An Explosive Arbiter
Chapter 3: Assault on Aeon
Bakugo's mind was muddled.
He was in pain, he could tell that much; sharp pain that had him arching his back and gritting his teeth as he swam in and out of consciousness.
Occasionally, he would hear voices, although there was no telling if he knew any of them, or if they were even real. His brain was exhausted, much like his body. Half of what he heard could have been a fucking hallucination for all he knew.
As he slept, and rested, his mind darted in and out of dreams. Some of them were nonsensical; chess pieces darting around a board, battle tactics that were burned into his brain, the endless reverberations of explosions. Others were memories, fleeting and painful.
These memories were as quick to go as they were to arrive. Many of them were of his old classmates. One was of the first man that he had killed in a rage. The most persistent memory, the only one that recurred, was of Jirou.
It was a recent event, just before he was moved to Tartarus. She had stood in front of the laser gate separating him from the rest of the ship. He had glared as she sighed and sat down in front of it.
She had been silent for a long time before he had finally snarled and asked her what she wanted.
She had been quiet for a moment, before sighing again and telling him that she couldn't understand him, wouldn't try to understand him, and wouldn't pity him if hell itself swallowed him. Immediately after saying that, she had stood, gave him a hateful glare, and left him to the wolves.
It instilled probably the largest sense of respect in him since fighting Round-face, as twisted as other people would find that.
This memory came back three times, more muddled each time. It was the only real memory that he had of Jirou. They had never really interacted before that, not by their own volition and barely at all when forced.
Once, he saw her lying on the ground, not moving or breathing, and a certain sense of guilt filled him.
It wasn't until the ship left hyperspace that his body finally relaxed somewhat, falling into general unrest rather than roiling with a fever.
Kirishima sighed, looking at the makeshift bed that he had made by connecting two chairs and several pillows. On top of it lay Bakugo Katsuki, the enraged enigma that he had decided to let on board their ship. Said enigma was currently sweating as he twisted and turned, just like he had done for the past twenty or so hours.
Kaminari had fallen out of his stupor just a few hours after coming back from the failed assault, although he had immediately crashed. He was both physically and mentally exhausted. He had only woken up a little bit ago, getting a gargantuan amount of sleep. Even with it, he was still tired, saying that he was planning on staying on the ship.
That left it up to Kirishima to get supplies for his friends. It was a pretty manly job, being relied on like that!
...Well, maybe he was overselling it a bit. It wasn't like they had a lot of money, and even if Bakugo had some, it wasn't like he was awake to give them the information to get into whatever account he had.
Kirishima also got the feeling that Bakugo and Kaminari's faces would be plastered everywhere. This space station was neutral, but that didn't mean that bounty hunters weren't there. A neutral zone basically meant a place without a strong Federation or rebel presence, which really meant that it lived by its own laws. Criminals ran amok and anyone with a pulse and cash was welcome.
It would be a super manly thing for Bakugo to do if he just walked into one of these, completely fearlessly, but Bakugo was knocked out right now.
Their ship exited hyperspace and Aeon Station came into view. Kirishima breathed a deep breath. It wasn't that he wasn't used to dealing with these types of people. No, far from it. What he wasn't used to was leaving the ship basically defenseless. He knew that the ship was kind of bad, but it was all that Kaminari and him, and now Bakugo, had.
Kirishima's ship was cleared for entry easily, and he docked slowly. There were clear flows of traffic with these stations; getting into a collision was immensely dangerous, especially in places like these. Even the lowest of scum knew to keep in order here.
Kirishima docked the ship with a little bit of trouble. It, once again, was not the best ship around, and as much as it hurt to admit, he wasn't the greatest pilot. It was kind of unmanly of him.
Opening up the back door to the ship, Kirishima made his way out, shaking Kaminari to wake him up again and letting him know the situation. Once he got a bleary nod from his friend, Kirishima made his way out.
Stepping out of the dock and into the 'station' part of the station, Kirishima was instantly hit with the smell of the slums. These sorts of space stations could barely be considered ships; they were closer to floating, armed cities made of stone, metal, and for the lucky few, dirt.
Kirishima rubbed the back of his head and narrowed his eyes as he walked into the slums. There was no telling what could happen here; he needed to be wary at all times. Gang fights, robberies, riots; anything and everything was fair game.
The more dangerous you looked, the fewer people messed with you. That was the rule around these parts. So, to the effect, Kirishima unbotted the shirt that he had on. He wasn't going for the whole 'public indecency' look, though. He kept his shirt on. If he looked strong to others, they would be less likely to fight.
Kirishima only had two goals here: Get medical supplies and get fuel. He had some credits, enough for both the fuel and the supplies, assuming he found a good seller. People tended to over price out here.
As he walked, Kirishima spotted someone who looked slightly less mean than most people around. "Ah, sir, do you know where I…" Kirishima trailed off as the man continued walking, completely ignoring the question.
Kirishima looked down for a moment, slightly hurt, before snapping his head up and resolving to find someone else to answer his question.
This went on for half an hour.
Kirishima was beginning to get disheartened as he continually was rebuffed. His determination was stronger, though! He would ignore all of these unmanly people and find it himself! That was one of the qualities of a man, probably!
Pumping his fist, Kirishima set off at a good pace, working his way up into the upper levels. The higher up you were, the more likely you were to find better people. You often got charged more, but it was a gamble that Kirishima was willing to take.
As he walked up the steps that would lead him to the upper levels, he took a moment to really admire the work that was put into this place. Obviously, it wasn't in the best of conditions, but this place must have been beautiful when it was first made. The buildings were towering, with plenty of space between and above. They were grimy now, and covered in graffiti, but it was still an impressive piece of architecture.
He could appreciate the little things like that.
His shoulder accidentally made contact with someone as he walked, and he offered a quick "Oh, sorry," to the pink-haired girl. Without paying any attention to the incident, he quickly checked his pockets, finding his wallet still safe and sound. Moving on, it quickly left his mind.
