Chapter Three: Bargaining (Nope, Still Angry)
The vague hope that Katsuki had that Deku wouldn't show up for classes at U.A. vanished the morning he walked out the door and found the dead loser on his doorstep. Katsuki walked through him, bone-shaking chill be damned. Deku followed his heels, mumbling to himself as always.
"I would've done alright on the written exam, and maybe if I found a way to hit those buttons, I could have passed the physical. Maybe I would've made it in if I hadn't died."
Katsuki flicked sweat off his fingers and stubbornly kept walking. The thought of Deku cheating his way through the exam made him want to break something, but he had plenty of practice bottling up that anger.
His old hag of a mother offered to drive him to U.A. after bringing food to Auntie Inko's place, but Katsuki would rather walk there across a mile of coals than be anywhere near Inko with Deku's sobbing pleas in his ear. The train, at least, drowned out Deku's constant mumbling.
When he walked into the room, he found Four-Eyes straightening his desk and setting his pencils in perfect parallel lines. Katsuki took a nearby seat and set his feet on his desk.
"Hey!" Iida shouted at him. "That is highly disrespectful both to this institution and the students who came before us. I insist that you remove your feet from your desk immediately, before the teacher sees your disgraceful actions!"
"The only thing disgraceful in here is your ugly mug," Katsuki shot back. "Which school did you go to, Somei?"
"Why, yes! How did you know?"
Katsuki snorted. "Had you pegged for some rich, uptight asshole the moment you opened your mouth. I can see the stick shoved up your ass right next to that silver spoon in your mouth."
That is highly inappropriate!" Iida's hand made a chopping motion in the air. "I will report any further rude behavior from you to the teacher!"
"Go right ahead. Won't stop me from kicking your ass."
Before Four-Eyes could berate him for more uncouth behavior, another face he despised came in through the door. Round Cheeks took one look at him, scowled, and marched towards him.
Katsuki groaned inwardly. What the hell did I deserve to deserve class with these two, and how the hell did both of them pass? Round Cheeks was even weak enough to get herself trapped. Ugh, they must've given her some pity 'rescue' points.
"I'm surprised they let you in, after what you did."
"And I'm surprised they let you in, after you had some rocks fall on you. How the hell did you get trapped when your Quirk makes things lighter?"
Ochako flushed and said, "I have a weight limit, alright? I can't make a whole building weightless."
"So it was a weight limit," Deku muttered next to him. "Or maybe she doesn't know for sure? Could do tests with different materials to see if there's any difference. Why don't you ask her about it?"
"Sounds like quitter talk to me," Katsuki said, ignoring Deku's rambling. "If you're that weak, maybe you should take sewing classes or something else just as stupid. No one's going to coddle you here."
Ochako balled her hands into fists and fought back tears. Iida stood next to her and said, "That was highly hurtful, and I insist that you apologize right this instant!"
Katsuki smirked at him. "I apologize for giving you solid career advice. There. Is that enough of an apology for you, Four-Eyes?"
As more students filed into the class, Iida thought better of starting an argument on the first day. He gave Katsuki another warning and went back to his desk. Ochako shot him one last scowl before dropping her backpack on her desk with a solid thump, as if to emphasize the fact she would be sitting there no matter what he did.
Once the rest of the extras made it in, the teacher finally showed up. Katsuki flinched when he recognized the man. Great. Not only do I have all the worst extras, I have him for homeroom? How could this get any worse?
"Eight seconds," the teacher said. "That's how long it took you all to quiet down. That's also long enough for a villain to kill someone and make their escape. Time is lives in the hero industry. If you're going to waste time, save me the trouble of expelling you and find a different career path."
With the buoyant mood of the classroom taken out behind the shed and shot in the back of the skull, the teacher pulled a bag of athletic uniforms out from under his desk. "Put these on and meet me outside."
As the teacher climbed out the window, everyone made a mad dash for the locker rooms. While Katsuki changed, a grape-haired extra peered around the walls. "Think someone left a peephole somewhere?" the midget asked. A trail of drool left his mouth, and the beginnings of a nosebleed pooled above his lip. "The girl's locker room is right on the other side of this wall. It's the ultimate jackpot!"
Katsuki felt sweat pool in his hands as he straightened his uniform and thought to himself, So, you have chosen death. Before he could dispense justice, however, Four-Eyes butted in with some nonsensical, self-righteous speech about respecting his fellow classmates.
Their teacher waited before a giant field between the campus buildings, with various lines painted on the ground. He tossed Candy Cane a baseball and asked, "In your middle school physical exams, how far could you throw?"
The kid stared at the baseball like it came from outer space. "I was homeschooled."
"Alright then. Throw it as far as you can, using your Quirk. Don't leave the circle."
Katsuki watched carefully as the teacher's selected student, who he hadn't seen on the exam results, stepped into the circle. Ice blossomed from the ground around their left feet, carrying the baseball high into the air. When it finally landed, Aizawa showed them all his distance.
"Up until now, your schools have kept you from using your Quirks in a vain attempt to keep everything standardized. From now on, the only standard you will be held against is the one you make today. Give it everything you got."
As one extra gushed with excitement over the test, Aizawa gave her a scowl. "Fun? If you're not going to take this seriously, then I will give you incentive to. Whoever comes in last place gets expelled."
Katsuki's the only one grinning at the announcement. With a bit of luck, Four-Eyes or Round Cheeks would get the boot, but his money's on Grape Bowl. As if bringing out the nails for his own coffin, Grape Bowl shouts at Aizawa about how unfair the whole thing is and gets a lecture in return about the unfairness of the hero industry. Considering the shitty start Katsuki's day had, it was only right things started looking up.
