Bakugo's shock started to fade and was instead replaced by a fury he had seldom ever experienced. He couldn't think straight, all his attention, all his thoughts were focused on the individual before him. He just reacted unthinkingly, he strode towards the unmoving Izuku Midoriya.
"You goddammed... SON OF A BITCH!" he roared, lunging forward and smashing his right fist into Izuku's face as hard as he could.
Izuku was sent reeling to his left, barely staying upright from the blow.
Bakugo didn't even feel the pain in his fist from the blow, his rage so strong that he shook all over and smoke drifted lazily into the air from his clenched fists.
"You... YOU...!" He said, his voice shaking.
"HOW FUCKING DARE YOU SHOW UP LIKE THIS!" He roared.
Izuku didn't say anything, his face turned away from Bakugo after taking his punch.
Seconds passed by without Izuku saying anything and Bakugo snapped again.
"SAY SOMETHING DAMN YOU!" He screamed, lurching forward grabbing the front of Izuku's armor, and turning him to face Bakugo.
The rain and the darkness though made seeing his face difficult, made more difficult by the fact that Izuku kept his head down, eyes towards the ground.
"YOU'RE PART OF THE QSU ISN'T THAT RIGHT?! WHERE'S ALL THAT GODDAMMED TRAINING YOU FREAKS UNDERGO TO KILL PEOPLE LIKE ME!?" He screamed into his face.
When Izuku still said nothing, he slammed his fist into Izuku again, letting go as he did and letting Izuku fall to the ground.
"Fuck you..." He whispered, gasping for breath, his rage exhausting him.
Izuku got up from the ground, wiping mud away from his face. It was then that he finally spoke.
"I... Don't hate you, Bakugo," he said slowly and evenly.
Something in Bakugo snapped again, something different from before.
"You... You... You arrogant, self-righteous, fucking asshole..." He said, his voice shaking again.
Before he knew it, he was slamming his fists into Izuku each one punctuated by his screaming out his rage.
"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!" He slammed a fist into Izuku's side.
"HOW DARE YOU ACT SO SUPERIOR!" He slammed another fist into his face.
"YOU HAVE NOTHING!" Another fist into his stomach.
"YOU ARE NOTHING!" His face again.
"YOU DESERVE NOTHING!" The chest.
"SO GOD DAMN YOU, HATE ME!" The face.
"ABHOR ME!" The stomach.
"DESPISE ME!"
"HATE ME!"
"HATE MEEE!" He screamed out, his throat almost tearing from the strain and his voice cracking, and as his voice cracked so too did his rage.
He stood over top Izuku, panting, gulping in huge lungfuls of air, as he stared at Izuku.
Izuku lay spread eagle on the ground, staring upward into the sky.
They stayed like that for a long time, before Bakugo finally broke the silence.
"How... how can you not hate me... after everything that I did..." He said in a hoarse voice.
Izuku didn't say anything at first, but sat up, legs crossed as he stared at the ground.
"I tried. For a long time, I tried hating you. But... every time I thought of you, every time I pictured you in my mind. I saw your sneering face, yes, but I also saw us as kids. Playing together, fighting evil as we pretended to be All Might. I also saw your eyes when the sludge villain nearly killed you, full of fear, full of desperation. And despite everything you did, I never found it within myself to hate you." Izuku said sighing, sagging a bit as he spoke.
"When I admitted to myself that I didn't hate you, I finally came to realize why you hated me so much instead." Said Izuku, leaving the thought unfinished.
Bakugo stared at the ground, fully aware of the real reason why he had hated Izuku so much. It had taken him nearly seven years to figure it out, but he had gotten there eventually. Because, even as a young teenaged punk, he had known deep down that Izuku had always, ALWAYS, been more like All Might than anyone he had ever met; and he had hated him for it and had hated himself as well.
"When I learned I got into UA... it's still probably the happiest moment of my life. It marked the beginning of my journey to surpass All Might. At the same time though, a part of me was angry at you, angry that you never showed up to try to take the test. Even if you never would have passed, I was angry at you for not even trying.
