Katsuki Bakugo resisted the urge to kick the door to Principal Nezu's office open. "Try to make the first impression at least somewhat decent": that's what his old school therapist was always telling him; alongside other wishy-washy one liners such as "your temper scares off others" and "perhaps less swearing will help?"

Psychologically, he definitely needed a new therapist. But he had also lost interest in others being close to him emotionally long ago (to the point he gave the most minimal amount of effort in "threapy",) so it wasn't like he was going to try and listen anyways.

The little rat-man-thing of Katsuki's new principal smiled up at the boy, warm and welcoming. His new homeroom teacher sat slumped down in a chair with his arms crossed and face neutral. "Ah! Young Bakugo! So nice to have you join us! Come, have a seat." Katsuki didn't say anything as he crossed the floor and sat down. "Tea?"

"No." His inner therapist voice was noting that he needed to tack on a 'thank you'. He mentally kicked that voice in the pants.

Nezu smiled anyways as Aizawa sighed and closed his eyes. "Do you know why I called you here? On your second day of school?"

Bakugo took a deep breath through his nose. "No."

"We received a concerning report from your previous school," Nezu began. "Or, rather, we received similar reports from everyone in your school, but given that you are the only one who made it through and yours is the most concerning, we needed to discuss it."

Bakugo sniffed. He knew where this was going. Aizawa picked up the conversation from there. "Your old school was demolished in a freak villain attack, leaving a vast majority of the students, staff, and parents with ptsd. You are among them. You were already said to be a wild child, the alpha of all the kids your age and even those older than you, but afterward you've been described as indescribable; withdrawn but explosive; loud; scared; scarred; and the like." Aizawa looked steadily at the young Bakugo, silently noting how his hands were balled in his pants at the knees. "We were going to wait and study your actions, see if it would be problematic. Judging by your actions at the training activity today, where you were 'normal of a sort, then suddenly violent, it would seem intervention is indeed necessary."

Just the mention of the incident had flashes of memories dancing in his mind's eye: fire everywhere; Katsuki's voice ringing out, calling for anyone; explosions other than his own ringing off in the distance; screams; possibly even gunfire; terrifyingly close sounds of walls collapsing. Then... the shortest moment of silence... only to be followed by the ear-shattering sound of a reverse explosion... all the fire suddenly dissapearing... the school... all gone... children laying on the earth and ash... some bodies twitching or rising... others not moving... and one... one...

One body that was missing.

Jutting out his jaw and poorly holding in a growl, Katsuki ground out "and what, exactly, would that intervention be?"

"Therapy, to start." Nezu continued. "One of the victims was a friend of yours, correct?"

"We weren't friends." Bakugo snapped. The bodies flashed before his eyes again.

The principal raised an eyebrow. He looked like he wanted to push the topic, but let it drop. "... very well then. I'll begin scheduling you therapy appointments once a week with one of the school's therapists. Other than that, you are dismissed for the time being."

Bakugo stood with a grunt. He turned his back on his teacher and principal. He began walking back towards the door, just wanting to go home: he wanted to see auntie, his "therapy" dog, and maybe even...

Well...

He supposed he should mention that.

Heaving a massive sigh, Katsuki stopped at the door frame. "Nearly forgot," he said, pretending that it hadn't just popped into his head, "I have a stalker." That got the adults' attention. Aizawa sat up straigher, brows lowering in seriousness as Nezu's smile finally faded. "Whoever-it-is has been following me for the past 3 years or so. I don't belive he or she is malevolent: I think he even tried to save my life."

Nezu quirked a brow. "Back four years ago?"

"No. About one year. I was caught by the sludge villain, and (before All Might got to me,) I could have sworn he appeared and tried to grab me. I'm not sure though. I thought he wouldn't be able to stalk me while I was here at UA, but today proved me wrong: I saw him."

"What does he look like?" Aizawa leaned forward. A physical description and even quirk would be monumental for his line of work: he could have this stalker locked away in weeks at the most.

