When Bakugou finally returned to the dorms, Kirishima was the first to greet him. "Bakugou! Are you alright, man?"
Aside from the lack of sleep causing the bags underneath his eyes, Bakugou had apparently been gone longer than he thought. His arms had already recovered from overusing his quirk on his walk back to the dorms, but he still looked worse for wear.
Other than Kirishima, his other classmates had looked on in concern. Even Deku was worried, causing Bakugou to push past all of them in frustration. "I'm fine…" He said, but his voice was anything but.
Kirishima tried reaching out to lay a hand on his shoulder, but Bakugou quickly brushed him off without so much as a look in his direction. His classmates didn't follow him into the elevator as he aggressively pushed the button for the fourth floor.
Before walking to his room, he glanced over at the girls' side of the floor. Furrowing his brows and clicking his tongue, he trudged over to his own room. As he closed his room door, he stood there for a moment with his hand still on the doorknob. Bakugou closed his eyes, leaning forward. As the top of his head leant on the door, he gave a deep sigh.
After composing himself for a long while, he walked over to his bed. As he lay on it, the exhaustion finally kicked in and he went to sleep.
When he woke up, he checked his phone to see that a couple of hours had passed. Even so, he didn't feel refreshed at all.
Staring at his phone, he decided to do something he already knew wouldn't amount to anything. Dialing the number, he heard the repetitive tone before the typical error message set off.
The number you have reached is disconnected or temporarily disabled for various reasons and is unable to receive messages at this time.
Bakugou sighed, pulling his phone away from his ear as his other arm laid over his eyes. By now, she would already be on I-Island, and they had already come to terms with the fact that they wouldn't be able to have any form of communication for a year. As I-Island wasn't open to the public yet, and all information was government endorsed or confidential, it was too dangerous to have any outside contact.
He already knew this, but he couldn't help but try.
He didn't know why. There wasn't any logic behind it. He just did.
Dialing her number again and again, he received nothing but the same monotonous message. After the fifth dial, however, something unexpected happened.
His phone rang once with an unfamiliar sound, then stopped. Looking at the screen, Bakugou received a new message.
1 New Voicemail
Would you like to listen?
Yes No
He stared at the screen for a bit before hesitantly pressing accept and putting his phone to his ear.
"Hello, Katsuki…"
The boy sat up instantly, his eyes wide open, no sign of his previous weariness. His heartbeat quickened, as did his breath. There was no mistaking it.
That was her voice.
"This is a pre-recorded message that I rigged your phone with. I apologize for deciding this on my own and potentially invading your privacy."
Bakugou chuckled, partially because of how relieved he felt at hearing her voice and partially because of her words. Did her voice always sound this lovely?
"If you are hearing this message, this means that you have tried to call me five times. Truthfully, I did not want to record this since I believed that you knew the calls would not go through. However, sometimes our emotions make us do illogical things. So, if you are listening to this message, I hope it can give you some solace and relief. In that case, I am glad…but I am also saddened that you could be this distraught about my absence.
Bakugou frowned, sighing once more. He was getting upset with himself for having worried her so much that she made the choice to leave him this message.
"Although, I suppose I am also happy about that. Of course, not that you are so distressed, but that you care about me so much that you have come to this point. Feelings and emotions are…complicated."
She chuckled, like even she knew how ironic that sounded coming from her of all people.
"Despite that, I know how I feel about you."
"I love you, Katsuki."
Bakugou's breath hitched.
"I truly love you. Regardless of whether or not we have contact with each other for the next year, I will love you. If anything, I will only fall for you deeper. After all, they do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. If you love me too, then please do this one thing for me."
"Forget about me…"
His heart dropped and his breath hitched once again, but this time it was out of fear.
"Please forget about me. I do not mean to say that you can never think about me, but you have your provisional hero license now. You have far more important things to worry about than me not physically being there with you. You promised me that you would become the most amazing hero. That you would be my hero."
The boy could hear the strain slowly flowing into her voice as she continued, bringing a slight sting to his own eyes.
"I look forward to that day, Katsuki. I believe in you more than anyone. So, in order for that promise to come true, I need you to focus. I also need to focus in order to catch up to you. Neither of us can afford to sit around on our asses and mope about being separated from each other."
He chuckled, smirking at her words and challenge, but the sting in his eyes was still very much there.
"So, please…forget about me for now. For both of our sakes. Of course, I will do the same, but that does not mean my feelings for you will go away. My feelings will never waver. I will be supporting you even if I cannot be with you right now."
"Do your best, Katsuki. I love you."
As he heard a click, signaling the end of the message, the sting in his eyes grew nearly unbearable. He grit his teeth, his head falling into his hands as he leaned his elbows on his knees. He let out a shaky breath as he tightly gripped his phone, his knuckles turning a bright white. He shut his eyes as hard as he could, pressing his palms against them to do as much as possible to stop himself from letting the tears fall.