The ground shook slightly, and Kirishima stopped, senses on high alert. After a second, the shaking stopped, and after a few more moments of nothing, Kirishima settled down.
"Must have been an asteroid or something…" Kirishima muttered to himself, throwing a hand behind his head and looking around absentmindedly.
There really wasn't much in the way of what he was looking for. He might be forced to buy some of the overpriced fuel from the stores near the hangar.
As he walked, Kirishima kept checking the names of the stores. Some of them would be completely useless to him; stores for ammunition, food, or jewelry. For the life of him, he couldn't fathom why anyone would want to buy jewelry out here.
There were a shocking amount of bars, he noticed. Kirishima didn't really approve of them. Where was the manliness in drinking your sorrows away? A real man dealt with his issues and fought through his fears.
Although...wouldn't that be a little hypocritical of him?
Shaking his head to clear the thought, Kirishima turned down another road. Then, suddenly, as though it had been destined to happen, he saw it. A sign, shining mediocrely through the darkness, reading PHARMACY in all caps, except the P was shorted out. It ended up reading as HARMACY, which got a short chuckle out of Kirishima.
Buttoning up his shirt, he walked through the door. He was a man, not a savage. He had the decency to button up his shirt. Looking around the store, he noticed just how barebones it was. Basic supplies like antibiotics, gauze, and others sparsely lined the store. There wasn't any of the advanced stuff; no recovery gel, no stasis pills, nothing.
Letting out a small sigh, Kirishima went through his mental checklist. Bakugo was burned, exhausted, and in a lot of pain.
Checking the price tags, Kirishima was pleasantly surprised and somewhat suspicious when it wasn't overpriced. Deciding to risk it, Kirishima grabbed a bottle of antibiotics, painkillers, gauze, burn cream, and aspirin. There was really only so much Kirishima could get, especially in a place like this. This area, although a little better than the slums down below, was still covered wall to wall with gang members. He had seen at least four drug deals happen while looking for this place, and although he had wanted to step in and stop them, he knew that it would just make him an enemy of the gangs and the police in the area, assuming there even was police.
Had he been a hero, he could have done it easily. He would have been able to walk in, stop the drug deals, and make the city a better place. But he wasn't a hero, and now never could be.
Kirishima cursed himself and shook his head, forcing himself to think about something else. This wasn't the time to reminisce about the past.
Walking up to the counter, Kirishima placed the medicine so that he could check out. The kindly old man behind the counter gave him a small smile, which Kirishima returned with a full-fledged grin. The old man repressed a chuckle, scanned Kirishima's items, and threw them into a bag.
As Kirishima grabbed his bag, the old man gripped his wrist gently.
Kirishima's mouth opened slightly in shock, and the old man gave him a small, reproachful look. "Kid, are you new here?" He asked, not unkindly. Kirishima nodded.
The old man sighed. "Yeah, thought so. Be careful of the cops around here. They look for any excuse to beat on someone." The old man warned, giving him a harsh look.
Kirishima was momentarily stunned before giving the man a large smile. "Thanks for the warning, sir! But you shouldn't worry about me. I can handle myself." He said confidently.
The old man sighed but didn't say anything else. Taking that as his queue to leave, Kirishima turned and exited the store, giving a worried look to the man behind him. There had to be a reason that he gave that warning aside from just worry, right?
On top of that, Kirishima hadn't seen any cops so far, and he'd been here for almost forty five minutes now. It was a little worrying. If they were really as prevalent as the old man implied, he should have had an encounter by now. In fact, he hadn't even seen any fights happen, let alone any arrests.
Just what was going on in this station…?
The ground shook again, and this time, it was worse. Much worse. Kirishima was almost thrown from his feet, and it looked like everyone else walking around had the same problem. Some people, who were already drunkenly stumbling around earlier, actually did fall.
Wide-eyed, Kirishima looked up and above the glass separating the station from space.
He genuinely couldn't believe what he was seeing. This was a neutral station, out of the way and well defended! It wasn't a strategic point or even good for a supply run. Kirishima chose it because it was the closest, least important one!
A great number of ships dotted the sky above him. Menacing, angry-looking red ships, ones bearing a familiar mark.
Alarms began to blare through the station.
Why the hell had a fleet of Mantis arrived?
He would recognize the signature ships of the Mantis anywhere. They were super well-equipped, too- they looked like they had come for war. But at the same time, they seemed beaten up. Several of them had scorch marks or large holes in their hull, probably from missiles. What the hell had he missed?
Lasers began to rain fire upon the shields, and Kirishima bit his lip. He wanted to go down to his ship and get out of there, but that would be mostly impossible in this current situation. They would be shot down before even leaving the station.
Kirishima bit his lip as layer upon layer of the shields went down. The shields were sturdy; very sturdy, in fact, but that didn't mean that they couldn't be broken. There was too much being fired. It would only last so long.
As the tension mounted, people scrambled to move around Kirishima. He was pushed around a little bit, jostled as bodies came into contact with him. Up above, the shields broke, and the fire stopped suddenly. Kirishima held his breath.
As blue teleportation lights popped up all over the city, the station finally made a counterattack. A series of lasers, energy weapons, and missiles fired out from the station, breaking through several of the ships and causing massive explosions to erupt among them. In the first volley, at least three of the beat up ships went down.
Ships could be seen flying out from the station, all bearing the mark of pirates or bounty hunters. Without any preamble, they began to engage the ships above the station, and Kirishima felt a spark of hope.
Turning his attention down to the city, he decided that there wasn't anything that he could do to help with the battle out there. Since he couldn't help out there, he would help down here.
As he looked down, he wished that he hadn't.
All through the city, the Mantis we tearing through the populace with ease. They were meeting resistance from the gang members, but it was light at best. These Mantis clearly knew what they were doing, and many of them even seemed to have cybernetic enhancements if the metal on their bodies were any indication.
Kirishima needed to help them. And yet...just like that time so long ago, his legs felt paralysed.
All around him, death and destruction raged. He could see it happen, and he could stop it from happening. And yet he simply sat around and waited. Waited for it to come to him.
