An Explosive Arbiter
Chapter 4: Pirates!
Bakugo came back to consciousness to light laughter and quiet conversation.
It was a struggle to open his eyes. He felt groggy and sore, but in noticeably less pain. He certainly wasn't complaining.
Opening his eyes fully, he saw Raccoon Eyes, Shitty Hair, and Pikachu lounging around and talking. He almost snorted; who was he to think that they would do something productive?
It wasn't long before Pikachu looked over and noticed that Bakugo's eyes were open. "Mornin', sleepyhead!" He called out with a smirk on his face.
"I'll kill you." Bakugo warned. He was not in the mood to deal with their shit right now.
"Right, right. We're about twenty minutes out from our next warp." Shitty Hair said dismissively. Bakugo's eye twitched, but he said nothing.
"Where are we going, anyways?" Bakugo asked, sitting up and rolling his shoulders. His joints cracked from disuse.
"We're just going to a nearby beacon. From there...I'm not sure. Me and Kaminari have been travelling around kinda aimlessly for the last few months." Shitty Hair said, scratching the back of his neck.
Ignoring Raccoon Eyes' call of 'Kaminari and I!', something about what Shitty Hair had said didn't sit right.
"Where have you been getting credits and scrap? You're basically homeless." Bakugo asked, eyes hard as he glared at Shitty Hair.
The ship didn't have a large storage for scrap, but what was there was a good amount. It had been plenty enough to both optimize the engines and give them a small upgrade, and when he had enough time, he would upgrade the reactor. But that scrap had to come from somewhere; there was no way that they were just finding it. General peace was common through the galaxy, so it was doubtful that they had gotten it out of self-defense.
Shitty Hair's eyes darted to the side for a small moment, but it was enough to raise Bakugo's suspicions even further.
"We've been taking odd jobs. I'm good at construction and stuff like that, and Kaminari's real useful for electricity, y'know?" Shitty Hair said, talking ever so slightly faster than he normally did while looking slightly past Bakugo.
Bakugo said nothing in response, but he knew that Shitty Hair was lying to him. Why he did, he had no idea, but he didn't give a damn about whether or not they got it legally. He wasn't the type of person to judge someone on how well they followed the law.
Why would he care if the two idiots were pirates?
Standing up, Bakugo stretched, feeling his arms still complain at the action. He still hadn't fully recovered, huh? As he pulled his arm across his body, Bakugo froze, feeling his arm almost lock up. It was worse than he thought.
Slowly, Bakugo lowered his arm back down to a normal position. Alright, so he just couldn't beat the shit out of people with his hands or his Quirk for a while. He could deal with that.
Opening the small mini-fridge, Bakugo frowned. "Running out of food." He grumbled, grabbing what looked like leftover chili.
"Yeah, I know. I would have gotten more, but…" Shitty Hair trailed off, the atmosphere of the room suddenly heavier.
None of them wanted to bring up the station. No one had directly told him, but he could infer from what was going on. The alarm sounding throughout the dock that they were on, the explosion.
That very same alarm had been the one to convince him not to leave the ship. One foot had been out the door when it rang.
Bakugo grunted, starting to eat his meager meal. The bridge was mostly silent for a few blessed, sacred moments until Pikachu broke it.
"So what do you think will be at this beacon?" Pikachu asked, an unusually worried look on his usually completely carefree face.
"No idea! I just chose a random one." Shitty Hair chirped happily, and Bakugo's heart stopped.
"Ooh, living life on the edge! That's pretty manly, Kirishima!" Raccoon Eyes said, smiling deviously.
There were probably hundreds of beacons scattered around in each sector. Early on, in the fledgling days of the Federation before Quirks were common, there were perhaps ten, maybe twenty per sector. That was a rough time, where the rebels had a flagship that was a technological terror at the time. However, beacons were a gamble then and a gamble now. There could be literally anything at a beacon; a sun, a missile silo, a trading post...You name it, there could be a hazard.
Going to a random one without checking their credentials could be a death sentence.
Looking at the happily chatting trio in the bridge with him, Bakugo let out a small sigh. None of them really knew the danger, did they? Bakugo was sorely tempted to break their bubble of happiness, but he had food in front of him. He could do it later.
Slowly, Bakugo ate, waiting for the warp timer to end. The second it did, he might have to pilot this ship to safety. He wasn't dying because these people had a bad ship.
Finishing up the portion of chili, Bakugo slid the box back in the mini fridge. "Hey, Raccoon Eyes. You remember how to manage the weapons systems from when you were in U.A?" Bakugo asked, eyes boring into the woman. She blinked at him twice, then let out a small sigh.
"Not off the top of my head. I'll probably be able to do it if I have some time, though." She said, looking a bit upset.
"Go in there now, see if you can work it out. We have five minutes before we get to that beacon. I'm not being caught with our pants down. Shitty Hair, Pikachu, go work the systems you know how to work. I don't care what you do, just make yourself useful." Bakugo said, voice low and cold. Raccoon Eyes nodded and left the room, Pikachu close behind. Shitty Hair stuck around, though.
"So, you're piloting, Bakugo?" Shitty Hair asked, an inquisitive look on his face.
"You bet your ass I am. I don't plan on risking anything to you chumps. Zoltan-infused shields are getting more and more common, and if we can't teleport in there, we can't kick their asses." Bakugo said, an edge of annoyance in his tone. He missed his old ship. Zoltan technology didn't even stand a chance against his teleporter.
"We could always run from them." Kirishima offered.
