grab the weapon?! "I knew it, you are looking down on me!"

The smoke was starting to clear up, and I heard him speaking, as if half choking. "I wasn't planning on using it, because I actually can't….my body isn't able to take the strain from this quirk." The smoke was clearing, and I could see his arm…his entire arm, broken and half bleeding, twisted and mangled as if the building had dropped on it, some kind of busted tableaux. "Mr. Aizawa told me, too, but I - this was the only thing I could think of…"

That manic look in his eyes as he slowly, painfully collapsed, and All Might's voice came echoing through the loudspeakers: "The Hero Team….wins!" and i stood there, facing the absolutely unthinkable, the utterly impossible.

My right swing…Deku was reading me like a book. And on top of that, he came up with a way to beat me. hyperventilating so in short even though we were seriously going at it, I lost to de ku

A huge hand was on my shoulder. "Let's go back, young Bakugou. It's time for your critique. No matter whether you won or lost, you take one look back, you reflect on the experience, and you move on with your life."

You don't know though, All Might. You and the extras, you don't know what this means…