Unsteadily breathing in and out, he pressed some buttons on the phone screen and raised his phone to his ear.
"Hello, Katsuki…"
He listened to her message again.
He repeated it over and over, listening intently to her beautiful voice.
When he heard the ding of the elevators, Kirishima looked over to see Bakugou completely decked out in his hero costume. His main concern was that the blond's eyes seemed to be a bit pink which might have been the result of crying. "Bakugou! Where are you going?" The redhead asked worriedly.
"To train." The boy gruffly responded, walking past Kirishima without hesitation. His friend smiled, relieved that there wasn't a need to worry at all. The fire and determination in Bakugou's eyes was enough to assuage his fears. "Hey, wait up! Let me come with! I want to strengthen my quirk too!"
Three Months Later
"Bakugou! Come look at this!" Kirishima shouted, waving him over. A group of his classmates were huddled around someone's phone. Several others had their phones out as well. Bakugou raised an eyebrow in question as he walked over.
Kaminari raised his phone with excitement in his eyes. "Look! It's Aya-chan!" The second her name left his lips, Bakugou swiped the phone from his hands.
U.A. Student, Sasaki Ayano, Given 'Young Rising Support Item Developer' Award!
Bakugou read the headline, his eyes widening. Underneath it was a photo of Ayano holding the award plaque standing next to a tall man with black glasses, unruly honey brown hair, and a short goatee.
The man was smiling proudly next to her, but as always, Ayano held a straight face. Although, Bakugou could tell from one look at her eyes that she was thriving.
The thing that really caught his eye, however, was her hair that was now just barely brushing against her shoulders and the reddish-orange cloth wrapped around her wrist. She was keeping her promise and his gift.
"The man next to her is David Shield! They say he's the one that makes all of All Might's costumes, and Aya-chan is interning with him! Isn't that amazing?" Midoriya exclaimed, his extreme fanboy mode showing itself. As Bakugou read through the article, Midoriya's comments were confirmed.
"And take a look at this! There's a video of her presenting at the conference that won her the award!" Kirishima said, propping his phone onto the table to let everyone watch.
"Thank you for coming and taking time out of your busy schedules." Ayano started with a respectful bow.
"The support item I will be presenting is the Quirk Apprehension Machine. As its name suggests, it is a machine used to evaluate and understand a person's quirk. As we all know, children are diagnosed and registered into the Quirk Registry during elementary school. However, the Quirk Registry does in fact allow for two updates in which people can slightly modify their quirk registry form. For instance, someone who once believed that water shot out of their body now understands that the water actually comes from the moisture in the surrounding air."
"The question, now, is why is this? It is because people are constantly developing and enhancing their quirks. Children have infinite potential, and we as a society understand this. That is why we require them to undergo quirk counseling in elementary school. That is also where we, as a society, fail them."
Her last statement caused an uproar from everyone at the conference. Ayano patiently waited for them to calm down before continuing.
"Please do not misunderstand. I believe that quirk counseling is essential and that quirk counselors are doing fine, extraordinary jobs. I also believe that the quirk counseling programs are far from perfect, and I am a very big proponent of the concept that there is always room for improvement."
Bakugou smirked, his eyes shining with pride. No matter where she was, she was always taking on the hardest challenges to push herself. Even if they were controversial, she chose the path that was right for her. She was a true inventor, one that wasn't constrained by only one way of thinking.
"The purpose of quirk counseling is to provide an outlet for children to discuss their quirks. Just as mental health counselors provide an outlet for people to vent their problems, quirk counseling works in the same way. It is there to ensure that children are able to better understand their quirks and to know how to use their quirks responsibly. This is where our problem lies."
"If a child has a particularly dangerous quirk, rather than teaching them how to use it responsibly, we tend to teach them how to suppress it. We teach them conformity. For their safety, as well as ours. Again, please do not misunderstand. There is nothing wrong with prioritizing safety. It just should not be at the cost of a child's individuality. Just as I have said before, the purpose of quirk counseling is to provide an outlet for children, regardless of how dangerous their quirk is."
"If quirk counseling does not offer a child the proper outlet for their quirks, they will find another way. They will discover their quirks themselves. They will develop them without supervision. We were all children once. We were curious about everything. When we were children, we believed we were invincible. With the addition of quirks, there is no telling what a child could do. That is when it becomes dangerous. In the end, it is not the quirk that makes a child dangerous. It is our lack of foresight."
"Take a very simple quirk, the ability to wield fire, for example. Fire, in its very nature, is destructive. We know that once a fire has spread, it will keep going until there is nothing left or until it is stopped. Though it may be dangerous, it also has many benefits. We use it to cook our food, heat our homes, and many other things. If a child has this quirk, we should be teaching them how to use it in ways that help people. We should not be stressing that it is dangerous and that the child should not be using it."