But Bakugo shrugged. "No real idea. Mostly it's similar to a heat haze: some strange noises and a flash of darkness if you're really lucky. He's been seen elsewhere, not just with me, so there's no way he's just a traumatic figment of my imagination. Regardless of what my garbage therapist tells you."

Katsuki ruffled through his school bag before pulling out a surprisingly finely kept notebook. It was labeled 'hero analysis for the future. He flipped to a page. Almost the whole page was filled with scribbles, leaving it nearly all black with poorly erased spots for notes: within the darkness was a barely visible human form: if you looked closely enough, you could almost make out facial features; an eye perhaps, or a strangely shaped tuft of hair. It... it looked also like it was drawn by a ten year old.

Nezu took the notebook, staring intensely at the drawing. "Did you create this?"

"No," Katsuki admitted. "I woke up one day to it. I assume he did it."

"And you said today's activity proved your hypothesis wrong? You saw your stalker today?"

Bakugo nodded. "It... it was why I was suddenly much more violent. It was near the end, I saw his tell-tale haze, and I just..." he trailed off. Even he wasn't sure why he had reacted the way he had.

Nezu began typing furiously into his computer, bringing up the recorded video feed from that day's villain/hero team up. He began playing the video a few moments before Bakugo lost his temper with the boy and Aizawa now hovering over his shoulder. Everything was proceeding as normal, the hero team was closing in, and then...

"There!" Bakugo poked his finger roughly into the screen just as Nezu paused the tape. Skipping backward frame by frame, the stalker could be seen. The shadow was only fully visible for five frames at most (the heat haze not being picked up by the cameras), but those five frames were caught.

A dark and shapeless form seemed to peek around the corner, staring directly at Bakugo. The shadowy stalker didn't seem to have a corporeal body. Only vague motions and assumptions led to a conclusion about their actions.

Katsuki was gripping the back of the chair tightly. There was a strange manic look in his eyes. "... caught you..." Aizawa looked away from the freeze frame to send a worried look at his student. The boy didn't notice, to caught up in seeing his stalker clearly for the first time. He whipped his notebook up to his face, eagerly sketching out what little could be made out of the form: his drawing skills were surprisingly good.

Auzawa leaned back. "We'll look further into this. We will let you know if anything concrete is found. For now, its getting late and you should go home. I would also consider at least part of an apology to the students on your opposing team. They didn't exactly get to meet your good side."

Katsuki's glee vanished. "Whatever." He stalked to the door, kicking it open this time. "Let me know anything you find."

Nezu continued to stare at the computer as the boy left, trying to decipher what he was looking at. A stalker with the ability to infiltrate UA grounds, has attempted to reach out to the stalked, and has followed a literal traumatized child for at least 3 years.

"This... will be an interesting school year."

Oh, if only Nezu had known.

-- later that day --

Evening had arrived by the time Katsuki walked up at the Bakugo Household, the sky painted with brilliant reds, oranges, and purples.

It looked too much like the flames burned into Katsuki's mind for him to enjoy.

He opened the door much more calmly that he had with the principal. "Mom, Dad, Auntie! I'm home!"

Inko Midoriya was in the kitchen, preparing herself a late evening snack when he entered. She turned around with a look of pure joy on her face. "Kacchan! Baby! Come here!" He willingly let himself get wrapped up in her arms, leaning against her and hugging her back. She was the only one he was openly affectionate towards: he became a whole different person around her. His plus-sized aunt pulled him off of her. "You got home rather late! Exhausting second day of school? Here, have a slice of this." Inko turned to cut him a section of the cake she was helping herself to.

"Mom and Dad out?"

"Mhm. Mits and Mas are out having a date." She handed him a plate with a slice, digging into her own as well. "They deserve it. They haven't had a chance to go out together in ages."

Katsuki nodded, following Inko to the large and comfortable couch. He took a bite into the cake and paused. "... Auntie, is there coffee in this?" It was already 6pm. If there was coffee in the cake then he would never fall asleep.

