Summary: It's been months since Izuku went missing and in that time, Bakugo's had a lot of time to think about things, from their relationship, their past, his actions, and the effect that her kidnappings had on Inko. With the investigation stalled, he begins to wonder what he can do to save her, to try and make things up to her. But he's not given much time to do that.


Chapter 7: Time Past

"For today's hero's basic training, we'll have three instructors which will be me, All Might and another, both we'll meet when we get to the site." Eraserhead, the homeroom teacher of class 1-A started, all attention on the man who made sure to leave an impression on his students through his threat to expel one of them on the first day. Bakugo didn't care for how Round Cheeks thought it was unfair, he was right, heroes don't get to fail like the rest, they don't get to call it unfair like life was some game, nor complain when their lack of power left them open.

Another of his classmates, the flat-faced one whose quirk made him a damn human tape dispenser raised a hand. "Eraser-sensei, what will we be doing, is it another combat class?" That would be nice, he had some great fun during their first class, even if he had to hold back to not put them down too hard.

"Quite the opposite, our hero class today will be rescue training." Eraser even had a card with the word rescue written on it, did he think they were babies? "Shipwrecks, disasters, landslides, earthquakes and everything else under the sun." None of his classmates seemed to share his thoughts on that as they all were excited for more hero classes.

"Rescue…?" Pikachu started, for reasons he couldn't fathom he seemed a bit nervous. "Looks like it'll be a lot of work this time, too." Really? He was upset about work, and Bakugo wanted to punt him in the face just for that.

"Right?" Racoon eyes seemed to agree, did they not learn anything from the first day or were they just that dense?

"Idiot, this is the duty of a hero! My arms are ready to rumble!" Rockface told them both off, something that Bakugo appreciated from the normally loud redhead, his clear work ethic.

"I'll be invincible in the water." Another of his classmates added in as he and others remained silent, not feeling that they had to add anything to the conversation.

"Did I say I was done?" Eraser asked them, silencing the class as before he continued, pressing a button on the same remote All Might used, revealing the shelves where their numbered briefcases sat. "You can decide if you want to wear your costumes this time around, as you might find yourselves in situations outside the cloak where you're needed so if you ask me, I'll suggest you get used to doing your jobs in whatever you have that day." He explained to them, getting some to reconsider taking their gear into this.

"Of course, there is the reason that since these are the first versions of the designs you submitted before the school year began, there might be some costumes that do more to hamper than help you, but this is a good time to find out which is what so you can have changes made." Esaser finished, giving the pros and cons on if they wanted to take their gear with them, even as Bakugo decided he'll just book some training in his gym clothes some other time.

"Like I said, training's off-campus so we're taking the bus. You have 8 minutes to get dressed and get to it, understand?" Eraser asked, and once he got his confirmation, he left the class. As his classmates stood up to grab their gear, Bakugo remained seated just a little longer, looking out the window with a troubled expression. It was a sunny day, perfect spring weather, great for training or anything. He wondered if she knew, wherever she was. As he turned over Eraser's words in his mind, he recalled one of the first videos on All Might he had seen, the time he saved over a hundred people, laughing all the while because the danger meant nothing to him, to the symbol of peace.

Then for a moment, his mind replaced the living legend, with his old friend, all grown up, as powerful as the man she replaced, just as joyful as he had been. 'Rescue training…She would have liked that.' He signed as he got up, he didn't have time for this.


"Class 1-A, gather around!" Bakugo turned his irritated gaze towards the elitist stickler, the guy trying to get them into the bus. He even had a whistle with him. "Make 2 lines by student number to make the boarding of the bus go smoothly!"

"What the hell?" He muttered as he followed along anyway, no point yelling when the moron wouldn't listen. Still, he got some pleasure from seeing that the bus wasn't the type he thought it was, making his efforts as much of a waste of time as he thought they were. While the rest talked among themselves, like before he and others remained silent. In his case, he was thinking about how things had reached this point.