When I got into 1A I can't say I changed much, I pushed everyone away, kept to myself mostly, pursued strength, all in the attempt to become as strong as possible in as short a time as possible. I trained till my bones cracked, till I bled from my hands from overuse of my quirk.
I was so obsessed with power, with All Might, that Shigaraki kidnapped me. Offered me a place in his group, because he saw me, and believed I was like them.
And he wasn't wrong. I... could not be farther from All Might. Despite all my efforts, all my training, I only succeeded in being more villain than hero.
Then All Might came to save me, and despite everything I had done, Class 1A came to save me too. Despite how badly I treated them all, they still came to save me, risking everything. All Might died though, he died because I had been arrogant, self-righteous, and cruel. Died because of me, and I knew I could NEVER surpass All Might. At best, I could only come to equal him, and I strove for that. That's what started it all for me. I earned the forgiveness of my class, of my teachers, proved myself on the battlefield, and carved a place for myself in the hero rankings.
Despite all my accomplishments though, I still felt anger, still felt hate so strong it made me sick." Bakugo was ranting, pacing around, and gesticulating with his hands as he went on and on, ignoring the growing pain in his throat as he finally let out everything that had been building up over the course of seven years. Then in a sudden mood swing, he spun to face Izuku.
"You... You could have said something, to someone, to anybody. Why didn't you? Why did you just vanish like that after the funeral?" He asked Izuku, a hint of pleading in his voice.
"Who would I talk to? I didn't have anyone else left after my mother died." He said simply.
"My mother looked for you after you vanished. Our moms were friends, and she never stopped looking. But your home was abandoned and no one knew how to contact you. I know she cried herself asleep a few times after, at the very least, you owe her an apology." Bakugo said.
Izuku scratched the back of his head, "You're right, I shouldn't have just left like that, your mom deserved better. I'll make sure to go apologize, but it'll be a few days. We got this whole mess surrounding us to deal with first." Izuku replied.
Bakugo turned away from Izuku and started taking a few deep breaths, trying to calm down.
Izuku meanwhile got up from the ground, a difficult expression on his face. Eventually, he took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and took a decisive step toward Bakugo.
"I don't hate you. So... I think It's time we move on." Said Izuku, a determined look on his face.
Bakugo turned to face Izuku eyes wide, he shook his head a couple of times, looked up to the sky, dark and raining. He brought his hands to his head and dragged them across his face. He took a deep breath and looked forward at Izuku. Into those sad but determined eyes.
He was tired, his body was exhausted, he was tired mentally, tired of his damn mission, tired of this damn rain, and tired of this damn feud.
"Yeah... it's time," he said, a small smile forming on his face as he said it. If Izuku was willing to start over, then Bakugo couldn't do any less.
A tired smile formed on Izuku's face as well.
"Come meet me where I work at some time, we can talk more over drinks. I'll get you a business card." Izuku said, starting to step backward.
"See you around... Kacchan." He finished.
"Catch ya later... Deku." Replied Bakugo, before turning away and blasting off into the air.
Ochako stood unmoving behind a tree, mind numb after witnessing the exchange between Bakugo and Izuku. She'd followed Bakugo to the flare and had seen the flashlights of the group with the now rescued captives. When she asked where Bakugo was they'd directed her back the way they had come but had advised waiting for whatever was happening to end before interacting with either their squad leader or Dynamite.
So she had stood by a tree, watching the scene unfold. She couldn't believe it, Izuku was a member of the QSU, a group trained exclusively in how to fight people like her and Bakugo. Not only that, but Bakugo and Izuku KNEW each other and from the sounds of it they had known each other since they were children. She couldn't guess what had happened between them to create the apparent rift that had inevitably formed between them, but Bakugo had been amassing guilt about it for years. Then Izuku had forgiven Bakugo, and now the two had gone their separate ways for now.
