A/N:
I've devoured just about every half-decent time travel AU in multiple fandoms, including BNHA, so now I will be forcing my own upon the world
featuring, of course, one of fate's favorite chew toys: one 'Katsuki Bakugou'
...which does mean vague spoilers for the manga. nothing horribly specific, though, especially since it's been AU-ified for the purpose of this fanfiction
but you've been warned nonetheless, ayooooooo
Katsuki peers into the curls of smoke that dance before him, thumb ghosting over the holofoil card in his hand. He exhales, feeling his lips curl into a wry smile as a childhood conversation echoes in the back of his mind.
"Man," he lets out. "I wanted an autograph so bad."
Kacchan, he hears, and he glances down at the card. It shimmers, as if it's bathing in sunlight.
Kacchan, Izuku's voice echoes once again - this time, disturbingly firm, yet filled with something akin to grief. Katsuki presses his lips together, squinting up at the void above.
The wind brushes against his skin. It doesn't strike him as odd, not at first, until he remembers that the dead do not feel.
He tenses, suddenly on guard. In the corner of his eye, something flickers.
"What the fuck?" Katsuki mutters, then steps backwards when the mist begins to swirl, enveloping the world in a dense fog. A sharp pain shoots through his skull, and he exhales sharply, hand cutting through the air without resistance.
Something off in the distance glows. Katsuki's vision briefly flashes with static, and when it returns, the light is closer.
It pulses. He decides that he's not imagining things.
Katsuki attempts to take another step backwards, but a rush of white-hot pain has his legs crumpling from beneath him, leaving him as helpless as a ditzy woman in a horror movie. He blinks, eyes swimming with spots of light, and forces out a ragged breath.
Something grabs onto his collar. He pulls backwards, but the grip remains firm.
"Who are you?" he rasps out, gaze raising.
A pair of glowing eyes meet his from within the mist.
"Fuck—" he begins, and is promptly swallowed by a burst of light.
"K-Kacchan?"
"—Off."
"O-oh, um… S-sorry, Kacchan…"
Snickers echo around the room. Between blinks, the flecks of gold disappear. An embarrassed, emerald gaze remains.
"Hah?" Katsuki lets out dumbly, eyes flicking around his middle school classroom. Only a few students remain, chatting casually as they put away their supplies.
"A-are you alright?" Izuku asks, then tenses when Katsuki's head snaps towards him once again.
"What," he lets out, tone flat.
"Y-you fell asleep," Izuku mumbles, lowering his gaze as his ears turn red. "I j-just thought… I m-mean…" He trails off. "N-nevermind. S-sorry for um… bothering you. I'll just… go now." He turns around, visibly cringing as he stalks off towards his desk.
Katsuki strains his ears to listen to scattered, berating mutters until he no longer can. The moment Izuku leaves the room, someone beside him snorts.
"Done staring, dude?" they tease. Katsuki stares blankly at the speaker before he sees the teen raise a hand, showing off unnaturally long fingers. "Hey, hey, I didn't mean anything by it," he says with an easy grin.
"Can you believe that guy, though?" Extra #2 asks, eyeing the doorway as he swings his bag over his shoulder. "I mean, U.A.? What is he thinking, trying to get into that school without a quirk?"
"Right?" Extra #1 chimes in with a snicker. "He was such a wimp about it, too. As soon as people started laughin', he just clammed up. He must be insane."
Katsuki remains silent, eyes trailing back to the empty doorway.
"...Hey dude, are you alright?" Extra #2 asks a moment later. "It's not like you to be so…" He waves his hand through the air vaguely. "Spacey."
"I'm fine," Katsuki bites out reflexively, face still marred by a frown. There's something… off, he feels. Or maybe that's just the shitty headache that decided to crop up out of nowhere.
With a scoff, he pushes himself out of his desk and moves to leave the room. He probably just needs some fresh air, or something.
"Hey man, wait up!" Extra #1 whines playfully.
"If you want to follow, then you're the one who's gotta keep up," he snarks back. The words fall off his tongue with surprising ease, and he presses his lips together, attempting to shake off the odd feeling that bubbles within his gut.
"Yeah, loser," Extra #2 teases. "Keep up."