Kirishima grit his teeth, even as fear and anxiety drilled a hole in his stomach. He thought back to that moment, so long ago, when his feet couldn't move. Ashido had been the one to save the girls back then and get the villain apprehended, but that was before high school. That was eight years ago, and Ashido wasn't here now. Hell, for all he knew, she was a hero already, and he wasn't.
But...if there was something that he could attest to, it was that he wanted to be a man. He needed to be a man if he wanted to help himself, if he wanted to help everyone around him.
The screams of those in fear echoed around Kirishima, and he stuffed the medicine in his pants pocket before losing his shirt.
If I can't be their hero...then at the very least, I need to be a man!
With a loud roar, Kirishima ran forward, prepared to fight.
And fight he would.
He found the first Mantis before it found him. With a hardened arm, he crashed down upon its head with a leaping punch. It was dead before it knew what was going on. He didn't have the time to feel remorse.
Unaware of the man with three crosses on his head that he had just saved, Kirishima pressed onward, searching for the next target. Before he could take another step, however, he heard a noise behind him.
Whirling quickly, Kirishima brought up his arms, hardening most of his body in anticipation. A barbed limb screeched as it raked across his arm, and Kirishima winced at the sound. The Mantis behind him roared, bringing down its limbs in a flurry of blows that had even him reeling somewhat. The Mantis was strong; it was pushing even him back, forcing him to take steps backwards out of the sheer strength of the blows.
Finally, he noticed an opening. The Mantis was attacking quickly, but it was focused entirely on him; it wasn't paying attention to its surroundings.
As Kirishima took another step back, he threw his left arm backwards as hard as he could. His defense suffered a bit; he took a small cut to the cheek where his armor had temporarily fallen. In the end, however, it was worth it. The lamppost that Kirishima had struck mercilessly fell forwards, crushing the Mantis beneath its weight.
Kirishima dropped his hardening, allowing himself a moment to breathe. That was one downside of his Quirk- he couldn't breathe normally when he used it. When his skin hardened, it tightened, restricting the air flow around his neck. On top of that, it burned up some of his stamina. Of course, he could always just not use it around his head, but that was his most vital portion.
Kirishima paused for a moment, looking around. He looked up, back at the battle in space above.
Wait a second...What's really going on here?
Kirishima hadn't thought about it before, too wrapped up in his own thoughts, but he had just realised that something wasn't quite right around here.
The Mantis weren't even bothering to attack the station anymore. In fact, they were simply just defending themselves from attacks, as successful as that was. The shields were even mostly back up, and as he watched, the station destroyed another ship. The fleet had lost a quarter of its size, so why were they still here? Why were they even here in the first place?
Too many things weren't adding up. This station was useless to the Mantis, but they had tried to capture it without destroying it anyways. They weren't attacking the shields, so even if they had cloning, they couldn't get more Mantis inside the station. The ships were beat up, but they had clearly come with the intention to fight such a large station.
What the hell was going on?
Behind him, Kirishima heard a gutteral gurgling, and in a panic, he swung around, bringing his arms up to protect himself-
But, as it turned out, it wasn't needed.
The gurgling came from a Mantis who appeared to be dying, whose head was covered in a viscous fluid. It looked like...was that acid?
Looking up from the dead Mantis, he locked eyes with someone that he genuinely never expected to see again.
"Hey! You need to be more careful! Don't just look outside, get to a ship and get out of here!" The pink haired girl, one that he really should have recognized earlier, yelled in his direction, looking around for more threats.
Kirishima's eyes widened as an indescribable feeling filled him. Laughter bubbled its way out of his throat.
"Hey, what are you laughing about? This is a serious…" The girl trailed off as she looked at Kirishima. Yellow eyes with black sclera widened.
"Hey, Ashido. It's...been a while, huh?" Kirishima said, holding back a myriad of emotions from surfacing.
"K...Kirishima?" She asked, unsure of herself.
Kirishima nodded, a smile broadening across his features.
"Why are you here?" Ashido asked, a look of pure surprise on her face.
"I could say the same thing of you! This is the last place that I thought that you'd be!" Kirishima exclaimed.
Neither of them moved or said anything for a long moment, both unwilling to answer the question.
"Do...do you have a ship?" Kirishima asked hesitantly. He wasn't sure if the other two would approve of this decision, or even if it would work, but it was something that he had to know.
Ashido, with a strange look on her face, shook her head.
"Would you like to come with me, then?" Kirishima asked hopefully, almost desperately.
Ashido reared back somewhat in surprise, before a wolfish grin split her features. "Come on, Kirishima, inviting a girl back to your ship after seeing her again for the first time in years? You're a real rascal." She said, laughing.
Kirishima's face heated up. "Hey, you know that's not what I meant by that! Do you want to get out of here with me or not?" Kirishima asked, crossing his arms and looking away.
Ashido's laughter trickled down to a stop, and he looked back at her. She had an unusually serious look on her face.
"This place has been my home for a while...but I don't know if it'll stay that way, at this rate." Ashido said, looking down and biting her lip. "I'll go with you."
Kirishima nodded. He didn't know why she had lived here, or how she hadn't gotten into the hero course. By all standards, she should have gotten in with flying colors. But it wasn't his place to ask, and it wasn't his place to judge. So he nodded, accepted the answer, and the two set off as a pair.
It wouldn't be easy to get out of there, but Kirishima had the feeling that they could do it. As long as they worked together, they could leave safely.
Kirishima panted as his fist crashed into another Mantis. He was getting tired, no doubt about it; he had been able to keep his Quirk going for less and less time. Luckily, his natural Rock heritage made him more resilient, but that didn't mean he could just take hits like that.
The Mantis crashed to the floor with a screech, and he looked over to Ashido to see how she was doing.
As he turned, her Mantis fell to the ground, both of its legs covered in acid and its face pounded into the ground. Kirishima gulped- Ashido had an unusually serious and angry face on.