In just a few months, it would be a full year since De…since Midoriya was kidnapped and despite or perhaps it was because of what he would have thought, the world kept on turning. He refrained from speaking with Auntie Inko, knowing that his presence wouldn't help her in the slightest, and had gotten UA as he planned, but…it just didn't feel right, it didn't give him the sense of accomplishment he was expecting, he just felt numb as he watched the letter play with All Might telling him how he got the highest villain point score out of all those that got in. He didn't know what was the reason till he saw the reason in the form of mother, she had handed him his letter and retreated to their kitchen, not to cook but to work on more missing posters of Midoriya.

Yeah, that was the reason, wasn't it? How could he feel happy when she wasn't there when she was still…say to say, there were no celebrations in the Bakugo household for his acceptance, not one of them felt like they could even pretend to celebrate. Instead of satisfaction or joy lasting, it was a fleeting thing these days, as he would always default back to anger for several reasons, all with a single cause. The first was those damned cops, they gave up the search after only 2 months. He was a middle schooler and even HE knew that investigations didn't last as only a week or two like they did on his old man's shows. Lazy bastards only picked it up again after the old hag and Auntie Inko raised hell and scared them into working…well, that and that detective breathing down their necks, at least he was competent even if he couldn't lead the investigation due to other matters drawing his time.

Still, despite him, his mother and Auntie Inko pushing for them to keep the search going, to find something-anything, they gave up against it after 3 months, lack of evidence they said or at least what they claimed as it sounded like some just thought she vanished of her own accord, that she left to find a quiet spot to end it all. He didn't know more as the old hag hadn't been clear on details when she raged about it to his father when she came home, pissed and depressed after spending the afternoon with auntie to make sure she was taking care of herself, a job that should have been her husband's but the bastard hadn't been home in years, didn't even show up once after the news should have reached him that his only child was missing!

There was that one article about her disappearance that gained some traction since it was written and passed around by some major publisher, Shoowaysha Publishing was the name if he was recalling it right. People came to speak with his parents about her and even roped him into it but besides it being talked about at some news station, it wasn't even a week before something that Edgeshot did took the spotlight.

His anger only grew with that, at the fact the police gave up on her, at the fact that people just forgot about her and went back to being pointless, annoying extras more concerned with fawning the stronger than doing anything for themselves. At himself for even entertaining the idea that she had gone and done it, listened to his idiotic advice. He didn't want to be the one that broke Auntie. His face tightened as he remembered what she look like the last time she had come to visit, or more accurately, his old hag had dragged her over to get her out of the apartment. She was a shell of her former self.

Auntie had always been a mousy woman, a complete opposite to the old hag so much so he wondered more than once how the fuck the two even become friends when it was more likely they'll avoid the other. But the woman he had seen a month ago hadn't been that, she had been ghostly silent, barely speaking even when directly spoken to. She had lost at least 20kgs from the stress, didn't look like she had been sleeping well either. He hadn't spoken with her, but he had remained by the stairs and listened to the two women talking and even with only that, he could tell she was falling apart, hearing her cry that at least a body would confirm something made him want to blow his head off.

All this suffering, all the pain and all they had was the general description of Overhaul and this Eri girl to show for it. No leads, no locations, no suspects…nothing. Not even the detective that the skinny motherfucker who turns out was All Might! Could help him as they tried, were still trying and he couldn't fault them for that, no matter how much he wanted someone to scream at him. Turns out not even the number one could work miracles as with all their reach, influence and connections, they couldn't offer up much more than the fact there was someone who fit Izuku's general description and fashion sense, a yakuza boss but while they knew his affiliations, it didn't help much when they tried to use that angle as his group, the Shie Hassakai hadn't been involved in any proven crimes in years. Bastards cleaned up after themselves too well.

He still wanted to try anyway, find even just a fucking parking violation which will give them an excuse to go after them but the detective shot that down. He didn't want to give this Kai Chisaki fucker any reason to suspect they were onto him, else if he did have them, he'll either move them somewhere else from wherever they were or just cut his losses and dispose of them. It had only been due to All Might being there to vouch for the man that he hadn't screamed his head off when he heard that. It was also due to the number one that he found himself having something to do while the pros looked into this; training. Having the number one for a training couch could do you wonders, both in results and in distraction as while his work-our routine was pretty comprehensive, All Might's was another level, even having a detailed diet plan on what he couldn't eat, what he could and when.

