Their Hero Academia –Chapter Twelve: Katsumi Kirishima-Bakugo Picks Up the Pieces
So. Izzy didn't love her. Well, she loved her, but she didn't love her love her. And that was something Katsumi was just going to have to learn to live with. She supposed it was better, now that it was out in the open, even if it felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest, frozen, set on fire, and the ashes scattered to the four winds. Now that she knew Izzy was an impossibility, she could try and move on.
Right.
So why was that all she could think about? Maybe she should have distanced herself more from Izzy. But that didn't feel right either. She loved loved Izzy… but she loved her too. She really was one of her best friends in all the world. And Katsumi was well aware she was not the easiest person in the world to like. Izzy, Toshi, Kana Tetsutetsu, she could probably count the number of people she really considered to be her friends on both hands and would have a few fingers left over. She could not afford to lose what few friends she had.
Izzy did not love her and she would just have to make her peace with that.
"Are you all right, Kirishima-Bakugo?" Tensei Iida asked, his features hidden by his helmet. His costume matched that of his sister's, looking like a robot with silver boots, gloves, chest plate, wings, and helmet, accented with blue where his sister had red.
"You're, ah, kinda distracted," Mika Mineta said, actually sounding genuinely concerned, rather than flirtatious.
Well, crap. If Mineta was noticing, then she must have been in a state. "I'm fine," Katsumi growled. "Start looking for the damn flag already."
She cracked her knuckles. If nothing else, she did look damn good in her costume. She had thigh-high black boots with bolt laces, black and gold trunks, a black sleeveless and mid-riff baring top, golden armguards, and black fingerless gloves with a palm cut out. An insignia like a cartoon bomb in gold on her top completed the look. Dad would probably flip out when he saw it, but Papa would probably appreciate her embracing her Wo-Manliness.
And then the robots were upon them. "Jetset!" she growled to Iida. "Find the flag! Horse-Face and I will take care of these damn tin cans!"
"Kirishima-Bakugo…" Iida began. "I do not know if I feel right abandoning my teammates…"
"Get going already!"
Iida recoiled from her, activating his Jetpack Quirk to take to the air to begin the search for the flag.
"That's your big plan?" Mineta asked, dodging out of the way of one of the robots. She gave it a kick with one of her hooves, knocking it down. "Send Iida after it and hope?" She let out a shriek as another robot nearly punched her head off.
"Stop yapping and fight!" Katsumi growled.
She eyed the nearest robot and let a grin creep across her face. Finally, something she could hit. And after the last couple of days she'd been having… she definitely needed it.
She slapped the closest robot, then gave it a hard punch with her other hand, knocking it into the next nearest one. Just in time too, because the explosive charge she'd given the first robot took effect, blowing up its head and taking them both out.
She had to play this smart. Her Quirk worked by means of a liquid she secreted from her hands. It did something on a chemical level to most matter, giving it highly volatile explosive properties. But there was a limit to how much she could produce at a given time. She'd run out during yesterday's exercise, not something she wanted to experience again.
A purple sphere flew by her head, hitting a robot and obscuring its vision. "Hey! Watch where you're aiming that!"
"Sorry!" Mineta apologized, headbutting a robot with her horns. "Fired off that one by mistake! Got a little spooked!"
Gaaah! Mineta made her so mad! If she wasn't flirting with everything that moved, she was being a damn coward. If she just stopped yapping and fought, she might actually be a halfway worthwhile hero!
Katsumi tore through the robots, touching each one long enough to impart explosiveness upon them. They blew up in a hail of shrapnel and smoke. A wicked grin crossed her face. "Damn, that felt good."
"I am never getting the smell of smoke out of my hair," Mineta wailed, leaning against a wall. "Did you have to blow so much stuff up?"
"Yes."
"Teammates!" Iida's voice cut through the air. "I have the flag!"
Katsumi looked up to see Iida flying through the air, flag in hand. Several flying robots were hot on his heels.
"Get it down here, Jetset! Horse-Face! Start shooting them down!"