As though she could sense that he was looking at her, Ashido's eyes wandered up to meet his, and he was suddenly struck by just how much the two of them had changed. Her eyes were different, somehow; more aged, more weary. He was sure that his weren't much better.
The ship rocked, shaking Kirishima from his stupor. Looking up, he found that the Mantis had renewed their assault at what seemed to be a suicidal rate. Almost all of the fleet seemed to be converging on the station at a slow rate, and it looked as though they were on a collision course.
"Come on, we have to hurry! We're almost there!" Ashido called out to him, and Kirishima nodded, hurrying along after her. The two ran, pushing past a small group of people and entering the dock.
Kirishima's eyes swung around wildly. Where is it, where is it…! There!
"Over here!" Kirishima called out, running towards his ship. Ashido made a noise of confirmation, following closely behind him.
Reaching the console that controlled the actions of his ship from the outside so that he could reliably get in, Kirishima punched in the code that he'd been given upon entry and lowered the ramp. Worried, he looked around. He wasn't the only one with this idea, it seemed. Most everyone else had already left or were leaving. At this rate, they'd be the last ones in the dock.
The ramp finished lowering, and Kirishima bolted inside, Ashido on his heels.
The second he opened the door to the bridge, he had to block a punch.
"Kaminari, it's just me!" Kirishima yelled, holding the fist where it was.
"Oh! Sorry, bro. There's a lot of shit going on out there, you know?" Kaminari said, sounding tired and worried. It was understandable. Kirishima had been out there.
"Yeah, it's cool. Come on, let's get out of here." Kirishima said, pushing past Kaminari and settling into the captain's chair.
"Hey, uh, bro, who's the chick?" Kaminari asked, leaning towards Kirishima and keeping his voice down.
"Hm? Oh, that's Ashido. We knew each other when we were kids." Kirishima whispered back as he fired up the engines.
"Yeah, I get that, but why is she here?" Kaminari asked, glancing back fearfully at Ashido as she looked around the bridge.
"She didn't have a ride and the station is about to explode, probably." Kirishima answered back as the ship rose from the ground.
"Oh yeah, where's Bakugo?" Kirishima asked, looking around the bridge. The spiky haired man was nowhere to be seen.
"He woke up a bit ago, said he needed to stretch out and look at the ship. He was in the engine room the last time I saw him." Kaminari said, throwing himself into the co-pilot's seat.
"Wait, Bakugo?" Ashido suddenly asked from the back of the room.
Kirishima and Kaminari both paused in what they were doing and gave her a small glance.
"Bakugo, as in Bakugo Katsuki?" Ashido stressed. Kirishima turned his attention back to piloting, trusting Kaminari to answer.
As Kirishima pulled out of Aeon Station, Kaminari easily responded, "Yeah, that's the one."
An explosion lit up behind them, rocking the entire ship, and Kirishima's eyes widened. Turning on the rear viewer, he could only sigh as he watched several of the Mantis ships crash into the station, each inciting an explosion that eventually chained to engulf the entire station.
Such a waste of life. What an unmanly way to go.
"Oh...Bro, when you said that the station was about to explode…" Kaminari said, looking for all intents and purposes as though he had lost someone important on that station.
Ashido's face betrayed no emotion. It was simply blank as she watched it happen.
"Ashido...Are you okay?" He asked, turning the rear viewer off.
Ashido was quiet for a long moment. "...Yeah, I think I'll be fine. That place holds no good memories for me." She said, lowering her head.
Even though she said that, she still held that melancholic tone. Was she really so alright with that?
"Ashido…" Kirishima said, unsure. He didn't know what to do in this situation. He didn't know what he could do in this situation. He didn't know how to console someone who was grieving, or even if this someone even was grieving.
There was a moment in which the three collectively decided to be quiet for those who had inevitably died in that attack.
And then, as with all things in life, Bakugo Katsuki broke that quiet.
The door slammed open and there Bakugo stood, wrench in hand and absolutely covered in grease. He looked like he needed a shower and then some.
"Hey, Shitty Hair, what the hell just…" Bakugo questioned angrily, trailing off when he locked eyes with Ashido.
Ashido tensed up, falling into a quasi-battle stance, to which Bakugo just laughed slightly.
The wrench fell from Bakugo's hands, making a distinct clang the the mostly silent bridge. "Motherfucker." Bakugo stressed, a smirk overtaking his features.
"I don't know what the hell it is about you two idiots, but you sure have a good way of bringing my fucking past to my doorstep." Bakugo grumbled, leaning against the wall.
"Wh- that's it? Not even a hello? Come on, Bakugo, you wound me." Ashido teased, almost flirtatiously. Kirishima's eyes darted between the two.
How the hell did Ashido know Bakugo?
"I would give you a hello if you were anyone important to me. So far, no one's heard the phrase come out of my mouth." Bakugo jeered, red eyes angrily boring into Ashido.
Ashido laughed, and it almost looked like some of the stress fell off of her shoulders. "Glad to see you haven't changed, Bakugo." She said happily.
"Fuck you, I've changed! I'm someone completely different from back then!" Bakugo protested, pointing an accusing finger at Ashido.
"Hmm...Are you sure about that?" Ashido asked, putting a finger to the corner of her lips.
The ship entered hyperspace, and before Bakugo could retort, Kirishima spun his chair and looked at the pair.
"I think that we're owed an explanation." Kirishima said, voice deadly serious.
Bakugo snorted. "Why?"
"Because there's a lot going on around you that's leading me to think that you're an unmanly person, Bakugo, and if I'm to keep on letting you stay on my ship, I need answers from you." Kirishima responded, staring Bakugo directly in the eyes.
After a few long seconds of staring, Bakugo scoffed and looked away. Kirishima sighed.
"You know, I could always tell you." Ashido said in a sing-songy voice. All eyes in the room snapped to her.
"Don't you fucking dare." Bakugo almost growled, but Ashido didn't let up.
"I know all of Bakugo's story; everything he did, why he's chased by the Federation, everything. I'll tell you everything that the news could tell you and then some." Ashido said, a mischievous look in her
eye.
