A/N: Bakugo obviously uses a lot of nicknames for his classmates. Most of them will probably be obvious, but here's a list of them all anyway.
Kirishima - Shitty Hair, Hair For Brains
Todoroki - Icy Hot, Half n' Half
Kaminari-Spark Plug, Sparky, Dunce Face
Sero - Tape Arms
Iida - Four Eyes, Glasses
Tokoyami - Bird Boy
Asui - Frog Face
Koda - Rock Head/Face
Sato - Muscles, Muscle Man
Shoji - Arms
Aoyama - Sparkles
Hagakure - Invisible Girl
Jiro - Ears
Yaoyorozu - Ponytail
Uraraka - Pink Cheeks
Mineta - Purple Perv
Also, yes, this story is inspired from the events of Your Name.
"Yo, Midoriya," called Shitty Hair with a broad smile. Deku turned back our way as we passed, "me and Bakugo are done for the night" he beamed, informing the nerd. Deku smiled back. Stopping with Aoyama beside him. Both decked out in their hero costumes.
"You're not staying for the festival?" he asked with his warm smile.
"We've been walking around it for hours, why the fuck would we want to stay longer" I scoffed and Deku raised a gloved hand to rub the back of his neck.
"I guess" his smile wavered a bit.
"Do you not wish to enjoy the grandeur?" posed Sparkles beside him. I only scowled in return.
"Nah, Bakugo's right, we should rest anyway" smoothed out Shitty Hair and I turned to leave before him, not wanting to waste more time lingering around the place.
"Alright, we'll see you later" I heard Deku call back as Shitty Hair waved bye and jogged to catch up to me.
"You sure you didn't want to stay?" asked the red head and I shot him a sideways glare, "well in that case, lets take the long route," he beamed his toothy grin at me, "there's something I want to check out" I rolled my eyes at him. I wasn't actually that tired after hours of patrolling. The evening had been so easy going that it crossed the line to boring.
"Fine" I grumbled and turned after him as he went off the path.
It was the summer holidays for us, but since we lived at the school, UA had the fucking audacity to send us off on shitty loser jobs like this one like we were their dogs. Most of the class had cheered and been too excited about the trip, yet here I was, stuck with them, my parents having not given me the permission I demanded to be excluded. I'd rather have spent my time working out at the school gym or even studying, anything more useful to me than walking around a sleepy ass town in the damn countryside.
We were only here for the weekend at least. Sent in to patrol a large festival the town held every seventy years or some bullshit like that. It was a large event for such a quiet place, bringing in people from neighboring towns for the night. Although we had been here yesterday too, the school loaning us out like servants to help set the lakeside town up for tonight's festival.
Shitty Hair led us off the road that headed to the other side of the large lake where our class was staying and up the ever growing grassy slopes and through patches of trees as we hiked up the mountain, if you could call it that. It was more like a large, glorified hill. It lacked the ruggedness of a mountain, and its slopes weren't as steep, being easy to walk up and not requiring any climbing whatsoever. Finally we broke through the last patch of trees to reach the rim of the mountain that overlooked the entire area.
The night was warm and calm with a light breeze and a thick wall of clouds blocked off the view of the night sky and stars. Down below we could see the darkness of the large lake connected to a dam that held back an even larger lake. The lake by the town was large enough that even I doubted I could get halfway without drowning. The one behind the dam, maybe a sixth of the way before I would be too exhausted to swim anymore, and that's saying something.
Both lakes looked like dark black holes in the earth, the only patch lit up with reflections of the festival lights closest to that side. The lakeside town itself, spread around three-quarters of the lake, but was mostly dark, the only lights coming from the festival tucked to one section and even at this distance I could still pick up some music on the breeze.
The town looked larger in the daylight as it spread out uphill from the lake, with streets and shops and homes and schools. It had almost everything a normal town would have, just more compact and it lacked a hospital. The closest one being two towns over and even that one was small. Anything more specialized would have to go even further to the nearest city. I glanced to the other side of the lake, dark in comparison, where our classes traditional style accommodation was as well as several other visitors who had come for the festival.
"Aw man" sighed Hair For Brains and I looked to him with a frown, "the clouds were so low tonight I hoped the mountain would be above it, but I guess I misjudged" his shoulders drooped, and he hung his head. The idiot, the clouds were no where near us, low or not.
"Well, duh," I scoffed, "did your idiot brain forget how high up clouds actually are"
"I know, I just hoped that if they were lower we could see the sky" he whined and lifted his head to me with a pout.
"What's so important about the damn sky?" I grumbled with my arms crossed over my chest. We were all in our hero costumes and at this height, the breeze carried a slight chill to it which annoyed me. I didn't like the cold for obvious reasons.
"Dude, you don't know?" cried out Shitty Hair with shock and I glared to him, "have you not been paying attention to what the festival is about?" he asked
"Why the hell would I?" I scoffed, "why would I care"
"Bakugo, the festival is for the comet that comes every seventy-five years!" he practically screamed at me, almost insulted that I didn't know about it.