"Oh no, just coffee flavor. I knew you and your parents wouldn't get home in time to have cake with literal coffee in it." Inko smiled warmly at him. "But there is another cake in the fridge with plenty of coffee in it for the morning however. Figured you'd need it for tommorow!"

Katsuki nodded and took another large bite of cake. Mumbling around the food, he said, "got in almost trouble today."

Inko dropped her fork. "Already?! But Sweetie it's only the second day!"

"It wasn't like I asked to get in trouble!" He waved his fork in the air, swallowing hard. "Stalker showed up and I just sorta... lost it in training. Got sent to the principal's as they thought it was irrational behavior because of trauma."

If her fork has still been in her hand, Inko would have dropped it again. She gaped at Katsuki. "Your stalker showed up? He managed to get into UA grounds?"

His face lit up with a manic glee. "Yeah! And you won't believe this, but he got caught on camera!" He rifled through his backpack, letting out a string of curses when he couldn't find his notebook at first look. When he pulled it out and eagerly showed Inko, she gasped.

"That's... that's..."

"That's a freaking mistake on his part!" Katsuki cackled. "Now the teachers know, and have at least a base for a physical description, so he's screwed!" He was prowling around, filled to the brim with excitement.

Inko raised a leery eyebrow, but smiled and let the boy rant and rave. It was nice to see him excited. Eventually, he began running out of fuel, slowly calming down and sitting back down on the couch to lean on her shoulder. She chuckled at his antics. "You look exhausted Kacchan." She skimmed her finger through his hair to tuck it behind his ear: any remaining tension in his body evaporated at the familiar touch. "You should go to bed early."

"... maybe."

"I'll tell Mitsuki and Masaru about your day. They'll be happy to know that Pro Heroes are investigating your stalker."

With that, Katsuki hauled himself off of her and slunk off to his room, closing it with a gentle click. He stretched, letting out a grunt as his now stiff body protested. "Hey Izuku. You'll never guess what happened." Katsuki dropped into a desk chair, spinning around as he waited for the imaginary questioning response. "Our little Stalker got caught on camera!"

He liked to imagine that the shadow stalked Izuku as well. Still spinning around until he got dizzy and staring up at the ceiling, Katsuki repeated the day's stories again, making sure to keep his voice low so Auntie Inko didn't hear. He went into hyper-realistic detail of the team up battles, rattling off ideas on other students quirks. He leaned back in the chair as he let himself fanboy for a good few moments. "You should have been there Izu. Being in a class taught by All Might? Heh! You would have probably wet yourself or something."

Katsuki's face fell.

He stopped spinning and rocking in his chair. Slowly, he lowered his gaze from the ceiling to a shelf by his desk. With a spark from his hands, he lit a candle that sat by a picture frame. Katsuki sighed. He picked up the picture frame, looking at the photo inside.

His own smirking face looked back at him. Young Katsuki had his arm wrapped around another young boy's neck, nearly holding him in a headlock. The other boy was skinnier, with messy green hair, sparkling green eyes, and pale skin with a dusty array of freckles.

Two childhood bestfriends.

If only...

"You really should have been there Izuku."

A/N

Well here is the beginning of what I hope to be a totally bomb story. I'm sure some of y'all can already figure out where I'm going with this, but that's ok with me: so long as you still enjoy it. For the sake of the few who don't initially see what I'm doing, imma not really discuss it here in the A/Ns.

But welp. That's all really. If I get writer's bock on this, I /may/ start another bnha story. Not sure bcuz i don't want to be juggling too many stories again.

I have a lot of new and important stuff in my profile that I added over my hiatus, so go check that out. Some of it is addressing my Cruel Trilogy and other finished stories: nothing major like deleting Redeemed, so don't worry.

I'm already started on the next chaoter, so here's hoping it'll be out soon.

But that's really all! So long Lovies!