"Don't fucking bother. All that the news spews is crap. Might as well be propaganda." Bakugo grumbled.
"Then why don't you tell them yourself?" Ashido asked, and probably for the first time since they had met, Bakugo didn't have a direct response instantly.
That was when Kirishima noticed it.
The wrench from before hadn't fallen from Bakugo's hands out of surprise. Bakugo's hands were shaking from the exertion of just keeping his arms crossed, and there was a thin layer of sweat on his face. His forehead was creased somewhat in the middle, probably from pain.
"Yeah, that's a good question. Why haven't you told us?" Kaminari pressured, and the crease in Bakugo's forehead got worse, this time probably from annoyance.
It was a long moment before Bakugo spat out, "Fucking fine, I'll tell you. My version should at least be fucking accurate, unlike Raccoon Eyes' over there. Get up, Shitty Hair. I'll need to sit down for this one." Bakugo ordered, almost falling into the captain's chair when Kirishima got up.
"Where do I fucking start…"
Bakugo's face twisted into a grimace.
"Here's a good spot. Why don't we start where all of my fucking troubles started, eh? Fucking Deku." Bakugo growled, and Kirishima almost jumped.
Deku? As in, the High Commander of the Federation's Grand Fleet? The #1 hero, Deku?
How the hell did Bakugo know this guy?
Who was Bakugo Katsuki to the galaxy?
"Strap in, you fucks. This is gonna be a long one."
"Deku is probably the shittiest person that I've ever had the displeasure of talking to. When we were kids, he would follow me around, everywhere we went, and he would hold this small fucking smile the whole time. The little fucker lead me to believe that he was Quirkless. Made fun of him relentlessly for it at the time." Bakugo said, looking down. He didn't feel regret for that. Hell, if anything, he was glad that he did it. It let him know that the little fucker wasn't perfect, and it let him know when the smiles were fake.
"I doubt that any of you idiots have heard about this, but there was a clear moment in time when Deku grew a spine. When we were in middle school on our home planet, Musutafu, I was attacked and held hostage by a villain made out of sludge. I could fucking obliterate him now, but at the time, I couldn't fight back. Deku ended up coming in and distracting the fucker until All Might came and destroyed him." Bakugo's eyes narrowed somewhat in rage.
"Still hate the fucker for doing that. Could've handled myself." Bakugo muttered.
"Wait a second, you were born on Musutafu? So were Ashido and I!" Shitty Hair exclaimed joyfully.
"Yeah, me too!" Pikachu said, giving Shitty Hair a high-five.
"Yeah, I don't give a damn." Bakugo responded shortly, and Shitty Hair's face fell somewhat.
"Anyways, after that incident, I resolved even more to get into U.A, and be the only one from my shitty school to do so. And I got in easily. Top of the combat trial, second-to-top of the writing test, top of the piloting test. Damn Glasses…" Bakugo muttered, feeling old anger flare up somewhat.
"The point is, I passed with flying colors. And you know who else passed? That shitty fucking Deku. I wanted the title of being the only one from my school to get into U.A, and Deku took that from me. It pissed me off, incredibly." Bakugo continued, feeling more indifferent about the situation than anything. It was old news; something that he had gotten over a long time ago. It didn't matter as much to him now.
"That's when I learned that Deku had a Quirk all along. For the past eleven years, he had been lying to me. On top of that, it was stronger than mine. It was bullshit, completely and utterly. It wasn't something that I could just accept." Bakugo said solemnly, looking directly at the other three.
He wasn't sure if it was the pain he was still experiencing or the fever that he had felt earlier, but his emotions were dulled right now. Less rage than he expected came forth when he thought about the subject. He just couldn't muster the energy.
Bakugo's eyes snapped back from where they had become unfocused, staring at the others. "Our time at U.A went on. Deku got better and better at controlling his Quirk, and I got better at fighting. We were still nowhere close to rivals. I could kick his ass in a heartbeat. But…" Bakugo trailed off, deep in thought.
"The Unforeseen Simulation Joint." Raccoon Eyes supplied, and Bakugo looked at her. She had a downtrodden expression. Here's where the story got a bit worse.
"...Yeah. USJ. We were attacked by villains, at least one hundred and fifty. Ten-to-one odds, in our case. They were all small-timers, except for two or three. They were back-alley muggers, people with Quirks who didn't really give them any special abilities in life, or just people who were looking to cause havoc." Bakugo explained, feeling a fond feeling in his gut from that time. He had been able to just let loose without worry for the consequences.
"Their goal was to kill All Might. They fucked that one up, royally, obviously, but they also hurt our teacher." Bakugo explained, somewhat uncomfortably.
"USJ was rough for several people. It was an experience that a lot of people weren't prepared to deal with emotionally, and some of us didn't really bounce back from it." Raccoon Eyes explained uncomfortably.
Bakugo was quiet for a long moment. "What she's saying is that she wasn't ready to deal with villains yet, and when reality hit you like a truck, you dropped out." Bakugo expanded, a foul feeling in his stomach.
Raccoon eyes didn't say or do anything to refute him, but her eyes lowered. Shitty Hair's eyes widened, and Pikachu looked equally surprised.
"Time went on. We had the sports festival, which I won with ease. Not that the people around me made it difficult. After that, nothing of any real importance happened until our final exams." Bakugo said, narrowing his eyes.
"For our final exams, Deku and I fought against All Might. We didn't beat him, but we escaped. The goal was to either run and fight another day or win and take our victory. I wanted to do the latter. Deku wanted to do the former." Bakugo grit his teeth.
"That fight went as well as a fucking house on fire. Deku kept getting in my fucking way. If he had made himself useful and just fucking started hitting All Might, we might have even won!" Bakugo raged, feeling anger swell within him. That fight still pissed him off.
"Whoa, calm down there, big guy." Shitty Hair joked.
"Fuck you, I'll do what I want!" Bakugo said, calming down anyways.
"Where was I...The final exams, right." Bakugo said, feeling his head pound.