"Shut it, asshole," Extra #1 grumbles, knocking shoulders with the other boy.
At once, they both notice that Katsuki is staring at them. Before either can say anything, he rolls his eyes and leaves without another word.
Katsuki narrows his eyes as he looks over his homework. For whatever reason, he can't brush off the feeling that he's done this before - or something like it, at least.
"Katsuki! "
He forces out a breath and begins scratching in an answer. "One minute!" he calls back.
Not even a full minute later, he hears his name again.
"I said one fucking minute!" he repeats, louder than the first time. He pauses, waiting for a response, then settles back down when he doesn't hear anything.
And then there's a fierce pounding at his door, coupled with another shout of his name. Katsuki scowls and marches over to his door, throwing it open with unnecessary force.
"What the fuck is so important—" he begins, only for the rest of his words to die in his throat when he sees his mother's red-rimmed eyes. "...Hag?" he lets out warily, then tenses when she captures him in a full body hug.
"I'm sorry," she whispers, gently running her hands through his hair. It's something she hasn't done in ages - not after he'd told her to stop when some brats laughed at him for being a mommy's boy just after he'd turned seven.
The meaning of the gesture, though, is what has alarms blaring in his head. She'd only ever done this when he'd gotten hurt.
"What the fuck," he lets out. He attempts to tamp down on his slight panic, but something must bleed through, since his mother briefly tenses.
"I'm sorry, Katsuki," she repeats, pulling away to meet his gaze. When he sees a wet sheen over pools of crimson, he feels a lump rise in his throat. "Izuku, he's… He's gone."
Katsuki works his jaw, uncomprehending. "Gone?" he echoes dumbly, feeling as if static is crawling between the folds in his brain. "What do you mean gone?"
His mother takes a breath. "There was a villain attack."
"And?" he asks when she doesn't elaborate.
Her gaze becomes searching for all of a moment before her expression softens. "All Might showed up, but… it was already too late. I know you two aren't really close anymore, but I thought you'd still want to know."
Katsuki tries to breathe, but he feels as if the air's been stolen from his lungs. "Gone?" he says again, like a broken record. His mother's expression falters, and he feels his gut twist, because that's not how she's supposed to look. "You…," he lets out, throat dry. "What villain?"
"I don't know their name," she admits, eyes roving over his face as if he might disappear at any moment. "The media only said they were made of sludge."
She says something else after that, but her words fall deaf to his cotton-filled ears.
Made of sludge, her voice echoes, ringing clearly in his mind. A sludge villain.
Katsuki swallows, feeling a phantom burning in his lungs as wispy images flash through his mind.
He's starting to think that something really is off after all.
Copper coalesces in the back of his throat and blooms from within his chest. Air slips past his lips, though refuses to push further. His lungs, deprived of oxygen, begin to burn.
His fingers twitch, nails digging into the dirt. His limbs feel numb.
Slowly, reddish mist begins to rise. It tickles his skin and clogs his airways, whispering candied promises into his ears. He begins to breathe.
His thoughts grow sluggish, and his eyelids begin to fall. It's not until his vision darkens that he catches sight of the light.
Suddenly, the red mist is blown away, replaced by a mixture of gold and silver hues.
"...not… done…," it murmurs. Katsuki only stares, exhaustion seeping through his bones.
"...listen…," it says, frustrated, and he feels an itch at the back of his mind. "Katsuki Bakugou…"
Then, an echo.
"Kacchan," it mimics.
Not for the first time, Katsuki's world explodes.
Katsuki awakens with a curse lodged in his throat and a sweat-soaked shirt stuck to his skin.
"K-Kacchan," a familiar voice lets out, and he feels his blood run cold. "Are you okay?"
He turns his head fast enough to give himself whiplash. Behind him, Izuku squeaks.
"Shut up, nerd," he forces out instinctively, though it lacks any bite.
"S-sorry, Kacchan," Izuku blurts out. He then turns around, visibly cringing as he walks away and berating himself through scattered mutters.
"Done staring, dude?" Katsuki's head whips around once again, this time to face Extra #1. The teen raises his hands with an easy grin, showing off unnaturally long fingers. "Hey, hey, I didn't mean anything by it."