She slid down along the tree trunk until she was sitting on the ground, her back to the tree. Her mind was numb with shock and the ramifications that this had. How was she supposed to react to this? Izuku hadn't lied to her, and she knew he had been keeping something about his past to himself, but she hadn't thought he was a member of the QSU of all things. She didn't harbor any ill will towards him for not telling her, but she still found that it hurt.
When she had discovered the truth behind what the Safety Commission did, it had scared her, but it had quickly been shut down by the government when it finally came to light. Then she discovered during the war that the government had the equivalent of the Safety Commission, and had existed even before heroes. Granted they were technically part of the police, but both she and the rest of the class held some measure of fear towards the organization.
To learn that Izuku, who seemed so casual, innocent, shy, and all-around adorable, was a highly trained agent who specialized in hunting down people with quirks... it seemed almost anathema to everything she had seen of him. Then her brain started to connect the dots.
Izuku wasn't just part of the QSU, he was a squad leader and based on the reports she had gotten, had been responsible for rescuing the fake captives, then tracking down and saving the REAL captives. Killing probably dozens of people in the process, he was strong, decisive, and ruthless.
In her mind she saw Izuku, in battle-scarred QSU armor, hefting his rifle, an expressionless face, and a dead look in his eyes as he efficiently and mechanically neutralized his enemies. Blood spattering across his face.
She realized a part of her was afraid of him, and that fact terrified her even more. Could she even trust what she had seen of Izuku so far to be genuine? If he had been keeping this secret, what else could he be hiding? She didn't know what to think anymore. She just wanted to forget what she had seen and heard.
Then she broke out in a cold sweat as another fact crashed down upon her.
"We're going to dinner next week..."
Izuku watched Bakugo leave, and as soon as he was out of sight collapsed to the ground, going to his hand and knees. Limbs shook as he struggled to find the strength to move. Bakugo's assault had robbed him of what little strength he had left. The exertions of the past few hours finally settled on him now that the adrenaline had started to wear off. That wasn't even factoring in just how mentally drained he felt.
"You okay?" came a voice from behind him.
Izuku looked behind him and saw Seiya, helmet off, standing over him. He also noticed the area was deserted, clearly, Seiya had ushered the civilians and other squad members away before the commotion started.
"Y-yeah... Just give me a second to get back on my feet." He said before he grit his teeth and gathered what strength he had left. He started getting slowly to his feet when he felt Seiya grab his right arm and haul him to his feet.
"Try not to pass out, we still gotta get back. Though I imagine by this time the civilians have been picked up. So we can take our time getting back." Said Seiya, letting go of Izuku when he was sure he wouldn't collapse again.
"Yeah..." Said Izuku absently, picking up his rifle from the ground and shaking the mud off of it. Then followed Seiya to where the squad was located.
They got to where the squad was located, the civilians were nowhere to be found but a few heroes has shown up and were talking to members of the squad. Likely members of the same mobile response unit that Bakugo had been in charge of Izuku guessed.
As Seiya and Izuku approached, a hero Izuku knew quite a lot about broke off from the group and approached them.
"You must be the squad leader, I'm Eraser Head." Said the man, clearly tired.
"Izuku Midoriya, how's the mission gone so far?" He asked before the hero could interject.
"Don't worry about the civilians, they are being escorted back to headquarters as we speak. The fakes were also quickly apprehended following your identification of them being such. We've also secured the compound, just wrapping up loose ends now. You look to be in bad shape though, you should get yourself and your squad to the medics to look you over." Said Eraser Head, looking Izuku up and down, eyes narrowing at the ugly burned claw marks clearly evident on his chest.
"I intend to, I was going to get my squad together and head back now actually. I just had a talk with Bakugo a few minutes ago, otherwise, we would have left by now." Izuku said, not realizing he had said Bakugo's actual name rather than his hero name, his exhaustion, and the recent encounter with Bakugo causing the slip.
It was then that they all heard the telltale noise of a helicopter approaching. Everyone stopped talking and looked up and saw two helicopters starting to head towards them, spotlights shining down at them. Fortunately, the tree density wasn't too bad, so they were able to get pretty close before they had to drop down a short ladder.