"Not a chance. We don't have that type of time." Bakugo rejected the idea instantly. He wasn't going to run from a fight, not when there was even a sliver of a chance of winning. Because heroes won; that's just what they did.
Shitty Hair frowned. "Alright, if you say so. Oh yeah, I just remembered, we named the ship while you were out!" Shitty Hair said happily.
"Yeah?" Bakugo said, completely uninterested as he began assigning power.
"Yeah, we're calling it Ground Zero! Cool name, huh?" Shitty Hair joked, even as Bakugo paused for a second.
They didn't name it that because it had something to do with explosions, right?
Apparently, Bakugo expended Shitty Hair's patience, because when he turned to look, the man was gone into the corridor.
Bakugo grit his teeth, but turned his attention back to the console.
They were dropping out of warp. There could be anything in front of them.
Bakugo held his breath as the racing blue of hyperspace dropped and was replaced by a brilliant blue nebula, some far distance in front of them.
Unfortunately, in front of said nebula was a looming ship with distinctive pirate markings. It looked to be a relatively simple ship, which Bakugo was thankful for. It meant that it might not be too hard for this ship to kick its ass.
Before Bakugo could even do anything, a communication came through. The screen in front of him showed him the enemy's command bridge; nothing special, just a captain. It wasn't anything like the one on his ship or the One for All, where the sensors and the doors could be controlled in one area, however, and that dated the ship.
The captain looked average enough. Straight-faced, strangely clean looking for a pirate, and he looked disciplined.
"You've intruded on our beacon. Pay our toll, or we'll make you regret it." The captain promised, wasting no time.
Bakugo raised his eyebrows. "And what fucking toll is that?" Bakugo spat. He knew it was bullshit, and he was fully prepared to fight over it.
"Thirty-five units of scrap. If you can pay it, then we shall let you go without a fight. After all, there's no reason for us to fight. We're all friends here." The captain said with a strange sincerity, and Bakugo was almost inclined to believe him. So...should he just give him the scrap? That would be for the best, wouldn't it? After all, the pirate ship was better than his, right? Plus, that captain looked pretty strong, so there was no way that he could win-
Bakugo's mind came to a screeching halt.
"Don't you even fucking try it, you asshole. I'm onto your game." Bakugo growled. If he was angry before, he was fucking furious now.
"Hm? And what game is that?" The captain asked, a somewhat surprised look on his face.
"Your fucking quirk won't work on me. You're not the first one to try." Bakugo snarled. A look of legitimate surprise and even a small hint of worry passed the pirate captain's face, until it settled back into an impassive look once more.
"Are you sure that we can't settle this peacefully? I would recommend it. There is no need for us to fight. Just hand over the scrap." The captain urged quietly, but Bakugo wasn't having any of that shit.
"What, you need the scrap because the big bad wouldn't give you a good ship? Don't even think about it. This is ours." Bakugo responded. There was always a certain type of thing that you could do to disable these types of people; either keep yourself grounded in reality or completely clear your thoughts. What this guy didn't know was that Bakugo was an expert at both letting rage consume him and controlling his rage, and both worked fine for keeping his head clear.
The captain's face got a tick of annoyance, and he looked like he was biting back a response.
"Or was it your old man that didn't give you a good ship? You can't tell me that you're here because you want to be. Surely, someone as incompetent as you at your job couldn't actually want it." Bakugo jeered, watching as anger grew on the man's face.
"Ooh, don't tell me! Did your girlfriend dump you after she realized how much of a scumbag you were? Or did she reject you before it even got that far? How many nights were spent alone in a dark corner of your room before you decided to cry about it with the rest of the scum?" Bakugo scorned, watching as actual pain began to show on the man's face.
His passive demeanor was fully broken, and Bakugo licked his lips in anticipation. Angry people made mistakes. But enraged people? They became smarter, laser-focused. That was the difference between the two of them. Bakugo knew how to use his rage, and this guy was simply a slave to his anger right now. He knew the difference.
There was silence over the comms as Bakugo awaited his answer.
"Pre-" The captain began.
"HAAHHH? I can't hear you down there, you fucking MAGGOT!" Bakugo yelled, taking delight in watching the captains' face contort.
The comms closed, and Bakugo cackled.
Bringing up the communications, Bakugo was forced to cast aside his glee, if only for a moment.
"Prepare for a fight. Raccoon Eyes, you work out that weapon?" Bakugo asked, serious once more as he watched the pirate ship move. This first move would be the most important.
"Pretty much, yeah. Also, Bakugo, I get that you're harsh, but you didn't have to kill the man." Raccoon Eyes called out jokingly.
"Yeah, that was kinda brutal, dude. Hilarious, but brutal." Pikachu's voice came over the comms. Bakugo merely let out a small growl.
"We're under attack. Get ready on the engines and shields." Bakugo ordered as he checked the weapon on the pirate ship.
They weren't too advanced. This truly was a mid-tier ship at best. Standard laser and some decently advanced weapons. Their flak weapon was really their main concern. They were harder to dodge than standard lasers or missiles, and could tear through shields like they were nothing.
Bakugo brought up the display of the enemy ship on his right and the display of their own on the right. The sensors on this ship were as bad as the rest of it, so the only thing that he could see was their own interior.
However, what it did tell him was the strength of the pirates' shields. Unfortunately for them, they were Zoltan-infused. Jury-rigged, but Zoltan-infused. They would have to land a hit on the shields with a weapon if they wanted to teleport.