"Can you believe that guy, though?" Extra #2 asks, eyeing the doorway as he swings his bag over his shoulder. "I mean, U.A.? What is he thinking, trying to get into that school without a quirk?"
"Right?" Extra #1 chimes in with a snicker. "He was such a wimp about it, too. As soon as people started laughin', he just clammed up. He must be insane."
What, Katsuki thinks succinctly, eyeing the interaction with furrowed brows, the fuck?
"...Hey dude, are you alright?" Extra #2 asks a moment later. "It's not like you to be so…" He waves his hand through the air vaguely. "Spacey."
Katsuki opens his mouth, then closes it a moment later. "Stop fucking with me," he eventually says, heart beating rapidly within his chest.
Extra #2 gives him an odd look. "What are you talking about?"
"You've said that before," Katsuki accuses, even though he knows full well that can't be true, if Izuku is still alive.
"No he hasn't," Extra #1 says, frowning. "You know, I didn't notice before, but he's right. There is something off about you today."
"No there's—" Katsuki begins, only to abruptly cut himself off when he realizes that Izuku is no longer in the room. "Fuck."
"What—" Extra #1 says, then yelps when Katsuki abruptly throws himself out of his desk and towards the door. "Where the hell are you going, man?!"
"You forgot your stuff!" Extra #2 shouts after him, which Katsuki ignores with ease.
It's only when he arrives at the front gates that he remembers that he has no idea where the fuck Izuku goes after school.
"D-dude!" Extra #1 shouts, looking as if he might pass out at any moment, "What w-was that for?!"
Katsuki wants to ask him why the fuck he and the other idiot decided to follow him, but what comes out instead is, "Where the fuck did Deku go?"
Extra #1 blinks at him dumbly. "Uh… what?"
"When he leaves this shitty place," Katsuki bites out, then snarls when neither of them respond. "On his way home."
"Man, I don't know," Extra #1 says incredulously, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace.
"Um… He goes through that one tunnel past the side exit," Extra #2 offers with a slight shrug. "Or he does sometimes, anyway. I've seen him go that way before."
"Why do you—" Extra #1 begins, but Katsuki doesn't hear whatever he says next, because he's already on the move.
He ignores the extras' shouts for him to wait up and comes to a stop in front of a large, horribly-placed tunnel. A third of the way down, he spots a familiar head of forest-green hair, and he lets out a relieved breath.
"Deku!" he shouts, causing the green-eyed teen to startle.
"K-Kacchan?!" he blurts out, eyes wide. "What are you doing here?!"
Katsuki scowls, then tenses when a rattling noise echoes throughout the dingy tunnel. Not a moment later, sludge begins to pool at Izuku's feet, and Katsuki doesn't think twice before launching himself towards him, explosions bursting in his palms.
"Wha—" Izuku begins, cutting himself off with a high-pitched yelp as Katsuki throws him to the side. "You just… You can't… Kacchan!"
"Shut the fuck up, dumbass," he says, and Izuku's mouth immediately clamps shut. It makes his gut twist in discomfort, but he squashes the feeling for the time being in favor of pulling the idiot away from his doom. Unfortunately, said idiot has no self-preservation instincts and is insistent on muttering to himself and dragging his feet while Katsuki is trying to save his stupid ass, and—
"Multiple bodies to choose from," an eerily familiar garbles out, sending a chill down Katsuki's spine. He raises his gaze, swallowing thickly when he sees a sludge-like villain looming over the both of them.
His chest constricts, and he feels as if his heart might explode.
"A villain?" Izuku whispers, head half-turned towards the asshole. His voice breaks Katsuki free from his stupor, and he manages to get them both the hell out of the way just before a tendril of slime swipes towards them.
"Feisty, too," the villain says with a grin, sludge pulling back from large, yellow-tinged teeth.
"What the fuck is that?!" someone shouts, and Katsuki hisses out a curse when he sees Extra #1 staring at the sludge villain with wide eyes.
"Get the fuck out of the way!" Katsuki barks out, and while Extra #1 remains in place, Extra #2 is able to pull both of them to safety before the sludge villain's attack can land.
"What the hell do we do?!" the latter hisses at Katsuki, eyes flicking around rapidly.
I don't fucking know, Katsuki wants to say, but he swallows his words and turns towards Izuku.