Katsuki shouldered his way past for the next throw. He beat Candy Cane's score, but as if to one-up him, Round Cheeks came forward and gently lifted her ball into the air, where it flew off like a balloon. Katsuki nearly blew a fuse at the girl's smirk when the girl's score came back as infinity.
Using explosions to propel himself forward, Katsuki got a respectable four seconds flat on the dash, but then of course Four-Eyes beat him there as well. Iida didn't even glance at him once he got his score, like he was too far beneath his notice. Katsuki ground his teeth extra hard just to spite him.
Even Grape Bowl beat him on one event, the side-step, not like heroes need to hop back and forward really fast. Little shit even had the nerve to smirk at him, though a step and a single little pop had him scurrying behind Ponytail's skirt.
To add to his frustration, Deku would not stop fanboying over all the Quirks around him, pointing out how they all worked and how amazing they were as they beat out his performances, rubbing salt in his wounds. His pencil made loud scratching noises as he frantically wrote in his notebook.
Taking deep breaths, Katsuki told himself the individual tests didn't matter. They were one trick ponies, while his Quirk could do anything. He'd show them all.
On the stamina run, he blasted himself forward with all the sweat dripping down his arms to give himself a second wind, overtaking Four Eyes. He cleared the long jump and laughed as Round Cheeks blew chunks halfway through her zero-G flight. On the sit-ups, he blasted himself up, and he got some extra pressure by blasting the grip test.
As hard as he worked, however, he couldn't compete against Ponytail and her bullshit cleavage of infinite holding. As hard as he ran, he couldn't keep up with her moped, and she brought out a cannon of all things to fire the baseball. Once the scores came out, even IcyHot beat him. Sure, they were the two recommended students, hand-picked by pro heroes and probably trained by them, but it still stung. He'd have crushed them all if he hadn't gone to a lame school like Aldera.
With Deku fanboying in his ear about how versatile Ponytail's Quirk could be and how refined IcyHot's control over his ice, Katsuki wanted, no, needed to break something. When the test results came out, he got his chance.
"That's not fair!" Grape Bowl wailed when Aizawa showed the results. With tears streaming down his face, he said, "If that's how it's going to be, then I have nothing to lose! I won't miss the only chance I'm going to get!"
As he lunged at Ponytail, arms outstretched and hands making groping motions, Katsuki grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him into the air. Grape Bowl struggled in his grasp, but his struggles grew weaker as he tightened his grip.
"A wimp like you doesn't deserve to see a girl, let alone grope her with your grubby little hands. Why don't I show you what happens to villains like you?"
As he was about to blow the little pervert to kingdom come, he felt a strange tingling sensation across his body. When he pressed his palm at Grape Bowl's face, nothing happened.
While Katsuki gawked at his hand, Aizawa's scarf wrapped around his head and arms. Aizawa stalked forward, both hands pulling his scarf, hair floating around him, eyes glowing bright-red as they stared into his soul.
"That is quite enough. Put him down."
With a scoff, Katsuki let the pervert fall to the ground. Mineta scrambled away, but the scarf caught him by the waist.
"Bakugo, detention. Leave the discipline to the teachers from now on. Do something like that again, and I will have you expelled."
Katsuki ground his teeth, his plans to blow some steam at the arcade crumpled up and thrown in the trash.
Aizawa turned his glare on Mineta. "As for you, I was planning to let you stay in the course, as I saw the tiniest iota of potential in you. After that display, however, it's clear to me you don't deserve to be in this school. You are expelled. If I see you here again, I'll bring you to the cops myself."
White as a sheet, Mineta scrambled towards the entrance, not even grabbing his books on his way out.
"Oh wow, that's Eraserhead!" Deku said into the silence. "I couldn't tell earlier, but his Quirk and those goggles are a dead giveaway!"
"Eraserhead?" Katsuki asked, confused by the unfamiliar name.
Both Deku and Aizawa snapped their attention to him. Katsuki felt his blood run cold when he realized his mistake and strangled the urge to blow up everything around him.
"How do you know that name?" Aizawa asked, his voice thin and sharp as a knife's edge.
"He's an Underground Hero," Deku said, in full fanboy mode, "His Quirk lets him erase other Emitter and Transformer Quirks with a glance. It doesn't work on Mutant-types, he has to maintain eye contact with the target, and it only works on one target at a time."
Ignoring Deku's monologue, Katsuki shrugged and said, "I had a friend that was into hero stuff. I remember him mentioning you once. Thought your name was stupid, that's all."
Aizawa didn't blink at the barbed insult. "This friend of yours did his homework. I make a point of avoiding media attention."
Like a dumbass, Katsuki thought to himself. Then again, not like you'd get anywhere with a stupid Quirk like that.
"That's enough for today," Aizawa said. "Get changed and get back to class. You have a lot of work ahead of you, so I better not see any of you slacking off."
As he hurried with the others back to the locker room, Katsuki found himself wondering how Deku knew that name. He never heard of the guy before, so was the ghost he saw real?
No. No way. It had to be like I said, he probably mentioned him before and I just randomly remembered, that's all. Something subconscious, yeah, that's it.
As he left the locker room, Deku was waiting for him, arms crossed, green eyes staring coldly at him. "You can hear me."
Katsuki walked through him. You're not real, you're just a figment of my imagination.
"Why won't you answer me?" Deku pleaded.
I won't let you beat me again.
A/N: I had hoped to have a chapter of Precognition ready for today. That didn't happen, due to Christmas and New Year's shenanigans, so I updated this instead. I'm aiming for next Sunday, but if I miss that deadline for some reason, I'll upload another chapter of this instead.
In any case, welcome to 2022! Can't wait to see see what global disaster bingo we get this year.