Almost in a flash, the weapons on the opposing ship were fired. Several lasers were fired their way. Bakugo narrowed his eyes as he maneuvered the ship. He was the damn best, and no one would beat him in piloting, not even Deku.
After a complex roll made by manipulating the momentum of the ship and several small bursts from the engines to gain more speed, the lasers passed by harmlessly. The Ground Zero was in a good position to avoid more attacks; the distance between them was lower now, but a shot would be difficult to get because of how much lower down the Ground Zero was.
"Pikachu, make sure those engines are holding out. I don't need them blowing up on me." Bakugo warned, flicking his eyes to the display to his left.
"Got it, no need to worry about me! I can handle myself!" Pikachu called out cheerfully.
"Raccoon Eyes, make sure you're ready to fire! Keep a good line of sight on the ship." Bakugo ordered, receiving a noise of confirmation on her end.
As for Shitty Hair, well...if things went Bakugo's way, Shitty Hair wouldn't even need to do anything.
Snapping his eyes back to the battlefield, Bakugo swerved the ship to dodge a flak shot. The shields were lightly scraped, but they held.
The pirates were playing it smart; they were staying just out of Bakugo's range with their superior engines while firing upon them from afar. All it was really doing was annoying Bakugo; as the battle progressed, Bakugo dodged more and more lasers and flak.
"Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this!" Pikachu called out cheerfully.
"Don't jinx it, moron!" Bakugo seethed. He needed to keep his concentration.
Bakugo's mind was swarming with information. Angles, speed, trajectory, gains and consequences flooded his mind. It wasn't simply enough to know how to move a ship and get it from point A to B when you were a pilot. You needed to know every possible weapon your opponent might carry, how it functioned, how to counteract and dodge it, and most importantly, what it would do against your ship.
In this case, any loss to the shields would be a death sentence. That laser couldn't pierce shields, but it could deal a lot of damage to the hull of a ship. With how small this ship was, it was likely that the laser could cut it completely in half if the shields broke. That laser was primed to fire at any moment.
That was why he was being so careful, why he wasn't taking the chances that he should. If they got even slightly hurt, the shields could drop, and they would be dead. That was all it came down to.
It was a game of cat and mouse, but in this situation, who was the cat and who was the mouse?
"Oh my god." Pikachu's voice came over the comms, breathy and concerned.
"Kaminari? What's wrong, man?" Shitty Hair's voice asked, sounding equally concerned.
"I just realized something. God, I can't believe that has never occurred to me!" Pikachu said, sounding pained.
"If there's a problem with the engines, then shut the fuck up and tell me!" Bakugo growled.
"No, it's not that, just... isn't sushi just a Japanese taco?" Pikachu's voice came over the comms.
Right then and there, Bakugo almost lost it. He was right on the verge of standing up, leaving the bridge, and beating Pikachu's ass, right then and there.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU IDIOT!" Bakugo roared over the comms.
In his rage, one of Bakugo's hands pressed down harder than intended, and the engines were, without any warning or preamble, pushed to their maximum.
"Whoa, Bakugo, chill! It was just a question!" Pikachu complained. On the sensors, Bakugo could see him frantically rushing around the room and fiddling with things.
"Save it for later, Kaminari!" Shitty Hair interjected, sounding exasperated.
Unbeknownst to the other three, Bakugo was currently trying his hardest to avoid dying. The sudden burst of speed had placed him in a very bad spot.
They were in range, although not by much. The downside for that was that the enemy was also in range for them.
It was a gamble, throwing their fate to the cards. Whichever one of them fired first would win.
"NOW, RACCOON EYES!" Bakugo roared, already inputting the commands to do a desperate dive and spin out of the way.
The ship pulsed, and a huge blast of electricity emitted from the ion weapon. Bakugo grunted as electricity flared up from the console in front of him.
"Too much, Raccoon Eyes!" Bakugo scolded, checking their power with a worried look.
He could either maintain the shields or the engines, and not both.
A small bead of sweat dripped down Bakugo's face as worry began to make a knot in his gut.
Looking at the display desperately, Bakugo let out a small sigh of relief when the ion passed over the enemy ship with ease, rendering it immobile. For how long was anyone's guess.
"Raccoon Eyes, can you pilot?" Bakugo called over the comms.
"Not as well as you can! And if you're thinking about fighting, don't. I saw how injured you were. Our best option is to just run while we have the chance. The FTL is ready, right, Kaminari?" Raccoon Eyes asked the dolt, who responded with a quick affirmative.
"Fuck no! There's no way we're backing out now! We have them on the ropes." Bakugo protested, feeling anger welling up in him because they even suggested it.
"Why risk it? We can just get out of here peacefully." Raccoon Eyes argued, trying to sound calm, but Bakugo could hear the annoyance in her voice.
"If you fuckers don't want to fight, that's fine. I'll go over there and kick their asses myself." Bakugo growled.
"Why do we need to fight them? We can just leave and let someone else handle it!" Raccoon Eyes protested, but it sounded weak.
"I'll never let someone else fight a battle because I lost it! Not again!" Bakugo all but roared into the comms, and there was a short silence among them.
"...Alright, fine. Kirishima, let's do this." Raccoon Eyes conceded, and Bakugo would put on a self-satisfied look if he wasn't so pissed.
"Alright, got it! Bakugo, teleport us over, would ya?" Shitty Hair's voice came through the comms, even as Raccoon Eyes bounded through the bridge to get to the other side of the ship.