"Squad! Mount up!" called out Izuku.
"Excuse me," Izuku said to Eraser Head
Izuku's squad formed up around him and they started climbing up one of the ladders. The heroes that couldn't fly or didn't have movement speed quirks clambered into the other helicopter, and before long they were well on their way back to headquarters.
As they rode back Aizawa made a mental note to ask Katsuki about this QSU squad leader that called him by his actual name. Strange didn't even begin to describe what Aizawa had just heard.
Izuku trudged through the camp, passing by dozens of people, most of whom were packing up everything that had been set up for the op. It was mostly QSU, the organization trained all of its personnel on how to set up mobile command centers and then tear them down. The entire place would be packed up, and the place desolate in the span of only a few hours. You'd never even know a military camp had been present afterward. Even after being trained by the QSU, it was still one of the aspects of the organization that never failed to impress Izuku.
He weaved his way past the bustling people before he finally walked into the first of a dozen different medical tents all linked together. The first tent didn't have people needing medical attention as this was mainly devoted to supplies and organizing the people who arrive by order of severity.
A woman walked looked up from a box she was digging through as he walked in, took one look at his chest and bruised eyes, gave him another once over, and went back to fishing supplies out of the box.
"Row C, they'll get you taken care of," she said, finally getting the supplies she needed and heading into the medical treatment area.
Izuku started walking deeper into the small tent complex. A walkway had been made down the center of the line of tents. With small hanging signs at every new row of tents designating the rows triage level.
He walked until he got to Triage Row C, though he did notice that Rows A and B had few people. A good thing he thought, it meant that there had been relatively few major injuries. He didn't see Tsukuyomi anywhere, which meant he'd either died or been transported to an actual hospital. The tents were mainly here to provide what life-saving aid could be done on the field until the patients could be moved to an actual hospital.
Izuku went down Row C until he found an empty cot and sat down on it, he took off his boots, enjoying the cool night air on his sore feet. Then he tried to remove his armor but found his arms had started to become a bit stiff. He grunted as he became the process of unlocking his armor.
QSU armor was designed to go over the top of whatever the individual was wearing, and so it had a strange way of being attached and detached. It was rather like fitting pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together. Of course, that would make emergency treatments almost impossible, so the armor had an emergency system built in that would mass disengage parts of the armor. However, the villain in the forest had destroyed all of his electrical systems with that weird static pulse so he was forced to remove it piece by piece.
"Need some help?" Came a voice from behind him.
Izuku looked behind him and he saw Red Riot on the adjacent cot, sitting up and looking at him, a question on his features.
"Uh, sure, you ever remove QSU armor before?" Izuku asked, getting up and walking until he was standing in front of the hero.
"I remember Momo discussing it once, it's all interconnected pieces that you disengage piecemeal yeah?" asked the hero, standing up as well.
"I only need the chest armor removed, I can take care of my arms if you can disconnect the shoulder pieces. There's a button that's pretty difficult to push covered by a small plate. Just slide the plate out of the way and push the button located at the top of my shoulders. The front and back are connected by Velcro beneath the armor plating along the sides, so just disconnect that as well. The arms are similar, but a bit different in how the upper and lower pieces connect, it's pretty complicated to explain in words though." Izuku said, going back to removing his arm pieces.
As Red Riot started to disconnect the shoulders from the chest piece he started talking.
"Names Eijiro Kirishima by the way." He said brightly.
"Izuku Midoriya," Izuku said absently, his focus on undoing the complicated series of plates and connectors that connected the lower and upper arm armor plating.
He saw Kirishima pause, and a clear look of astonishment came over his face.
"YOU'RE Izuku Midoriya?" he asked, mouth slightly agape, showing his jagged sharklike teeth.
Izuku paused as well, now frowning as he looked at the hero. "Yes?" he asked confusedly.
"I thought you worked at a private bar. My wife and her friends visited there last week and she told me about it after she got back." Kirishima said, frowning now as well.
