LGN: Handwashing
100 Favorite Special!
Quick Note:
Most of the specials will take place before the reveal of Midoriya's death. If it takes place after, then I will specify that at the beginning of the story.
The day had been fairly standard, nothing too surprising especially when considering the absolute insanity that was their first year in UA so far. Already, they had been ambushed by real life villains at the USJ, a hard fought battle in the UA Sports Festival, and one of their own classmates had taken down the hero killer on his own after another of their classmates had almost died fighting him.
So yeah, nothing too crazy today.
Most of the class were doing their own things in their own rooms or were hanging out in small little groups off to the side. The exception being the self-designated Bakusquad (by all the members bar Bakugou himself) who had taken over control of the first floor common room and the TV that resided in it as well to play some games of Mario Kart XXVII Deluxe Ultra Rainbow Edition. Initially, Kaminari had wanted to play Super Smash Brothers Scuffle but after a couple of rounds, it was clear that no one but Bakugou even came close to standing a chance at winning, the sandy blonde simply being too dominating at the game for the others to even put up a fight.
So they crowded around the TV, each taking turns switching off the console as the game only supported four person split screen, so two would have to switch out each turn, not that anyone complained, this game was far more even for each person. They even began to play some doubles teams but some rather poor teamwork ended up cancelling that idea not too soon after it started.
It wasn't until the second hour that a sort of situation arose from the group of six.
"Haha, eat it Mina!" Kaminari whooped in delight as he passed Mina's character in the track, having just walloped her with a total of four red shells.
Mina grunted out her frustration, "How is that fair?! You were in last and you got lucky! Get back here!"
Just like their academics, the alien and electric duo had managed to take the last placings consistently, while the other four regularly competed for actual placements. The two didn't mind that much though, they still had their fun messing around in the back of the races.
While the two were messing around in the back, the other two current competitors, Kirishima and Bakugou, were head to head at the front of the pack, each item they threw at one another barely avoided by the other. It was a contest of skill, will, and pure determination.
The second lap ended, the track's music speeding up to signal the final lap of the race as Sero and Hagakure cheered on at the close bout. Bakugou pulled off a near perfect drift through a double items box, managing to get a green shell and a banana, two excellent defensive items. Kirishima wasn't far behind and pulled off the very same drift, luckily managing to get two single red shells. Neither threw their items as they took every shortcut they knew and every turn as sharply as possible. By the end of the lap, the two were practically neck and neck, with no item boxes before the finish line.
"Give it up Bakubro! I got two red shells with your name on them!" Kirishima laughed.
"I don't care what advantage you think you got, like hell I'm losing this!" Bakugou let a little bit of a curse slip past his lips. It was always nice to see a little of Bakugou's rather angry temper shine through his calm facade. They all knew it was a face and were trying to figure out how to get past it and why it was there in the first place. It was slow going, but they were getting him to show them who he really was, so they were happy with the progress.
Bakugou and Kirishima rounded the final turn, but Bakugou abandoned the perfect drift, instead choosing to ram into Kirishima's cart's side to cancel out the red haired player's drift completely. Bakugou used his partial drift to boost ahead of his competition.
"What?! That was a cheap trick Bakubro, not manly at all!" He whined.
Kirishima tossed his two red shells frames apart, perfectly spaced so that even if Bakugou blocked one with an item the delay between deploying items behind would be just long enough for the second to hit him.
"Think that'll be enough to be me?" Bakugou tensed, "Watch this!"
Bakugou began a drift on his character while tossing his banana ahead. The banana landed right in front of Bakugou, who had no chance to avoid it… if it weren't for the red shells that Kirishima had launched.
The slight drift Bakugou began caused the first red shell to miss by mere pixels. Bakugou threw out his green shell behind him, destroying the second red shell and as the first curved back around to target Bakugou again, it rammed into the banana in front of him, destroying both and stopping the nigh-unstoppable assault.
With his maneuver successful, nothing stopped Bakugou from crossing the finish line unimpeded. The rest of the Bakusquad could only gape in amazement at the technical prowess just displayed.
As Bakugou cheered for the close victory, the others screamed out in total shock and awe at the maneuvers.
"Bakugou what the hell!" "How did you even-?" "How much have you played this game dude?!" "Teach me your ways, master!" "Bakubro, that was awesome!"
"Yeah, when you're as good as I am, then you can pull stuff off like that, better luck next ti-" Bakugou paused as he stared at his hands, "time…" he finished his sentence, all excitement gone from his voice.