He would have thrown the entire thing in the trash if he was an idiot, but as much as it was annoying, he couldn't deny that it had its merits, and the results spoke for themselves as in the entrance exam, he managed to score an overwhelming score of 120, 111 of which being nothing but villain points.

"If we're talking about flashiness, my naval laser is a cut above the rest in power and style." The discount knight's response to whatever the extras were talking about drew his attention back down to earth.

"Too bad that using it gives you a stomach ache." Racoon eyes poked fun at him as discount knight just seemed to shrink on himself, not that he could blame him as how he managed to get into UA of all places with a quirk that had a 5-second max limit was beyond him.

"Maybe, but if you're talking about flashiness and power, there are 2 people in class that have both in spades." Rockface pointed towards him, well him and Icicle.

"No kidding, Todoroki and Bakugo are something else. Still can't believe that Todoroki just froze an entire building like it was nothing." Mina brought up something from their last heroics class, one which All Might taught or more accurately supervised as the entire thing was just a fight with extra steps, villains had bombs, heroes wanted to stop them from using bombs, and teams of 2 fight it out till either side wins or is taken out. Icicle and Tentamask went up against Tail and Raccoon eyes and it wasn't even a fight, he placed a single hand on the building, freezing all its surfaces and just walked in with the two villains unable to stop him. Frankly, it was the fastest of the matches, much to his annoyance.

"I mean, it's better than Bakugo's fight." Sero correctly pointed out as Bakugo had made sure that there was no contest of who was better in his match. He had the misfortune of being paired up with Glasses against Round Cheeks and Sugar Boy, but he made it work as his partner watch the bomb while he hunted for their heroes. Once he found them, they didn't stand a chance as he buried Sugar Boy in rubble after knocking him away with a powerful blast before taking out Round Cheeks in 2 minutes flat. He didn't care for how Ponytail criticised his performance in not letting his partner do anything, what was there for him to do? Bakugo was more than enough and he damn well proved it.

"How, because he didn't stop till he beat both of them," Frog asked Sero, who just shrugged after seeing he had nothing to stand on.

"I don't know, 'cause they had a better shot. I mean, with Todoroki, he finished it almost as soon as the match started." Again with Icicle.

"It was totally not fair! We didn't even get to do anything." Background voice joined in on the talk, still miffed that she hadn't gotten a chance to show off.

"Shame that Bakugo's always so mad, else we'll have it in for the popularity thing," Frog stated, getting him pissed as this entire conversation was getting on his nerves.

"What the hell, frog-face! You want me to take you down?" Her match wasn't even anything special, where did she get off talking smack about him?

"See?" Frog used his justified anger as proof of her bullshit. He didn't need or want to pander to people like some other heroes, he'll gain his rightfully earned stardom through the same methods of All Might, overwhelming power.

"Well, it's not like his personality is that bad," Pikachu decided to throw in his own words to the debate. "But if he's trying to go do the silent brooding type, I would say he's as successful as garbage is at smelling nice."

"Says the moron that barely did anything in his combat trial besides being a human taser for Ears." Bakugo shot back at him, getting Ears who was seated next to the explosive blonde to look up from her phone.

"One, screw you," She flipped him off for extra effect as she turned back to her phone. "Two, he's not wrong." And in doing so, missed how Kaminari deflated at that agreement, it wasn't his fault his quirk couldn't strike only what he wanted to! As most of the class continued to chat, Yaoyorozu frowned as she listened to the exchange of crass and vulgar language.

"What a vulgar conversation." When she applied to UA, she knew that it was different to the schools she had attended before, but she had thought there'll be a level of decorum at least! This was the top hero school in the country, they should at least try and act like it.