Izuku belatedly realized that Eijiro Kirishima, the hero Red Riot was ALSO the husband of Mina Kirishima, the hero Pinky. He slapped himself mentally for forgetting that fact, he was more tired than he thought apparently.
"Uh... well it's a bit complicated. I'm not actually part of the QSU, not anymore. I was just filling in as squad leader for my friend Ahmya, since she's related to the people who were kidnapped she was removed from command temporarily. Since she wanted someone she could trust to lead her team, she asked me to fill in. So I was temporarily reinstated. Once this mission is over, I'll be back at the bar." Izuku said, going back to removing his armor. After being found out by Bakugo, he just didn't care anymore. He just wanted to get looked at, then go sleep.
"Huh... well it's nice to meet you," Kirishima said, going back to his task.
"Likewise," Izuku replied.
A few seconds later everything was disconnected, but Izuku couldn't remove the chest piece when he lightly pulled at it. Rather it hurt quite a lot, Izuku just sighed. The armor, partially melted by the burning silver wolf's attack, had caused the area near the wound to stick to the armor.
"Kirishima, could I get your help again?" asked Izuku.
"Sure, what's up?" said Kirishima.
"I need you to rip the chest piece off, part of it is sticking to the area near my wounds." Said Izuku.
"Is, Is that okay?" He asked, looking at the armor and the nasty wound that was partially visible.
"Yeah, it'll hurt but I'll be fine and it's got to be removed anyway. Just give me a three count." Said Izuku, taking a deep breath, gritting his teeth, and closing his eyes.
"All right... Three, TWO!" Said Kirishima ripping the armor piece off on two.
Izuku let out a loud grunt and hissed from the brief explosion of pain.
"Sorry, but-"
"YES. Yes, I know. Thank you." interrupted Izuku talking through gritted teeth, sitting down on the cot.
Izuku sighed and stretched out his arms, massaging sore muscles. "Do you know what happened Tsukuyomi? We got him to the roof after he got hit, but I don't know what happened to him after that." Said Izuku.
"He was transported to the nearest hospital, don't know anything beyond that. He was assigned to your squad?" Asked Kirishima.
"Yeah, flew us to the roof and helped us get through the first few floors. Up until one of the mercenary squads showed up with a railgun. Put a round right through him and the entire building" Said Izuku.
"Damn, that's what that was? We saw something impact and punch through another nearby building. Zeus has some scary stuff huh..." Said Kirishima.
"Okay, what's the proble- Woah." Said the medic that just walked up, coming up short at the sight of Izuku's wound.
"Okay, let's get that taken care of. Lay down and apologies in advance, this going to hurt." Said the medic, pushing Izuku down onto the cot.
They put both hands over his wound. A blue light showed from the left, and green from the right. Izuku felt as if a soft brush was scrapping over his wound. He grit his teeth and let out a grunting groan of pain. Then the light shut off and the medic pulled his hands back. Izuku looked down at his wound, the dried blood looked as if it had been scrubbed clean, leaving behind the raw wound and the burns. At least the intense pain had been short-lived.
"My quirk cleans stuff, and it works on wounds too, sanitizes them also. All right, let's get you patched up." Said the medic, clapping his hands together and opening the bag he had brought with him.
He pulled out a couple of ointments, applied them to the wound, then bandaged him. Then before Izuku knew it, he was gone. At some point, Izuku also noticed Kirishima had left. Now done with his treatment, he got his gear together and was about to leave when Kirishima returned and tossed him something which he caught easily.
"Here, that'll probably come in hand," he said grinning.
Izuku put down his gear and unfurled the object to see that Kirishima had thrown him a plain T-shirt.
"Thanks," said Izuku gratefully, and quickly pulled the shirt on, covering the bandages.
"No problem, catch ya later." Said Kirishima, still grinning.
Izuku couldn't help but give a tired smile in return, he liked Kirishima. "Yeah, see ya later," he said, gathering up his gear once more and leaving the medical tents. He really, really, wanted to sleep.