Bakugo let out a small frown. "Yeah, whatever. Don't fuck it up. I'll be out here keeping us alive." He grumbled into the mic.
He didn't want to leave the fighting to them, but he had to be realistic. Raccoon Eyes wasn't as good a pilot as he was, especially if she hadn't practiced since U.A. On top of that...she did have a point about him not being in the greatest of shapes, loathe as he was to admit it.
So, just this once, Bakugo would let someone else fight his battle for him.
He allotted power to the teleporter and sent the two over to the other ship.
They would be on the front lines, fighting his war, and he would be back here, playing the support game. It didn't sit right in his stomach, but then again, he knew that they were at least somewhat competent.
If there was anyone that he trusted to do this, it would probably be any of the people on this ship, although that's not really saying much and he would still always do it himself if he had the option.
But, for now, he was forced to rely on others.
The enemy ship's shields rose once more, and the weapons were aimed towards his ship. Bakugo grabbed the controls.
His two options were defending and dodging. No in-between.
"Come at me, you motherfucker."
Ashido and Kirishima were teleported to a random hallway in the pirate ship. For a short moment, they were alone. Around them, the ship whirred back to life.
"Alright, we need to help Bakugo out. The first thing we need to do is take out those weapons." Kirishima said confidently, and Ashido smiled to herself. He had really grown up a bit, hadn't he? It was obvious that he still hadn't 'cast off his old pathetic self', but he was definitely a new person.
"Right!" Ashido agreed with a smile.
Just as she said that, an alarm rang throughout the ship.
Instantly, the two were on guard. They must have been picked up on by the sensors.
The doors slammed shut, and there was a worrying sound of suction. Alarm bells began ringing in Ashido's head.
"They've opened up the oxygen vents! Come on, follow me!" Ashido urged, dispensing acid onto the closest door.
Pushing through the door, the two were met with a pair of very surprised pirates. There was a small silence for a few moments where neither party was sure what to do.
Then, the suction noise stopped, and Ashido and Kirishima sprung into action.
The pirates had no Quirks. One was a Slug, the other human. If he had a Quirk, it wasn't combat based. They stood no real chance against the pair.
Now that she had a real chance to look at it, Ashido noticed that Kirishima seemed to be able to hold his own in a battle. He wasn't just hunkering down like a turtle and playing the defensive game, like his Quirk would suggest him to do, but instead going on the offensive, only using his Quirk to defend himself at critical moments or when he needed to strike.
It surprised Ashido. He clearly knew what he was doing, and had probably fought recently. It made her ask herself what she had been doing with her time, exactly.
The two moved through the ship quickly. With Ashido's ability to break down the doors with ease combined with her natural strength and Kirishima's overwhelming mix of defense and offense, the pair were unstoppable, even when they encountered people with Quirks. One with a water Quirk, one with a Quirk to bend metal, and another with the ability to teleport short distances.
All in all, the pair defeated over twenty pirates. Faintly, in the back of her mind, Ashido was reminded of the amount of villains that she had fought at USJ, and how the number was similar to the amount that she had taken out before being knocked out.
It took them ten minutes, at the absolute most. The entire time, the ship rumbled as weapons were fired and engines were manipulated. Until they took those systems out, of course. Ashido's acid was deadly to a ship's systems. As the ship slowed to a crawl, Bakugo's voice came through the comms.
"They've stopped firing. You take out those weapons?" He asked, sounding exhausted.
"Yep! They're all gone, thanks to yours truly." Ashido bragged, throwing her hands behind her head.
"Yeah, I don't really care who did it. Could you hurry up and take out Captain Dickhead over there before he stops comming me and instead comms an entire pirate fleet?" Bakugo asked, sounding weary and frustrated.
"He's comming you?" Kirishima asked, surprised.
"Won't shut the fuck up about how 'I'll pay for this' and 'He'll bring the entirety of the Great Pirate Fleet down upon our asses'. If I hadn't heard it thousands of times before, I might be worried." Bakugo said, sounding slightly smug this time.
"We should probably hurry. You can never tell when these guys are serious." Kirishima said, causing Ashido to look at him with disbelief once more. He had done this before?
"The faster you do that, the faster he'll stop bitching at me. Hey, asshat, could you shut the fuck up for a second? I'm talking to someone else. No? Well, FU-" Ashido quickly cut the line. Judging by the look on Kirishima's face and his fumbling hands, he hadn't been as successful.
"How about we just go and finish this job?" Ashido suggested, a hint of embarrassment in her voice.
Kirishima let out a short, nervous laugh. "Yeah, let's do that." He said, averting his eyes.
The trip to the bridge was probably more work than it needed to be. They made small talk as they moved, which was probably why they got lost three times on the way over. It wasn't like the engines were coming back anytime soon, but they still had to be wary.
The bridge was probably the most pronounced room in the entire ship, near the front with large, towering doors. It was pretentious, in a way, to do it like that, but she wasn't one to judge. It was common. Even the One For All, which used to be All Might's behemoth of a ship, had that setup.
Burning her way through the door, Ashido and Kirishima pushed their way through, ready to fight.
The captain was sat in a chair, turned in their direction. Across the large cabin, he pinned them with a level, strong gaze. Immediately, Ashido tensed. They weren't dealing with your typical goons anymore. This one was more dangerous, better trained than the rest of them.
"Kirishima, keep your guard up." Ashido breathed out, just barely loud enough for her friend to hear.
A miniscule nod was her response.
Ashido raised her hands, ready to fire acid, when the captain raised his own hands in a placid, calming gesture.