"Once we did those, we went to a special training camp over summer break. Our stay there didn't last long. We were attacked by the League of Villains, and I got kidnapped." Bakugo said shortly. His face twisted into a grimace. This was the part of the story that he didn't want to tell.
Raccoon Eyes seemed to pick up on what came next, because her eyes widened and she got a goddamned pitying look on her face.
Bakugo sneered. "All Might arrived at Kamino Ward and fought. He fought, and he took out the person behind the League of Villains." Now, the two idiots seemed to catch on, because Shitty Hair reared back somewhat and a surprised look entered his eyes. As for Pikachu? He got a depressed look on his face.
He expected them to know about this. Hell, the entire galaxy knew.
"All Might won, but he died shortly after the battle." Bakugo spat out.
And it was all his fault. He had been in the way, a nuisance, and he had refused to go back with Deku when he called out.
And because of it, All Might had died.
Bakugo allowed the information to process through their heads. Didn't mean that he had to like it. Various emotions were passing through their faces, but there was one that was most prominent: Pity.
Bakugo sneered an ugly grimace. He fucking hated pity. If there was anything that he hated, it was people thinking that he was weak. He showed that he was strong, damn it, so many times. And yet, all that anyone ever did was look down on him.
""Don't give me that fucking look." Bakugo nearly snarled, feeling somewhat subdued.
Almost instantly, the three sobered up. They still had some pity in their eyes, but it seemed that they remembered exactly who they were talking to.
"Bakugo...If you want to talk about it-" Shitty Hair began, only to be interrupted by a few small explosions in Bakugo's hands.
"I don't give a damn. Didn't then, don't now. So just forget about it." Bakugo snarled, intent on keeping them focused.
Shitty Hair nodded, clearly not convinced. "Right...Gotcha."
Bakugo growled, but didn't comment any further. He really didn't have the energy for it; running on almost no food and after an upgrade to the engines, he couldn't find it in him to push it much further.
"After that...I had a disagreement with one of my classmates, and I needed to see what the galaxy was really like for myself. So, I left U.A, and with enough time, became a thief." Bakugo said, tweaking the truth. That was generalized so horribly that all three of them could probably tell that he was hiding something, but hopefully they would catch the hint and not push it.
He wasn't telling these nobodies his story. Everything he had said had hit the news; it was all something that they could have learned with ease. A quick search online would give a timeline of those events in much more detail than Bakugo had given. The last thing he needed anyone to know was his true reasons for leaving U.A.
Shitty Hair nodded, looking to be deep in thought. Pikachu just looked slightly confused, and Raccoon Eyes had a strange look on her face.
Bakugo sighed, leaning back in his chair. All that talking had drained him. "Now, I'm fucking tired. I'm going back to sleep. Shitty Hair, wake me up if there's anything important that needs to be beaten up." He said, standing up and flopping down on the area that had been reserved for him to sleep.
Four people was too many people in this bridge, Bakugo noted. It was cramped. The mini-fridge, combined with the three chairs (one of them being used for clothes) and the impromptu bed that had been made for him was really almost all of the space. There was a small bit of walking room in-between, but that was really it.
Shitty Hair seemed to have an epiphany at that moment, because he shot up like a rocket his blown up under his ass. "Oi, Bakugo, I got you some medicine! Here, stay where you are. Actually, can you take off your shirt first?" Shitty Hair said, barraging Bakugo with words that he could barely process.
For a second, Bakugo was confused as he tried to understand that long spiel of words.
"Just sit up and take your shirt off for me, will ya?" Shitty Hair asked again, slower. Raccoon Eyes whistled, which got her an annoyed glance from Shitty Hair and a snort from Pikachu.
Bakugo blinked, but did as told. He wasn't an idiot; he knew that what he had needed to be treated, or it could be bad for him. He had learned this the hard way. Even the most simple of medicines would help in this situation; antibiotics, burn cream, anything to keep the infection at bay.
As Shitty Hair pulled out some supplies from his pants (Bakugo hadn't even noticed how ripped up his clothes were), Bakugo noticed Raccoon Eyes staring.
"See something you like?" Bakugo asked jeeringly.
Raccoon Eyes laughed. "You wish. No, you just...have a lot of scars. How many fights have you been in, Bakugo?" She asked inquisitively.
"More than any of you fucks, that's for sure, and more than anyone else in that fucking class." Bakugo responded easily, wincing as Shitty Hair rubbed some burn cream over his multiple burns.
Pikachu, apparently not interested as well, took a glance. Letting out a low whistle, he winced. "Damn, dude, I knew you were roughed up, but I didn't know that it was that bad. How the hell did you work on the engines like that?" Pikachu asked, a look of genuine concern etched onto his face.
Bakugo grit his teeth, even as Shitty Hair touched one spot a little too roughly. "High pain tolerance." Bakugo responded angrily.
Shitty Hair leaned back, setting the burn cream to the side. "Alright, that should be good. I think we have some soup in here somewhere, and we can always just heat up some water." Shitty Hair said, already digging through the mini-fridge that they had.
"Aw, look, he's making food for him! They're basically married already." Raccoon Eyes said, a mischievous look in her eyes. Pikachu apparently found it hilarious.
"If you don't shut the fuck up, then I'm gonna beat the shit out of you, burn or not." Bakugo raged, igniting several small explosions in his palm to prove his point. He had to ignore the pain that went through his arm by the single action.
"Right, right. Still, though, I don't think I've seen Kiri do this much for someone. When did you grow up so much?" Raccoon Eyes asked Shitty Hair, suddenly serious.
"I've had some time to think since I saw you last. Plus, Bakugo's a super manly and cool person! If anyone here deserves it, he does." Shitty Hair said completely earnestly, and Bakugo blinked, taken aback.
He genuinely wasn't expecting that compliment. He kind of figured that Shitty Hair had this kind of ideal of being a manly person, but Bakugo didn't know that he fit it.
Bakugo's lips curled into a ferocious smile. "Damn straight, I'm manly. Didn't work as hard as I did to be a pussy." Bakugo said.