"I gotta go wash my hands, I'll be right back guys." Just like that, his calm face was back, all traces of the explosive blonde gone.
As the five watched the back of the receding, they shared a little glance, all sharing the same worry for their friend.
"...Why do you think he washes his hands so much?" Kirishima asks from the quiet group.
"Well if you had explosive sweat, would you want to blow up something just because of a little workout?" Mina cut in, trying to cheer up the group with her usual charm, "I got fairly acidic sweat so I have to wash all my stuff pretty regularly so I don't eat through everything every week."
"Well no, I guess not, but…" Kaminari trailed off, "He always gets so freaked out before he goes to wash them, more than someone normally would, even if they do have explosive sweat."
"That is incredibly specific, but I get what you mean," Toru piped up from her spot on the couch.
I hope you're good in there Bakubro…
"That was way too close." Bakugou mumbled to himself as he entered the male bathroom. Walking up to the sink, he looked at his hands. His hands, calloused from hundreds of hard workouts, were drenched in sweat. Dangerous sweat that could hurt the others. He tried too hard on that race, his hands were practically a waterfall with how wet they were. He would have to wipe the controller down too while he was at it. He couldn't have someone accidentally setting it off and hurting themselves.
"Kacchan! Kacchan!"
Katsuki turned to meet the glowing face of his friend, who was rushing over to him at speeds which shouldn't be possible for such a small toddler.
"What is it Zuzu?" Katsuki asked in return. It was always a good day whenever he got to see Zuzu. His smile would brighten a room like no one else could. Sometimes Katsuki wondered if that was his quirk. Thinking about it just made him excited for the day they would both get their quirks.
"Did you see the new All Might video today?!" The excited toddler launched himself into Katsuki's arms.
Katsuki's jaw dropped, "There's a new video?!" How did he miss this?!
"Yeah yeah! C'mon Kaachan! Let's watch it together!"
After a fun filled afternoon of All Might videos, the two were left alone in the kitchen, eating a little snack before they would split up for the day.
"All Might is amazing, right Kaachan?!"
"Of course he is! He wins every fight and always saves the day!"
"When we get our quirks, let's be heroes together Kaachan!"
Katsuki laughed in happiness as Zuzu hugged him tightly, "We'll be the best heroes ever Zuzu! Even better than All Might!"
He placed his hands under the freezing water, hissing at the numb sensation that slowly crawled across his skin. He rubbed and rubbed at his hands until his hands were sure to be clean. But he had to be sure.
He rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and-
Bakugou hissed at a sharp sting of pain. He focused his eyes on his hands, which had become raw under the brutal washing. He was also bleeding in several places along the palm of his hand.
Dammit, now he needed to wrap his hand.
"Get away from him!" Katsuki screamed as he charged the three kids surrounding and kicking Izuku on the ground. The kids turned and saw a raging and exploding kid, yelping in fright as they quickly ran away from the danger.
With the threat gone, Katsuki turned to Izuku, who had begun crying on the ground from the attacks. He had bruises along his arms where he blocked the kicks and was bleeding a little on his knees.
Katsuki helped Izuku up, making sure to avoid any areas the other kids had already attacked.
"Izuku, are you alright?" Katuski asked with worry.
"Yeah, I'm fine Kaachan," Izuku responded dejectedly.
Katsuki huffed angrily at the lackluster response, "Bullcrap, you just got beat up by a bunch of losers with weak quirks, Izuku! Why didn't you fight back?"
"...I didn't wanna hurt anyone."
What a load of bull. Even if he was quirkless, he should still do something. He couldn't just get beat up and do nothing about it! So what if some loser gets a little beat up, it would stop Izuku from getting hurt so badly!
"Izuku… if you want to be a hero, you have to fight back. You can't just take hits and expect to save people. You have to hurt others to be a hero." His words were firm, leaving no room for argument.
And for the most part, he was right. If you wanted to be a hero, you had to stop people from hurting others, and generally the safest way to do that was to hurt the people who were hurting others. Villains can't attack people if they're unconscious.
"But I don't want to hurt people Kaachan! I want to be a hero who saves everyone!" Izuku's shout draws his attention. Izuku was standing up, leaning against the nearby tree for support.
It dawned on Katsuki. Heroes go up against powerful villains everyday. Villains who aren't afraid to kill heroes if they wanted to. If Izuku couldn't stop a couple weak losers with weak quirks, how could he stop a strong villain?
The answer was simple. Izuku couldn't be a hero.