"It's okay. I do not wish to fight. I merely wish to talk." The captain said with a level, controlled voice. Ashido slowly lowered her hands.
"I wish to bargain for my surrender. I am sure that this is acceptable for you and your friend?" the captain said slowly, enunciating each word.
Without even shooting a look at Kirishima, Ashido found herself nodding. "Alright, what will you give us?" Kirishima said, doubt lacing his voice.
"Half of the scrap in our storeroom and one of our best weapons. I hope that you can understand that I cannot offer more. We are, of course, in just as bad a situation as you are. Can you not tell?" The captain said slowly, and silently, Ashido agreed.
"How much scrap is half of your scrap?" Kirishima asked, sounding concerned.
"Over one hundred units. We took a toll from those passing through this area, you see. Scrap is precious to many, and in our situation, we needed as much of it as possible to get our feet off the ground." The captain said soothingly, and Ashido felt some of the stress and worry roll off of her shoulders. This seemed reasonable so far.
But didn't it seem unfair to ask these men for so much scrap?
"However, I worry for our safety if we were to give you so much scrap. After all, we needed it for a good reason...Wouldn't it be abandoning your fellow man in a time of need if you were to take so much from us?" The captain said soothingly, and Ashido wholeheartedly agreed.
"I...Hey, wait a second. You attacked us. Why would it be abandoning you?" Kirishima asked, voice sounding somewhat hazy. Ashido wanted to yell at him. This offer was generous! They didn't deserve it. These people needed the scrap more than they did, especially after all the damage that she did to their ship!
"Shouldn't the exchange be more even? We will surely die without that scrap. Blown to bits by the next ship to come along with a ruffian like yours at the helm, all just so you can fuel your greed. After meeting me, could you seriously live with that?" The captain prompted, leading Ashido to bite her lip. It would tear her up inside if that happened. She would let so many innocent people die?
"...No, wait. Something doesn't feel right here. Half of the scrap and some fuel. No arguments." Kirishima suddenly demanded, voice with a small edge to it, and something inside Ashido snapped.
Her fist went towards Kirishima's face.
Kirishima only had the time to blink before Ashido's fist was rocketing towards his face.
Quickly raising his arms and blocking it, he was forced to take a step backwards. Before he could even say anything, Ashido was attacking again, and he was forced to block that one, too. This time, he had enough time to activate his Quirk.
"Ashido, what the hell?" Kirishima grunted out as she got more intense.
Ashido was eerily quiet as she ramped up her offense.
As Kirishima poured his focus into defending himself from Ashido, he could just barely hear the captain sigh to himself.
"Just one instead of two. A pity. This should be good entertainment, at the very least." The captain said, voice imperious.
Kirishima looked over to him, anger beginning to brew in his soul. "You bastard! You're the one who made her like this?" He roared, feeling something burn his arms, even through his Quirk.
Turning his eyes back to Ashido, he saw how blank and cold hers were. They were devoid of emotion, completely without remorse for the acid pouring from her hands and in Kirishima's direction.
Quickly, Kirishima dodged to the side, dodging most of the acid but hissing where it his his skin. If he weren't hardened right now, he would have been feeling the full brunt of that and it would have torn through his skin.
"I didn't force her to be like this. I merely suggested it, and she didn't quite resist it until it was too late." The captain finally answered Kirishima's question, watching the proceedings with a morbid interest.
"Of course, it wasn't perhaps entirely difficult to convince her. My Quirk does work better on females, after all. I've put that particular part of my Quirk to use several times" The captain said callously, picking at his fingernails.
There were no words to describe Kirishima's anger in that moment. None at all. In that instant, he understood, with perfect clarity, how Bakugo felt every moment of the day. This man...he truly was the scum of the galaxy. In all of Kirishima's time, he had met some awful people, but this man took the cake without a shadow of a doubt.
"You unmanly piece of GARBAGE!" Kirishima roared, heightening his hardening. His pain was forgotten, and his cares burned away in the fires of rage.
"Against you...there's absolutely no way I'll show mercy!" Kirishima yelled, pouring his heart into his voice.
Kirishima took a step, but a hand was hooked under his leg, giving Kirishima a painful reminder of why Ashido had been accepted into the hero course.
Kirishima managed to prevent himself from falling over outright by placing his hands on the floor and kicking out at Ashido, lessening her grip on him somewhat. His feet came back down to the floor ungracefully, but he was free from Ashido's grip.
As he re-focused on his target, he realized that the captain was nowhere to be found. Blindly, Kirishima looked around, blocking a hit from Ashido in the process.
A hand curled around his throat, and Kirishima was suddenly thrown to the ground. With a short gasp, Kirishima's hardening was momentarily released.
But it was enough for Ashido.
Before Kirishima could lash out at the captain, who stood over him and was leering imperiously, Ashido had grabbed his legs and one of his arms, pinning him into place like an expert wrestler.
"You were a damn annoyance, you know. You and the bitch. It's damn expensive to replace an entire system, you know." The captain said, a look of maniacal glee on his face. Kirishima didn't respond; his face was being pressed into the floor.
The captain was quiet for a moment.
"You piss me off. Honestly, I would just kill you now if I weren't in such a good mood right now." The captain said, a small sort of high in his voice. He kicked Kirishima's side, who let out a quiet grunt.
"After all, it's not every day that I manage to take down Bakugo Katsuki's crew." The captain said, inhaling loudly through his nose.
Kirishima jerked slightly, and Ashido pressed down even harder on his body.