"See what I mean!" Shitty Hair helpfully supplied, and Raccoon Eyes looked back and forth between them before letting out a short laugh.
"You two are really kind of alike, huh?" Raccoon Eyes laughed, a small smile on her face.
"Don't compare me to this idiot!" Bakugo complained, even as Shitty Hair held out a small cup of easy-to-make noodles. Bakugo gave him an incredulous look, but he wasn't one to deny food.
Bakugo began to eat, but slowly. He knew better than to eat too quickly, even when his stomach was begging for more. He would just hurt himself if he did that.
The bridge was quiet as Bakugo ate. The four of them seemed to all be caught up in their thoughts- what they were, Bakugo had no idea and didn't want any idea. He would like to keep what brain cells the two idiots hadn't killed off yet.
Bakugo finished eating quickly, and after downing an antibiotic that Shitty Hair offered, rolled over and faced the ceiling. With the relative quiet of the bridge and his already tired and complaining limbs and mind, it wasn't difficult to go to sleep.
When Bakugo finally drifted off, it was to the much quieter whirring of the engines.
Kirishima sighed as he watched Bakugo drift off. He hadn't lied when he said that the explosive man was manly, but he could still chill out a bit more.
Turning his attention to the newest member of the bridge, Kirishima's mouth set itself in a hard line. "Ashido...It's been a while. Bakugo's explanation cleared some things up, but there's still some pieces to the puzzle that are missing." Kirishima said, voice level and serious.
Ashido blinked, then let out a small giggle. "Man, you're serious about this, huh? Didn't know you cared that much." She said, attempting to lighten the mood, and she did, to an extent.
"You're probably wondering how I ended up at Aeon, right? I'll tell you- but you have to promise that you'll tell me how you ended up here, okay?" Ashido offered, pointing a finger at him jokingly.
"Deal." Kirishima said, completely confident.
"Hey, dude, are you sure?" Kaminari asked, a tinge of worry in his eyes.
"It's fine. She should know. It's only fair right? I'll tell you everything, as long as you tell me everything. That's my promise as a man." Kirishima said proudly, jabbing his thumb above his heart.
Ashido sighed and shook her head with a soft giggle.
"So...I might as well start with where Bakugo left off with our story. After I dropped out of U.A, I went home and just went to a normal high school. But then, after All Might died...I just didn't know what I wanted to do with myself anymore. So, I took a ship and I began travelling around without telling my parents." Ashido said, dropping her head. "I still haven't spoken to them." She added, almost as an afterthought.
Kirishima prevented himself from wincing. Even though he knew why she had done it, hell, he had done it himself, that still didn't make it a good thing to do.
"Eventually, I realized that you couldn't get yourself anywhere in the galaxy without money, and lots of it, so I travelled around from station to station, trying to find a good place to get a job. I ended up stranded at Aeon after someone stole my ship, so I took a job as a waitress and got myself a house." Ashido said, wrapping up her story cleanly. It was a simple one; Kirishima probably could have guessed it himself.
"Now, what about you?" Ashido asked, eyes seeming to bore into Kirishima as an intense expression overtook her face. Kirishima almost gulped under the intensity of her stare.
"My story is kinda similar to yours." Kirishima admitted, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. When Ashido didn't say anything, he took it as a prompt to continue.
"I tried to get into U.A, but got rejected after I failed the piloting test. I thought it would be the easiest, so I studied the least for it...Anyways, I met Kaminari through the test. He failed the piloting test too, and eventually, he got the idea to travel around the galaxy and do our own thing. I thought it was a great idea, kinda like the story of the first ever heroes; you know, the ones in the first Kestrel ship, who started from nothing and took out the rebel flagship?" Kirishima paused to take a breath. The idea had sounded super manly at the time, but it didn't really work out.
"So, we saved up and bought this ship the first chance we could. We've been updating it and upgrading it ever since when we can. It's...not the greatest, but we did our best." Kirishima admitted.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me, what's the name of the ship?" Ashido asked inquisitively.
Kirishima paused. Kaminari's eyebrows scrunched as he thought.
"We, um...don't really have one?" Kirishima offered nervously. Ashido's face lit up in surprise.
"Once you finish telling your story, we're naming this ship. And no but's!" Ashido said, stopping Kirishima before he could protest.
Shooting a helpless look to Kaminari, the other man shrugged, looking equally helpless. Damn you, Kaminari!
"A-alright…" Kirishima conceded, if only to get the aggressive female off of his back. She looked like she could and would murder him if he disagreed.
Kirishima coughed slightly, then launched back into his story. "We travelled around a bit, going between planets and trying to see what we could do to upgrade our ship. We actually won the teleporter in a gladiator match at some planet in the Outer Edge. Me and Kaminari worked together and beat up a lot of people." Kirishima said fondly, remembering the memory. It was, single-handedly, the coolest thing they had ever done.
"We got attacked a couple times, and we got pretty roughed up, so we made our own weapon. It's an ion one, and it works well enough to take out a Zoltan-level shield in one go. Kinda leaves us without a lot of power after, though, so…" Kirishima trailed off. He knew why Bakugo might have had his doubts about the weapon. It was very high-risk, and dangerous.
"After a long time of us travelling, Kaminari kind of got framed for an international incident. Don't ask, because neither of us know how. Some high-up person had been attacked by someone with electricity while in an environmental meeting on some planet. It was someone named Koda, and apparently he was important." Kirishima explained, watching as Ashido's eyes lit up at the name.
"Wait, Koda's been hurt? And people thought it was him?" Ashido asked, confusion evident in her eyes.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Kaminari protested, a look of wounded pride on his face.
Ashido suppressed a giggle. "Koda was in my class at U.A. We were all training to become pro heroes, and if he stuck around for all three years, then he's definitely smart enough to avoid getting hit like that. No offense, but you two probably wouldn't be able to get to him. What happened after that?" Ashido asked, quickly changing the subject.