Bakugou walked to the towels and began to dry them off. He tried to ignore the stinging pains from the bleeding wounds on his hands, and he did well for the most part. He finished drying his hands on the now red stained towel. The horrible color bringing up way too many emotions for the blond to handle right now, so he forced them down.
He just needed to dress his hands and then he could leave.
He had been trying, for so long. But Deku just wouldn't get the message. No matter what he tried, the damn nerd would just keep up a fake smile and keep trying to be a hero. But Katsuki couldn't let that happen. If he did, Deku would die.
So this is how he found himself with two extras by his side as they stared down Deku. He could see how Deku's eyes darted around, desperately searching for an escape that didn't exist.
"What's this you got here, Deku?" Katsuki spoke the words with as much arrogance as he could muster. In his hands was one of Deku's several hero journals.
Katsuki had seen several of them before and even if he hated what they were used for, he would be an idiot if he said the analysis was bad. Hell, most of the heroes in the books would pay some serious money for analysis like this. Which is why it was absolutely perfect for Katsuki.
He scoffed, "Seriously, still trying to be a hero? C'mon Deku, most of the extras here have shit quirks, but you don't even have one! What the fuck do you think you'll be able to do, hmm? Bore the villains to death with your nerd book?" He and the extras laughed, "What a joke."
A terrible idea formed in his head, "Tell you what Deku, wanna see something cool?" Small crackles appeared in Katsuki's palm, the telltale sign of his quirk at work.
"No wait- Kaachan don't-"
Within a second and a loud pop, the notebook that had tens of hours of work behind it was burned horribly, barely usable at all. Katsuki gave an unnoticeable sigh of relief. He didn't want to destroy his work. If Deku abandoned the analysis path, Katsuki wouldn't be able to keep him safe. So he destroyed it just enough to get the message across.
"And just like that, it's gone." For added measure, he tossed it out the window into where he knew the koi pond was. Didn't want the book going up in flames from any remaining embers.
Katsuki turned to the two extras following him, "Why don't you two extras start heading out," he grinned evilly, "I want some alone time with Deku."
The two extras shared a laugh before joking about not going too far. They left the door laughing at one another, leaving the pair of former friends alone.
Katsuki spared a quick glance at the door before dropping his grin and rubbing his eyes in exasperation. Deku looked confused and frightened by the sudden change in demeanor. Even with the loss of his notebook, Katsuki could see that fucking spark in eyes didn't dim even the slightest bit.
Katsuki gave a sigh, "Listen Deku," he hated how Deku flinched, "You can't be a hero. Not without a quirk, so just give it up. Please."
With those final words, Katsuki headed to the door of the room, stopping right before exiting.
"You'll just die if you don't."
Bakugou pulled the bandages from the first aid drawer of the bathroom. Quietly dressing the wounds on his hands, desperately trying to force the memories away. Under and over. Over and around. Give a little pull- Katsuki hissed again. Apparently the wounds were a little worse than he thought if it hurt this bad.
He finished the dressing as fast as possible before putting the bandages back where they belonged. He looked up at the mirror, a mess of a human being staring back at him.
The phone rang in the Bakugou household and after a little argument with his mother, Katsuki was forced to answer it. He picked up the phone and offered a gruff hello. The words spoken to him broke him.
He dropped the phone to the floor, racing to his mother and demanding they go to the hospital.
It didn't take long before he crashed through the front doors of the hospital.
Katsuki raced to the receptionist pleading for the room number.
Katsuki ran down the hallway, unshed tears in his eyes, "DEKU!"
Katsuki burst through the door with a shout, "IZUKU!"
Katsuki saw the dead body of his closest friend in that hospital bed. The heart monitor flatlined as Auntie Inko wailed over his body. On the bedside table was the very same notebook Katsuki had burned earlier in the day, right before he saw All Might talk to his friend. He walked silently to the notebook, picking it up and seeing the blood stains the ragged thing was drenched in. Katsuki collapsed to the ground, clutching the notebook to his chest, joining his Auntie's wails of grief with a cry, "ZUZU!"
Bakugou forced the tears back in his eyes, forcibly calming himself.
"Hey Bakubro, you good in there? It's been a while since you went in," Kirishima sounded from somewhere in the common room.
Bakugou shouted in response, "Yeah, I'm coming back right now!"
He left the bathroom without another word.
Notes:
100 Favorites! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I'm so glad so many people enjoyed my story so much! And as promised I have made another mini story to supplement the main story of Little Green Notebook. I hope you like it! My goal with this one was to deepen the relationship between the two while also making the main story just that much sadder :)
I'm so sorry...
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!
- RandomA99