"How do you know Bakugo?" Kirishima asked, muffled.
The captain laughed then- a crazed, giddy laugh. "Who doesn't know of the Bombing King? He's famous. He was the reason that All Might died, and he was the one who stole the Crown Jewel of the Crystal Rocks. They say that there's a reason that the Bombing King always wins, a prophecy- that whoever holds the jewel will always be victorious in battle. It's clearly bull- after all, he was captured, was he not?" The captain gloated, seeming to take pride in the fact that he seemed to have the advantage.
Kirishima didn't doubt the prophecy. Bakugo was manly, and he hadn't lost a single fight from the time that they had met. In this case, Kirishima trusted in that prophecy.
Kirishima had no doubt that they would win.
There was no conceivable way that they would lose. Kirishima had been in worse situations before, and he had gotten out of them. Heaven and hell itself would have to conspire to defeat him in this situation.
It looked poor, but if there was one thing that he had learned from constantly being the underdog, it was that people made the most mistakes when they believed that they were going to win.
And right now, the captain had just made a brutal one.
"Bakugo! Now!" Kirishima shouted.
And in that moment, Bakugo Katsuki teleported into the ship and directly behind the captain.
"Wh-" the captain started, the gloating in his eyes replaced by fear.
"DIEEEEEE!" Bakugo screeched, and an explosion lit up the bridge. It was enough to send Ashido looking wildly behind her, and enough of a distraction for her grip to loosen.
"I'm sorry, Ashido!" Kirishima said with regret as he activated his Quirk.
Skin hardened and pierced Ashido's leg, causing her to cry out in pain and let go of Kirishima. Within an instant, Kirishima reversed the position. He swung her around and pinned down her arms and legs, trying desperately to ignore her squirming.
Looking away from the rampaging girl, Kirishima locked eyes with Bakugo, who was breathing slightly heavily and leaning against the side of the ship. His arms were spasming slightly.
"Thanks, Bakugo." Kirishima said, completely seriously. Kirishima risked a glance at the captain, who was currently in snoozeville in a dent in the wall.
"She got caught in his Quirk?" Bakugo asked, anger void from his voice.
Kirishima gulped. "Yeah. Sorry." He said, shame hanging over him like a blanket.
Bakugo averted his eyes. "It's no big deal. These types of people are hard to work around, even if you know their Quirk. Even Deku's been caught by them, so don't make it something big." Bakugo said, sounding tired.
"Wait, you're not mad?" Kirishima asked, slightly confused.
"I'm only pissed that you couldn't beat this guy, but you held your own. But, tell me, Kirishima…" Bakugo began, getting a serious look on his face. Kirishima didn't even have time to register that Bakugo had referred to him by name.
"If this happened again and the only way to win was to kill her….would you be able to do it?" Bakugo nearly spat, staring at Kirishima with a look of pure intensity.
The natural response was that he wouldn't, right?
"If everything was on the line and you had to abandon your morality to get victory, could you do so?" Bakugo repeated the question, his eyes narrowing.
Kirishima dropped his eyes.
"...No." Kirishima admitted. Below him, Ashido had stopped struggling. Looking down, he saw that she seemed to be fast asleep.
Bakugo said nothing for a long moment before sighing. "You would make it as a hero, you know. Every hero that I've met has responded the same way." Bakugo said, his tone betraying none of his thoughts.
What the hell does that mean? Kirishima asked himself, wondering whether or not to accept the roundabout compliment.
"What do you want to do about captain asshat, then? I'll leave it up to you." Bakugo said, voice neutral.
And with a single question, Kirishima's confusion turned to anger.
Shameful as it was, his first response was to kill the man. He had done too much, committed too many crimes that he would never be punished for. If he left the man alive, he could attack others, hurt other people and do to them what he couldn't do to Kirishima.
But...where was the justice in killing a defenseless man, lying unconscious on the ground? It wasn't manly at all- hell, it was the opposite! It didn't feel right to just kill a man like that. But if he took him in, they would need to feed him, keep him restrained. His Quirk would act on anyone who heard him. Plus, there was no chance in hell that they would be able to give him to the Federation or the rebels. They would be shot on sight.
What...what the hell should he do?
Bakugo sighed. "Can't make a decision? Then let me make it for you."
Before Kirishima could even process what was happening, Bakugo had walked up to the downed body of the captain, picked up a laser gun that was in the man's holster, and shot him, point-blank, in the head.
Kirishima's mind was blank for a long moment.
"This is something that every hero goes through. If you can't make a decision in a short time, then something else will make it for you. It was safer for everyone if this man was dead, so I killed him." Bakugo said, speaking as though he was talking about the weather.
"That...that's not how a hero should act at all!" Kirishima all but roared, releasing Ashido and pulling himself to his feet.
"I'm not a hero anymore, Kirishima. I couldn't make that decision, and the whole galaxy paid for it. I'm not letting anyone else die because I was indecisive." Bakugo said calmly, but his entire body didn't reflect that tone of voice. He was poised, ready for a fight. His eyes held a blazing fury with hints of self-loathing.
It stopped Kirishima dead in his tracks.
Bakugo wanted to better himself. He didn't want people to get hurt, so he used the methods of a villain to sacrifice one person instead of one hundred. It was cold, hard statistics. He wanted to absolve himself of that mistake, and to that end, he fought the way he did.
It struck an intensely deep chord within Kirishima.
Bakugo scoffed. "Don't give me that look. I don't want anyone's pity." He said, anger starting to line his voice.