"Well, I came up with a plan to break him out of the prison that he was in, but by the time I warped, there was already a prison-break happening. That was when we met Bakugo." Kirishima explained.
After that, he recounted everything that had happened after that, with Jirou and her ship. Jirou was also apparently someone in class 1-A, as Ashido helpfully pointed out.
As Kirishima finished recounting his story, Ashido nodded, eyes closed. When she opened them again, there was fire burning in them.
"Alright, now we need to name this hunk of scrap metal!" Ashido said cheerfully, pumping a fist in the air.
"Yayyy…" Kaminari monotoned, looking as bored as humanly possible.
"Okay, who has ideas?" Ashido asked, a fully expectant look on her face.
There was dead silence in the bridge.
"...Okay, so we don't have anything right now. That's fine. We can work with that." Ashido said, sitting back down with a thoughtful look on her face.
"We tried naming the ship before, when we first bought it, but Kaminari and I couldn't make a decision. I wanted to name it Red Riot, after what my hero name would have been, but we both decided against it after a bit. Just didn't seem right." Kirishima said, lowering his head.
It didn't feel right because he didn't deserve the name, but he would never tell her that.
"Hmm, yeah, I see that. But what would be a good name for it…" Ashido said, trailing off.
"How about Ground Zero?" Kaminari pitched in, sounding bored. Kirishima and Ashido looked at him, surprised. Bakugo shifted in his sleep.
"What? If you don't like it, we can always go for something else." Kaminari offered, looking mildly pressured with the stares on him.
"No, it's good. A great name. What made you think of it?" Kirishima was quick to interject.
"Well, I was thinking about how this was sort of how we're starting out, right? Like those people in the Kestrel? So that made me think of the starting point for a disease, which is patient zero, but that doesn't sound good. The next obvious jump was Ground Zero, what with Blasty McSplodes' Quirk.." Kaminari explained, messing with his hair a bit with a bored expression on his face.
Sometimes, Kirishima forgot that his best friend was something of a genius when it came to words.
"Alright! Ground Zero it is!" Ashido cheered, pumping a fist in the air again.
"Wait, we're actually going with that?" Kaminari asked, confused.
"Why not?" Ashido asked sincerely, an inquisitive expression on her face.
"Well...it just seemed kinda quick, you know? Like we should put more thought into it." Kaminari reasoned.
"Every ship has a certain name, Kaminari. That was one of the first lessons that we were taught at U.A. Every ship's name is unique to it, and that ship embodies the meaning of the words. There's a reason that ships like the One For All have their names. When that ship's name is found, both the inhabitants and the ship will know, and they will be forever intertwined." Ashido explained with an air of wonder to her words.
"Now, we're gonna show the meaning of our ship to the next person who crosses us, right? Plus Ultra!" Ashido cheered, standing up and pointing a finger to the sky and just barely not touching the ceiling.
Kirishima smirked. "That's the most manly thing you've said all day! Plus Ultra!" Kirishima cheered, mimicking Ashido.
The pair looked to Kaminari, who was still sitting.
"Yeah, I'm picking up what you're putting down." Kaminari said with a small smile on his face, rising to his feet as well.
"PLUS ULTRA!" The group cheered as one.
An hour earlier...
Izuku watched, mouth set in a hard line, as the Mantis fleet that had been attacking the One For All entered FTL. At least one hundred ships had attacked him; fully prepared for war, all singing their own praises as they unleashed fire.
He had destroyed at least sixty before they realized exactly what they were up against.
Unfortunately, this meant that those forty were now off in the galaxy somewhere, and not everyone had the ability to fight such a large fight. The One For All was a gargantuan warship; their shields hadn't even been broken by the attacks. No other ship could even think about fighting like that.
Now, he had a choice.
He could leave the Mantis to their warpath, and focus on his primary enemy solely, losing the battle, but maybe winning the war, or he could send out some of his more battle-ready friends who had regrouped after apprehending the prisoners who had escaped. If he did that, he would win the battle and keep the peace, but he may not win a direct encounter.
Letting out a long sigh, he leaned against the captain's console in front of him, eyes clouded in worry.
What would All Might do?
All Might wouldn't have even gotten in this situation. The Mantis fleet would be either dispatched in a matter of moments or the fight wouldn't have even begun. But if it happened...All Might would definitely send people out to fight the Mantis.
But this was a different situation. Izuku still didn't have full control over One For All; his current limit was 85%, and that still turned his limbs into a mass of screaming pain.. He couldn't win a battle without the help of those around him.
If only he was a better successor…
Izuku hardened his mind. He couldn't show weakness, not now.
"We're continuing after the Infiltrator ship. We'll be jumping momentarily." Izuku commanded, a slight edge to his voice.
"Deku…? But what about the Mantis?" Uraraka asked, confused.
"They're weakened, and I doubt that they'd attack anything important. They're battle-hungry, but not stupid. Anyone with an above-average defense can take out a lot of them." Izuku rationalised, ignoring the looks of doubt in the faces of others.
He was meant to be the Symbol of Peace. Why couldn't he reassure people that everything would be okay?
That was one of All Might's best qualities, and what made him the #1 hero. But, then again, giving a false grin to reassure others that everything was fine...that's just a lie, a sense of false security. Isn't that what you said, Kacchan?
And that's a wrap for this chapter! Kind of short, I know. Not much really happened, but I wanted to get the real exposition chapter out of the way.
Bakugo's story was basically a bit of a recap, but it also somewhat explained how things were different. Kirishima's absence would change so much. Without Kirishima, Bakugo never got out of All Might's way at Kamino Ward, and I would imagine that he provided some sort of emotional stability for those around him. That was the logic I went with for Mina, anyways.
Now, obviously, Kirishima, Kaminari, Mina, and one other person weren't at U.A for the majority of Bakugo's time there. You can probably guess the fourth. There will be an explanation as to why, but it'll be explored more deeply as the story progresses.
It seems kinda convenient that this group found each other, wouldn't you say? Almost like another influence were acting on them.
Until next time,
Anonymuss45, signing off.