"Stop shouting!" Mineta snapped back, even as she peppered the air with sticky purple spheres. "I've already got a headache from all the explosions!"
"You'll have more than a headache if you don't shut up!"
Why didn't people just listen to her?
"Jetset! Low flight, keep going to the exit!"
Iida hesitated for a second, but the look in her eyes was enough to scare him into motion.
More robots were coming now. Katsumi took a breath and slapped both hands on the ground. "Horse-Face, you might wanna back up!"
For once, Mineta listened to her, jumping several feet backwards with one easy bound. Katsumi let her power seep into the ground… and then the concrete exploded, showering the robots with flames and rubble.
The destruction was one of the most beautiful things Katsumi had ever seen.
And yet… her thoughts still lingered on Izzy.
"Tensei Iida has made it to the exit!" All Might's voice rang out over the loudspeaker. "Team Four Wins!"
She'd had her heart broken, but at least something was going right today.
The next morning, the sun rose. Not completely unexpected, of course, but if the world had ended, at least she wouldn't have had to face one where Izzy didn't share her feelings, a world where she'd bared her soul and found rejection (kind, friendship-embracing rejection, but still rejection). She didn't harbor any ill will towards Izzy. She wasn't sure that was something she could ever do. And she truly hoped that whatever or whoever Izzy wanted out of life, she found it.
They were only fifteen. There was a lot of time in the world for things to happen, for either of them. But she'd spent too many of the past years nursing an unrequited crush. Now, she had to Woman up and move forward. And the best way to clear her head was exercise. It was too early to tackle the punching bag though, as much as she might have liked to let out her pent up emotions that way.
Most of the rest of the class wouldn't be up yet. Katsumi had already learned she was one of the earliest risers. The only one up earlier than her was Toshi, which she had already known. He was one of the only people she knew who was dedicated to their health as she was and the only one she'd admit to being able to keep up with her (Not that she'd ever admit it, especially not to him, but it was sometimes her keeping up with him. He was just that good).
Fortunately, he hadn't left yet. Katsumi found him about to head out to the door on the ground floor. He was wearing shorts and a tank top, as he usually did, and Katsumi was reminded of Izzy's comments about aesthetic appreciation. Toshi was really fit. His arms and legs were almost as well muscled as hers. He was also practically her brother (Yes, she had an actual brother. But still.).
"You mind if I join you, Toshi?" she asked.
He only seemed slightly surprised by the question. "Didn't think you were that into running, Katsumi."
She shrugged. "Need to get moving today or I'm gonna explode."
He nodded, opting not to ask any follow up questions. He'd sat and talked with them some yesterday during the training exercise and new the basic outline of what had happened. He'd push if he felt it was really important, but he also understood boundaries.
"Sure, then," he said.
They kept up a brisk jog, enough to get their blood moving, making their way past the upperclassmen's dorms and towards some of the smaller athletic fields. She knew Toshi was actually faster than her, but right now, he was just keeping the pace.
"You're using your Quirk," she said.
Toshi blinked. "How'd you know?"
"You've got your 'Quirk' face on, Toshi. You make this weird look every time you use your Quirk. Have for years."
"I do?" he asked. "Aw, jeeze…"
She shook her head. "You making yourself lighter to cheat? You know I don't stand for cheating…"
"No!" he cried, quickly. She wasn't that scary, was she? Then again, she'd slammed him against the wall yesterday. Maybe she was. "Not that! Definitely not that! I'm making myself heavier! I figured out I can make my muscles stronger by working them under heavier gravity. So I'm, like, five percent heavier than usual right now."
Okay, she had to admit, that was pretty smart. "You come up with that on your own?"
He shook his head. "Wish I had. But Dad suggested it."
"Saw him on the news last night. You hear from him today?"
Toshi shook his head again. "No. Wish I had. Izumi and Asuka think there's something weird going on. Love to talk to him about it, but his phone keeps going to voicemail."