"So"
"So, that's why the festival is so special!," he was getting passionate about it now, "it's like a once in a life time thing and we don't even get to see it" I figured it out now, why he was so worked up about it. Stupid.
"Idiot," I rolled my eyes, "you can see it next time" I turned to continue walking along the rim of the mountain, in the direction of our accommodation. Down the other side, the mountain sloped away into a smaller lake. That one was swimmable several times over in comparison to the others.
"I might not" called out Hair For Brains as he caught up with me. I huffed a reply, irritated that he had wasted my time by bringing me on his stupid detour. But I was more annoyed that when we got back down, I'd be bored shitless with nothing to do until we left the next day, and that was probably after the town used us to clean up their fucking mess after the festival. I scowled into the night while Shitty Hair continued to whine behind me before finally falling silent for a while when he had run out of complaints. Thank fuck. The only sound now was our feet crunching against rock and grass. Then I heard Shitty Hair stop, his echoing footsteps ceasing. I kept walking when I heard it, and the way he said the word made my heart stop.
"No" his voice wasn't loud, but like a shocked whisper that was so unlike his usual loud self that I lifted my head and turned back to face him, knowing from that single word that something was horribly wrong, but he wasn't looking at me, he was staring out across the lakes down below. I followed his gaze and froze.
The ceiling of clouds above us was dragged down and then broke away high over the water as a red glowing light covered the area. The comet was falling, or part of it, it wasn't big at all, but it came down with such heat and force that it glowed a hot read as it soared across the water, towards the festival side of the lake.
We were frozen in place, even if we moved right this second, we couldn't do a damn thing to stop it. We would never get close enough in time to do anything. My heart was beating in my ears, if I was breathing, I couldn't feel it.
Images flashed across my eyes. The festival. Children. Parents. Oldies. All smiling and enjoying the night. Then our classmates. We had been paired up to take shifts patrolling the festival throughout the evening and night. I knew of three pairs down there right now. Right in the line of impact. Kirishima's hand swung back to touch me, he didn't take his eyes off of the comet as his hand took a fistful of my top in it. He was shaking, I could feel it, or maybe I was too.
A bright beam shot from the festival to the comet, trying to break it apart as it neared. Aoyama's naval laser. I had seen it cut through cement before, but I didn't see it come through to other side of the falling boulder, but there wasn't enough time for them to do anymore.
Deku's face came to my mind. His smile less than an hour ago as we parted ways at the festival. His messy green hair, his wide warm smile, his eyes half closing from it and the scattering of freckles on his face. I would never see it again and it hurt. It hurt so much.
The scorching comet passed over the festival and the town on it's right, before it hit the ground. The sky light up with bright light that died away an instant later before to earth was uprooted and a raging wall of debris and dirt roared out, covering the area. Shitty Hair turned away, wrapping his arms around me and pushing us both down, using his quirk to harden his body as the wall of hot, dirty air hit us.
The world around us fell silent, my ears were ringing from the noise that had followed and Kirishima sat up to allow me up and I got to my feet, shaking myself, dust falling from everywhere on us. Shitty Hair's back was caked with dirt and as he turned to look back towards the festival everything was too shrouded in a cloud of dirt still to make out much at all. I couldn't even see any lights through it. Kirishima turned again, giving me one long devastated look and we were off, as fast as our legs would take us back down the slope to where the festival had been moments ago.
This town had no heroes. The countryside area was so quiet that there wasn't a hero agency anywhere around it, hence why we had come for the event. Our class was the only help around and I could feel our hero training kicking in, the rush of adrenaline that spurred us both on to get there as soon as possible, to help any way we could. In my mind I had always pictured myself as the type of hero to beat down villains, rescue wasn't what I had been aiming for, yet we had all been trained in it regardless. Thank fuck for that.
We burst through the trees but already the landscape was changed from what it had been during our trip up, chunks of rubble from the towns buildings and unearthed boulders had been thrown this far and it only made my heart race more. Debris blocked our way, but I wasn't about to waste time going around or climbing over. I reached back, Shitty Hair already knowing to take my hand and with my free hand I blasted us up and over the wall of debris, him hardening his body against my blasts.
He held onto my hand firmly as I blasted us further, getting us as far ahead as we could. It wasn't easy with just the one hand and the extra weight, but I was determined to get us there as quickly as possible. Eventually I let us drop back down once we had cleared the worst of the debris and we kept running until we slid down the last of the slope to meet with the road. We glanced both ways but didn't see anyone in either direction. Shitty Hair took off, keeping the same pace as before as we rushed towards the festival side of the town. My chest was burning from the dust and running, but I was too determined to let it slow me at all. I would be a pathetic excuse of a hero if I had to stop and catch my breath because of some damn dust.
We reached the end of the road, not because it reached our destination, but because it was covered in layers of rubble and debris. From this point on, so close to where the festival was, we would have to climb and scramble across it.