"If we do not let this child express themselves in quirk counseling, they will do it another way. This child will naturally be curious about their own quirk. They will start small, perhaps like lighting a leaf on fire. Then, they will want to test their limits. They will think bigger, and they will act on it because they were given no other option, nowhere else to vent. They might resort to making forest fires or arson. They might become a pyromaniac and the next thing you know, they have become criminals, villains even. All because we stressed conformity on them rather than letting them express themselves properly and in a healthy way."
Ayano paused to drink some water as well as to let everyone in the conference stew on her words. Many of the spectators had conflicted expressions. Although her words were controversial to many, they held much weight to them.
"Now, the question is why do we do this? Of course, we value safety but that is not why we do this. We do this because we simply do not understand, and it is often the case that the things we do not understand are the very things that we come to fear. And because we are fearful, we turn to suppression. As they say, 'Out of sight, out of mind.' I do not fault quirk counselors for doing this. It is not an easy occupation, and I applaud them for taking on this difficult task."
"Quirks are ever-evolving, and each new generation has a wider and stronger mixture of quirks than the generations prior. The only person who can fully understand your quirk and its limitations is you. The only person who can fully develop and improve their quirk is you. How can we expect someone else to understand our quirk and be able to counsel us then? The answer is simple: We can't. It is impossible unless you have a quirk to copy other quirks. I have met many people and researched many quirks. I only know of one person with this ability and even then, they are limited in what they can copy."
"The only thing we can do is try our best to understand and use this understanding to help in counseling. That is where my Quirk Apprehension Machine comes into play. This device will analyze the DNA of an individual to determine their quirk and the possible outcomes that would result out of training that quirk. It can produce possible variations of that quirk and even propose potential improvements. We can use this machine rather than having children and their parents, who may not have a complete understanding of their quirk yet, report to the Quirk Registry. There are many things about quirks that we do not understand, but my invention can help to eliminate that uncertainty."
"It would help to further improve the quirk counseling programs as well as provide us more safety. Some quirks, people are born with. Others can manifest anytime between birth and the age of four. Within this four-year time period, it is often the case that quirks manifest randomly with no indicators whatsoever. As such, there have been many injuries, casualties, and dangers in the manifestation of quirks. With further research, my machine could potentially predict a quirk in a child before it has even manifested. This way, families can prepare for the quirk and even protect the child from traumatizing events that would happen otherwise."
"In addition to that, this does have some involvement with fighting villains. The Quirk Registry allows for two updates, but they are not mandatory. These updates are entirely at the discretion of the quirk user. This can be very dangerous. For instance, a villain could choose to never update their quirk registry, thus giving them an advantage in combat. The element of surprise, so to speak. By using my Quirk Apprehension Machine, there is no surprise. Only transparency."
"Yet another advantage of my invention involves my internship with David Shield. Although I am unable to divulge any major findings, you all are aware that he is researching quirk enhancement. A topic that would benefit greatly with the use of this machine. However, as you also know, dealing with the genetics of quirks can be very expensive because of the mystery surrounding them. That is why I would like to request a research grant and a support item development grant."
"This is a subject that has fallen into the background because we have gotten too comfortable. We see villains, and we believe they have become villains because of individual differences. We believe it is the fault of the individual and not of our shortcomings as a society. With my presentation here today, I hope I have convinced you otherwise. Thank you."
The video ended with resounding applause and Ayano concluding with another respectful bow.
Everyone was silent for some time. Thought it was a difficult topic with many implications, Ayano handled it professionally and with complete grace. Many of them held faces of shocked amazement, just as those did in the audience.
Kirishima was the one to break the silence when he noticed that Bakugou made moves to leave the dorms. "Hey, Bakugou! Where are you going?"
"To train." Was his simple response, the determination in his voice evident. Seeing Ayano up on that stage, giving her all, was more than enough to inspire him. In only three months, she had already made so much progress. She was concerned about catching up to him!? Yeah, right. He was the one that needed to catch up to her.
With that thought in mind, Bakugou walked off towards the training grounds.
After taking a shower, Bakugou flopped onto his bed. Instead of going straight to sleep, he pulled out his phone to search for the article about Ayano.
He read it over again, smiling to himself. He was truly proud of her for yet another achievement. Clicking on the photo in the article to enlarge it, he stared at her form.
So that's what she looked like with longer hair, huh?
It was very different from what he was used to, but it suited her nonetheless. She'd probably look fine with any style anyways.
His fingers pinched together and spread out on the screen, zooming into the photo. When only Ayano was in the frame, he took a screenshot. Going into his settings, he saved her photo as his background picture.
Staring at her photo, he gave a longing sigh.
Taking his headphones from his desk and plugging them in, he found the video of her presentation.
He put it on a loop, listening to it over and over until he fell asleep with it still in the background.