Huh. That was odd. Uncle Deku was usually extremely available, especially for Toshi and his sisters. There must have been something big going on, but she couldn't even begin to guess what."
Whatever thoughts she had were interrupted by someone coming up from behind them. "On your left!"
She cast a glance over her shoulder. "Kana, if you think I'm letting you pass me, you've got another thing coming! Book it, Toshi!"
Katsumi sped up and Toshi did too, even as Kana Tetsutetsu ran up beside them. The red-haired girl gave them a shark-toothed grin. "Only you could turn a morning jog into a competition, Katsumi."
Katsumi gave her a fist bump as they kept running. "Only way to get stronger is to keep pushing, Kana. You know that."
"Maybe I just like hearing you say it."
Katsumi just laughed. Like her, Kana was a deeply devoted disciple of the Womanly Arts and Ways of Living. She hadn't had much chance to see her since school had started, so she was glad to have run into her. Katsumi didn't exactly do "girl time", but maybe she'd see if Kana had time to talk later.
"You liking school so far, Tetsutetsu?" Toshi asked.
Kana made a face. "It's mostly good. Super Ball's a good teacher, at least. But I swear, we've only had three days of classes and I've already had to clobber Monoma ten times. I'd do worse, if his parents weren't friends with mine…"
"Yeah, well, mine aren't," Katsumi said. Her father in particular had a rather low opinion of the Hero called Phantom Thief. "You need me to rough him up any?"
"Katsumi!" Toshi said. "You can't do that!"
"Relax, Toshi," she said. "There's a chance I'm joking." Which she was. Well, maybe twenty-five percent joking.
"I appreciate the offer," Kana said. "But I'll deal."
The sound of a scream ruined any other chance of conversation.
Toshi pointed. "That came from under the bleachers!"
The three of them exchanged a glance and took off as fast as they could.
The source of the scream was readily apparent when they neared the bleachers. There were two students, one male and one female—Katsumi didn't recognize them, but they looked old enough to be third years—and the woman definitely seemed to be the screamer. The male, a dark-haired young man, was the problem. His Quirk, some kind of blue-green laser blade pulsing from his hands, seemed to refuse to switch off. And they were getting bigger, the blades already several feet long and growing. He couldn't even lower his hands, lest the blades start slicing up the ground.
"Get back!" he said. "I can't turn it off!"
"What happened?" Toshi asked.
"We were just taking a walk, so we could talk" the girl, blue-haired and wide-eyed, with small antenna coming from her forehead, explained. Given their location and the worry in her voice, Katsumi recognized a woman in love. They'd probably gone under the bleachers to make out, but that wasn't really important now. "And then...! We were heading back when Haru's Quirk activated and he couldn't shut it off!
"I were going to get help," she went on, "but he was so scared we didn't want to leave him…"
"No phones?" Katsumi asked. Who didn't have a cellphone in this day and age?
My fault," the girl said. "My Quirk is blocking cell signals and it's always on, so we never carry them."
Another out of control Quirk, just like yesterday morning. And on the news last night. And Toshi was wondering if whoever had destroyed the training ground the other day was part of it too. This was starting to be a really bad trend.
"I'll go get help," Toshi said. "I can cover it in a couple jumps. Katsumi, Tetsutetsu, can you stay with her?"
"Of course," Kana said.
"Get going already, Toshi!"
Toshi nodded and took a quick leap, carrying himself a considerable distance towards the main campus.
Which left Katsumi and Kana were an emotionally fragile girl and a guy with an out of control Quirk.
"It hurts…" the guy—Haru —cried out, and his laser-blades grew longer.
"Look out!" Katsumi tackled the girl as the laser blade nearly skewered them. Kana activated her own Quirk, converting her arms to metal and throwing them up in front of her body in an X. The laser blade splashed against them and knocked her back, but didn't cut through them.
"Damn!" Kana cried out, still holding her ground. "That's a strong Quirk you've got, man! I can feel the heat!" She took a single step back and then fell sideways, letting the laser-blade fly past as she rolled away. She came up, returning her arms to normal.