"Right, sorry." Kirishima said, rubbing the back of his head and looking away.
Ashido made a small noise, an Kirishima was instantly reminded of the situation.
"Ashido! Are you alright?" He called, racing back to her side and crouching down warily. Ashido mumbled and stirred a little bit, but didn't wake up.
"She'll be fine. Hey, Pikachu, 'port these two back. I have something that I need to do." Bakugo said, turning away from the pair and walking towards the door.
"Wait, you're not coming with us? What do you need to do?" Kirishima called out after him, and Bakugo paused.
"I'm still travelling with you fuckers, don't get me wrong. You guys fucked this ship up beyond repair and I refuse to pilot a pirate ship. There's just some things that I need to get. Make sure the teleporter room is clear after I give you the all-clear." Bakugo ordered, his tone expecting complete obedience. Kirishima had no choice but to accept as a jerking feeling in his stomach signified a teleport.
Kaminari had instantly almost crushed Kirishima in a death grip of a hug the second that he teleported.
"Hey, you alright, man? Is Ashido alright? I was listening to you guys over the comms. That guy was such an asshole." Kaminari swore, helping Kirishima pick up Ashido.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Bakugo said that Ashido should be fine, too, so I guess the only thing to do is wait." Kirishima said, almost dejectedly. His emotions had been sent on a rollercoaster ride from hell, and he was still a bit frazzled from it.
"Man, I wish that Bakugo didn't need me back here. What I wouldn't give to plant my fist in that guy's face!" Kaminari said, a resolute and proud expression on his face.
"I feel you, bro. He was...truly a bad person." Kirishima said, still somewhat emotionally scarred.
He had just seen someone die.
It hadn't truly struck him until that moment. It wasn't the first time that he had seen it, but before, they had just been in the background; people that he hadn't known, deaths that he hadn't seen. If he didn't see the deed being done, he could just ignore it and move on. But in this case, it was the first real death that he had seen. He had, in the smallest sense of the word, known the man. He knew his personality, interacted with him in those few moments before he was killed. While his personality was that of a devil dragged through the mud, it didn't make him any less of a person.
Kirishima almost wanted to vomit.
A hand landed on his shoulder as the pair settled Ashido into Bakugo's old 'sick seat'.
"I...heard what Bakugo did. Do you want to talk about it?" Kaminari offered, genuine sympathy in his eyes.
Kirishima considered it for a long moment. It was a tempting offer, truly. But something that Bakugo had said earlier was still ringing around in his head.
"You would make it as a hero, you know."
Who had ever heard of a hero who expressed weakness so easily, without worry for himself? Crimson Riot was the epitome of a man; he never felt fear, even when faced with the strongest of foes. If that was to be his future, he would need to learn to cast aside his fear and anger on his own. He shouldn't worry Kaminari with it.
So, Kirishima smiled and responded with a simple, "I think I'll be fine. The guy deserved it, anyways. Wasn't very manly." Kaminari eyed him for a long moment, but dropped it.
Silence reigned in the bridge for the worrying amount of time that Bakugo was gone. It was only broken by the occasional mumble from Ashido in her sleep. The only thing stopping Kirishima from becoming too worried was the fact that Bakugo's signal from his teleporter cuff was still moving.
Five minutes stretched into ten, and a knot started to form in Kirishima's stomach.
Finally, the comms crackled on, and Bakugo's voice rang through. "I've gotten all I need. Port everything in the room that I'm in, not just me." he said, voice commanding. Kaminari quickly took to the console, pressing buttons and firing up the teleporter.
As the teleport finished, Kirishima opened up the starmap and chose the nearest beacon. It was a merchant stop; a place for people to refuel, buy systems, hire crew members. It would also be protected, either by itself, the Federation, or the rebels, but judging how close to Tartarus they still were…
Gritting his teeth, Kirishima fired up the FTL drive, entering hyperspace and firing towards the store.
The door to the bridge opened and Bakugo stepped out with a cocky grin on his face.
"You get what you need, mate?" Kaminari asked, leaning against the wall.
"Easily. These fuckers just left their scrap room open. Easy pickings." Bakugo bragged, folding his arms and leaning against the opposing wall.
"Wait, really? You just needed scrap?" Kirishima asked, a small frown on his face. He had been worried over nothing.
"I need to buy a ship with something, Hair for Brains. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to." Bakugo said, looking at Ashido's slumbering form.
"You gonna save any of that for us?" Kaminari asked, a strange look on his face.
"They barely had enough to buy a ship that's decent. I picked up a weapon and some fuel while I was in there, so this ship won't get blown up the second I leave it." Bakugo stated, face like stone.
"Well, we handled fine without you, y'know? And now we have Mina. We'll be fine." Kaminari said with a strange edge to his voice. Kirishima threw him a cautious look.
Bakugo's eyes narrowed. "Good. I'll regret leaving even less than I used to." He challenged, hateful red eyes challenging Kaminari to argue. Thankfully, Kaminari knew when to quit.
"So you're really leaving at the next station?" Kirishima asked, a small pit in his stomach.
"I told you that I was going to leave as soon as possible, Hair for Brains. It's a fucking miracle that it hasn't happened yet." Bakugo almost spat.
Kirishima winced. Bakugo was right; it shouldn't come as a surprise to him. And yet, it didn't feel right to Kirishima. Bakugo felt like a member of the team now. Entrusting your life to someone, fully and completely, builds a manly bond with them that not even fate itself could break.