"Well?" he demands, and the teen startles.
"W-what?"
"You analyze heroes in that stupid fucking notebook, don't you? Do the same with this villain."
"How do you—" Izuku lets out, bewildered, then collects himself under Katsuki's glare. "W-well… His slime doesn't look solid enough to grab onto, b-but… His eyes and teeth are both human-like. So if we threw something at them…"
"Oh? Trying to think of a plan, are we?" the sludge villain mocks, looking far too amused for Katsuki's liking. "You've all got a lot of spunk, don't you?"
An image briefly flashes through his mind, and Katsuki's gaze slides towards Izuku's tacky yellow backpack. "Give me that," he says, then takes it by force anyway.
He takes a step backwards as Izuku lets out a startled noise, then launches the backpack towards the shitty villain with a bit of oomph.
"You bastard!" the slimy asshole shouts, tentacle reaching up towards his bloodshot eye.
"Is that it?" Extra #1 asks, shaking like a leaf.
"No," Katsuki replies with as much patience as he can muster. "Just one hit won't take this asshole down."
And it doesn't need to, he remembers. We just need to hold out until All Might shows up.
"You brats will pay for that!" the slime villain claims, eyes wild. "I'm going to make this painful! "
His tentacle shoots outwards, and Katsuki rolls to the side. It's not until he hears a hitched breath that he realizes that he wasn't the only target.
"FUCK!" Extra #1 shouts as Extra #2 wriggles in the slime villain's hold, expression becoming increasingly panicked. "KARIAGE! "
Katsuki begins to move towards the black-haired teen, only to see a blur of black and green burst forwards out of the corner of his eye.
"Fuck," he lets out, then launches himself forwards with gritted teeth. "Deku, don't —"
A sickening splat echoes throughout the tunnel. Izuku slumps against the crimson-streaked wall, and Katsuki feels bile crawl up his throat.
He was closer, he thinks as an electric-charged crown wraps tightly around his skull. I pushed him away, and he was closer.
A panicked cry is cut off by a garbled, choking noise. Where Kariage had once been, a mound of sludge remains.
The breeze carries a sour scent to his noise. Katsuki thinks it's his fault until he sees Extra #1 a few meters away, trembling over a puddle of vomit.
The sound of cracking bone follows. Extra #1's dull eyes stare at him accusingly, twisted neck stained by murky, green slime.
Katsuki stumbles, and when another tentacle reaches out towards him, it's only instinct that has him jerking away.
It doesn't matter, either way, because All Might chooses that moment to arrive.
"I'm sorry," he tells Katsuki, trying to position his body so he can't see the dead bodies that litter the tunnel.
He squeezes his eyes shut and falls into the man's arms, trembling. His touch is warm, but distant. Somehow, he feels as if there'd been something more personal there, once.
Katsuki lets out a shaky breath, and as the crown tightens, he wonders why he can't find it in himself to cry.
When Katsuki opens his eyes, it's to the increasingly familiar sight of his middle school classroom.
"K-Kacchan," he hears from behind him. "Are you okay?"
A/N:
i don't know how it ended up being a time loop fic either, but i did manage to reason that one out, which you'll find out... well, probably not anytime soon, but eventually
also, fair warning, this might not be updated weekly because it's a more detail-intensive and generally longer fic (and I've only written like, 3 chapters which all basically need to be rewritten), but if it is, then I'll be posting on Sundays for now :)
if you've seen another timetravel bakugou fic before by the same name... please do us both a favor and pretend that you haven't, bc whatever I wrote pre-2022 doesn't exist B)
if you're wondering about the 'Extras,' they're both Bakugou's friends from middle school
I just gave Kariage his fanon name because I really had no better idea (so yes, I do mean that it literally just refers to an undercut), but I did make a probably terrible one up for stretchy fingers guy, which you'll see soon
recaps will also be added to the beginning of each following chapter to hopefully make life a little easier for you, too (for example, the recap for this chapter will be placed in the summary or beginning notes of the second chapter, and so on)
AAAAND finally: no, Katsuki does not immediately, *fully* remember the timetraveling nonsense, though that isn't a forever thing
if you have any other questions, feel free to ask :)
anyway
Thanks for reading!