Katsumi looked to the blue-haired girl., helping her up "You got a name?"
The girl blinked. Maybe she'd been a bit too abrupt. "Rumi. Rumi Saito."
"Your boyfriend there, he ever been knocked out?"
"He's not my…" Saito trailed off under Katsumi's glare. "Yes. Sometimes. He's in the Hero course."
"Katsumi," Kana said. "Are you thinking…?"
"Those blades of his shut off when it happened?" Katsumi pressed Saito for further details.
She swallowed hard, then nodded. "Yes. They're supposed to go off if he's not actively sustaining them."
Katsumi nodded. The guy was in danger of hurting someone and hurting himself if this kept up, and Toshi still wasn't back yet with help.
She'd be the first to admit, she wasn't a big thinker. She favored solutions that were simple and direct. Toshi would probably have tried talking this guy down. But from the look in his eyes and the steadily growing threat of the laser-blades, that wasn't an option. She wasn't exactly the most reassuring person either.
"For what it's worth," she told him, "I really am sorry about this."
His blades were still pointing out to the sides, so she had a good shot at this. Katsumi sprinted, closing the distance between herself and Haru quickly. He started to panic, letting out a scream and bringing his hands closer to his body. This caused his laser-blades to lash out and she jumped over them, narrowly missing having her legs sliced to pieces. She heard the sound of the blades meeting Kana's metal again and knew her friend had stepped in to protect the girl.
Katsumi crossed the remaining distance easily and threw a right cross that spun his head around and knocked his lights out. She heard someone scream. Probably Saito, given that Katsumi had just slugged her boyfriend. He let out a soft grunt and fell backwards, hitting the ground. When he did, his laser-blades went out. Toshi would probably have scolded her for taking such a gamble, but hey, she turned out to be right.
"Katsumi… did you just hit that guy?"
She looked back to see Toshi, along with Vice-Principal Midnight, Doctor Izumi, and Aizawa. Toshi looked surprised, Midnight and Doctor Izumi looked various stages of amused, and Aizawa looked like he was contemplating retirement so that he could be anywhere other than where he was right now. It was an expression Katsumi was already learning he made a lot.
"I suppose that was one way to handle it," Midnight said. "You're very direct, Kirishima-Bakugo."
She shrugged. "It worked, ma'am."
Midnight sucked in a breath and her eyes narrowed. She pointed an accusing finger. "Never call me ma'am! I am not old enough to be a ma'am!"
"Nemuri, we're the same age," Aizawa said in a deadpan voice.
"Fine, then she can call you ma'am!" Midnight shouted, smacking Aizwa in the chest.
"Ow," he deadpanned.
Doctor Izumi cleared her throat. "Dad, if you and the Vice-Principal are through, perhaps I could examine Haru?"
"Of course," Midnight told her. "Your dear old dad here just loves to try and cut me down."
Katsumi frowned and she could see that Toshi was thinking too. "You people ever going to tell us what's going on?"
Aizawa gave her a blank look. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not stupid, Teach. And neither is Toshi. Between yesterday and today and that news thing with the big lizard…"
"And whatever happened on the Training Ground…" Toshi said.
"This has happened before?" Saito gasped.
"That was Yamaguchi," Kana said. "We were doing Battle Trials and her Vibration Quirk went out of control... She leveled the whole Training Ground. She still isn't back from the hospital."
Midnight and Aizawa shared a look. Katsumi was pretty sure they were debating whether or not to reveal something.
It was Aizawa who spoke first. "You're both too clever for your own good. But I suppose I shouldn't expect anything less from either of you. There's more going on than you know."
"They deserve to know, Dad," Doctor Izumi said, looking up from where she was examining Haru.
Midnight sighed. "She's right. We've been putting this off, but the students here deserve to know what's happening. It's going to go public soon enough anyway. I can convince Nezu."
Yeah, whatever was going on, Katsumi knew they weren't going to like the answer one bit.