Kirishima didn't have a response for Bakugo, and the man seemed to take that as an invitation to stare off into nothingness in Ashido's direction.
Looking at the look of intense concentration on Bakugo's face, Kirishima was forced to wonder just what he was thinking about. He looked so focused, so serious, that there was no way that his mind wasn't somewhere important.
Looking at Bakugo, he was reminded of something that the pirate said.
"Hey, Bakugo, while we were fighting the captain, he mentioned something about the Crown Jewel of the Crystals, or something like that. Said you stole it." Kirishima brought up, almost wincing at how poorly he lead into the question.
"If you want to know something, make sure your question is obvious, Hair for Brains." Bakugo said, shooting a glare in Kirishima's direction.
"Oh, uh...right. Is it true? I mean, the Crystal race died out like five hundred years ago, right? The last one was on the Kestrel." Kirishima asked, feeling genuinely confused. It hadn't made sense to him then. That 'crown jewel' had to just be a remnant of the civilization, assuming it even existed.
"That's what everyone says, so yeah, they're all dead." Bakugo responded, almost flippantly.
Kirishima blinked. "But did you really steal their old crown jewel?" He pressed, sensing that this was something that he would need to be firm about.
Bakugo gave him a hard look. "I didn't steal it. That's just a rumor, anyway. Don't listen to all that bullshit. No one even knows where the Crystal sector is anymore." Bakugo said, closing his eyes and standing up slightly taller.
Kirishima wasn't very surprised, just a bit disappointed. "Then how did the rumor start?"
Bakugo snorted. "That damn legend has been around for centuries. No one but All Might has beaten me in a fair fight, and once I became a thief, people began to speculate. Probably started on some backwater planet for all I know." Bakugo responded, looking bored.
Kirishima hummed quietly in agreement. He had seen Bakugo fight; his first instinct had been that Bakugo had been liberally using Trigger. No one person could be that strong. His explosions had enough force to blow apart metal and limbs alike, and he was skilled enough to use them effectively and mercilessly. In fact, the only people that he thought could be as strong as him in terms of sheer strength were Deku and probably Cryo Flame.
"Oi, Shitty Hair, stop staring at me like that." Bakugo suddenly snapped, and Kirishima quickly averted his eyes. He hadn't even realized that he'd been staring.
Feeling his cheeks burn slightly from embarrassment, he decided to focus on something else.
"How's Ashido?" He asked Kaminari, who had moved to check on her while Bakugo and him were talking.
Kaminari hummed slightly. "Looks like she's just sleeping for right now. She's still breathing and she doesn't have a fever." The man said, poking and prodding at Ashido's face.
"She was affected by a brainwashing Quirk. The stronger it is, the more likely it is that the person will go unconscious." Bakugo said easily.
"The only thing to do is wait." Kaminari said sagely, crossing his arms and nodding.
Kirishima sighed. He hated waiting.
Kirishima looked at Ashido's sleeping face and frowned.
It was his fault that she was like this, wasn't it? They were supposed to be a team, and yet he didn't even notice when he was being influenced. Because he fell short, she was now unconscious. It could have gone worse, too- if he hadn't kept Bakugo's channel on the comms open like Ashido, he couldn't have gotten the help that he needed.
He...truly wasn't a man yet, was he?
Izuku Midoriya swallowed heavily as a report reached the captain's console.
"Aeon Station has been destroyed. Few survivors." Nothing else. Seven words.
He didn't know that station specifically, but if it was a full-sized station, then thousands of lives were likely lost.
He swallowed back a heavy cloud of his own self-doubt.
He should have sent out a hero after them. Anyone would have done. He got so caught up in chasing All For One that everything else just became background noise. Why did he think that there wouldn't have been consequences?
A bead of sweat rolled down his head as he forced grief back. What the hell was he thinking?
"I...I'm going to step out for a moment. Comm me if anything comes up." Izuku said, voice shaky and barely held together as he practically fled from the room.
In all of All Might's time, there had been a grand total of five hundred and seventy-six civilian casualties with incidents that he was personally involved in.
Izuku had probably multiplied that number exponentially with that single decision.
Panting as guilt tore his stomach to shreds, he pounded his fist against the durasteel, clinically white wall. "Damn it…" Izuku muttered.
How many people have they passed by now, on a chase that could very well be bogus? How many distress signals had been ignored?
'There are other heroes nearby who could deal with it,' Izuku had reasoned, but was he really sure? With the One For All so focused out in this area, was it really too much of a stretch to say that things could be going poorly elsewhere? The Federation didn't have fast communication with all parts of the galaxy. It was possible that crime was skyrocketing while he was on a warpath.
He was a fool. A damn arrogant fool.
Were you right, all this time, Kacchan?
And that's a wrap for chapter 4! This one ended up being longer than I intended, but I feel like it was worth it. Hope I left you guys with a good read.
It's come to my attention that Kaminari hasn't really gotten much focus from me, instead getting relegated to being a background character. He's going to get a chapter dedicated to his own development here soon. I've focused a lot on the dynamic between Kirishima and Bakugo so far, and I want to make sure everyone gets their own time in the spotlight. I really like pretty much everyone here as a character, which is why it's so fun to write this story. I would also like to say that no, I don't hate Izuku. I think he's one of the least interesting characters in the show, but I don't hate him by any means. His decisions right now are heavily influenced by his emotions, much like All Might's after Nana was killed.
Special appearance by a pro hero next chapter!
Until next time,
Anonymuss45, signing off.