"Bakugooooooo! Kirishimaaaa!" I heard a roaring voice behind us and turned to see Four Eyes charging our way at speed, zigzagging through the rubble scattered on the road. The dust was clearing, but the sky itself still seemed darker than it was before, or maybe it was just the lack of lights now that the town had gone dark. I could feel the extra weight in my hair from all the crap that had fallen.
"Iida!" called Shitty Hair with relief as the class rep neared and I could see he was holding a bar in his hands, pulling a long narrow cart behind him.
Four Eyes pulled up in front of us, bending over to catch his breath and the rest of our class, including Mr. Aizawa and Present Mic climbed out of the cart. Except for the six who had still been patrolling the festival, it looked like everyone was here. No wonder the class rep was so exhausted from dragging them all here as fast as he safely could from the far side of the lake which seemed to have escaped the worst of it.
"Are you two alright?" asked Mr. Aizawa as he jogged to us and we both nodded solemnly, "right then, lets-" he was cut off by Four Eyes who had stood up straight again and started loudly making orders of everyone with waving arms and our teacher let him.
"Right everyone!," he boomed, "this is an emergency. We are the only heroes here to assist. We will immediately conduct search and rescue" everyone gathered around, and I itched to just get a move on, but Shitty Hair's hand on my wrist kept me in place.
"I want everyone to remain in groups of two!" he ordered, " Jiro, Ashido, Bakugo, Kirishima, Oijiro, Sato, Koda, Asui, Uraraka and Mineta, I want you in pairs for search and rescue. Yaoyorozu and Sero I want you both to remain here and setup a first aid base. All injured citizens are to brought here if safe to do so or you can return here for medical equipment as needed"
"Hang on, I will make communications devices for everyone before you go" spoke up Ponytail as she squatted and lifted the side of her shirt and started popping out ear pieces.
"Here," offered Muscle Man as he joined her and dropped half of his belt pouches to her, each filled with sugar and candies. Ponytail offered her thanks. Muscle Man was still in his hero costume like me and Shitty Hair, having just returned from finishing his shift with Four Eyes not long ago. Ponytail and most of the others were in casual clothes.
"Todoroki," called Glasses as he fixed his gaze on the Half n' Half bastard, "I want you to inspect the dam for structural damage. We must prevent it from breaking and stop any water flooding into where citizens may be trapped" Icy Hot nodded solemnly.
"I will join the boy" announced Present Mic loudly.
"Right. Get to it everyone. Lives are on the line!" boomed the class rep and everyone went to move.
"Hold it," spoke up Mr. Aizawa and we all faced him, "this is a very serious incident," he spoke with his usually monotone, but his eyes were stern as it raked across all of us, "there will no doubt be many casualties. When you find someone, check their pulse, if nothing, move on. We don't have time to waste pulling bodies from the rubble. The could dam break, this is a race against the clock. Todoroki can only hold it off for so long" our teachers words made my shoulders feel heavier. Of course the place would probably be littered with bodies. I was pretty sure this would be the first time for most, if not all of us, dealing with death.
Everyone turned back, their body language more depressed than before as they stopped by Ponytail to pick up an ear piece each and grouped together in their pairs. Muscles and Tail started to clear away the rubble on the road around us to create a cleared area for anyone rescued to gather. There wasn't time to wait around for Ponytail to make more useful items for everyone to take with them.
"Someone's coming!" called Ears as most of us had only just started to climb up the rubble to head out. She pointed in the direction and those closest, Pink Cheeks and the Purple Perv, ran off, their shapes disappearing through the still settling dust only to appear a moment later, Pink Cheeks leading Spark Plug out, making him weightless so he could drop down from the rubble safely and Ears ran to him, wrapping her arms around him with relief. Seeing one of our classmates in pretty good shape seemed to lift everyone's spirits a little. Even Shitty Hair smiled beside me.
"You're alright" beamed Ears, though her eyes still looked sad, "where's Hagakure?" she asked, looking around. Pink Cheeks glanced back behind her. Sparky shook his head and everyone's spirits dropped again.
"I-I don't know" croaked the blonde. His voice was close to tears and his shoulders quaked as most of his released weight slumped against Ears.
"Are there more survivors back that way?" asked Ponytail urgently. Sparky's dirtied face lifted to look to her past Ear's shoulder, and he shook his head again, tears painting clean streaks down his face before he pushed himself off of the girl and threw up.
"We can go and look, she may-" started Pink Cheeks, turning to head back the way Dunce Face had come from.
"No" spoke up Mr. Aizawa, approaching the shaking blonde, "you cannot prioritize your classmates over the lives of others. Friend or not, every life is the same in this situation. You will help whoever you come across first. Now go" he demanded as he knelt beside the blonde, and his glare told Ears to leave.
"You heard our teacher. Move out!" barked Four Eyes and we all turned, heading off in different directions as we spread out across the uneven destroyed landscape in our pairs.
You better stay alive you damn nerd, I hissed internally as, with Kirishima at my side, we headed out.