At her side, Uraraka saw her expression and just giggled. "But it's pretty lively, I like it." She seemed to be right at home among them, and it would make sense as she had grown up around construction and restaurant workers, the former seemed to make it a game to see who could come up with the crassest comment while the latter loved to vividly complain about customers they had to deal with on the daily, she could still recall the time a barrister her father knew was visiting and how she complained about one customer who claimed to be a diet, but still ordered an unhealthy meal with ice-cream dessert, why was the ice cream strange? Because that same customer had also claimed that he wouldn't take any coffee with milk as he was avoiding dairy products! She couldn't stop laughing when she heard that one.

"It's not the worst topic they could be debating, it's better than talking about the last sexiest pro-hero poll." The perpetually sleep-deprived classmate, Shinso added as he looked through his phone collection of cat pictures, not helping the case that Kaminari made that he was either Eraser's secret lovechild or somehow related to him.

Yaoyorozu turned to look at him, an eyebrow raised. "And how would you know about that?" Shinso in turn, didn't even react as he looked at her, unimpressed.

"Because they didn't stop talking about all last week?" What, did Yaoyorozu not watch public access television or something? Yaoyorozu, upon hearing his response huffed and looked away, but Uraraka could see a little red on her cheeks, smiling as she realized that the girl was just embarrassed that she hadn't known about that though granted, it was much less of an event then the bi-annual hero ranking event as it was more of a fan-created and run thing.

Before Yaoyorozu could say something else embarrassing, or Shinso could pick up on her current embarrassment, Eraser spoke up. "Stop messing around, we're here." The class looked out the windows to see that in the distance, getting closer was a huge domed building.

"Yes sir!"


"Everyone, I've been waiting for you." Their second teacher for their excise greeted them, wearing a costume that resembled a mix between an astronaut and a marshmallow, but just about all of the recognised them.

"I can't believe it, it's the space hero: Thirteen!" Uraraka geeked out at seeing her favourite hero in person. She had heard she was a teacher but she didn't know she taught first years!

"You're a fan?" Iida asked her, caught off guard by her enthusiasm.

"Of course, she's a rescue specialist that has saved like, hundreds of people," Uraraka replied as Thirteen seemed to smile under her helmet at the attention, but she didn't let it distract her as they had more important things to discuss.

"Why don't we get inside before we start things?" Thirteen gestured towards the doors which led into the massive building.

"We look forward to working with you!" With the class giving her a quick bow, the two teachers led them inside and not a single one of them wasn't awed by what waited for them. The building was built into the earth, with a massive staircase leading into the facility proper where a relatively small central area sat, but it was still quite the large space, only made small by everything else as they saw not one, not two but 6 separate zones that no doubt cost millions to build. From the stairs, they couldn't even see the entire place, the area inside the building, or to be frank, the shell was crazy huge as many had thought they had seen it all-UA did have multiple fake to-scale cityscapes that they used for the entrance exam but this was…it wasn't just Uraraka that wondered where they got the space to fit all of this.

"Holy-, the place looks like Universal Studies Japan!" Sato called out; his eyes wide as he could barely comprehend the scale of the place.

"How big is this place? You could fit my entire block in it and then some!" Kaminari agreed.

"More like 10 blocks, it's huge!" Sero added, whistling as he wondered what they were doing for their class as no way they could cover everything, right? Oh who was he kidding, this was UA, they were gonna do a little of everything this place had to offer.

"Earthquake; Landslide; Mountains; Urban fires; Shipwrecks and water; Severe storm conditions." Thirteen listed off the zones, the students looking at the ones that could make out, namely the Earthquake, Landslide and water zones. "This entire was designed by yours truly to simulate a variety of disaster and accident situations. It's called the 'Unforeseen Simulation Joint' or USJ for short!" Thirteen informed them, sounding extremely proud of herself for her work, and the name despite the fact none of the students agreed with her on the latter.

'It is just the USJ.' They wondered for a moment how much pull UA had to not have to worry about the actual USJ taking issue with them copying their name. While the students tried to figure out that mystery, Aizawa approached Thirteen.

"Thirteen, where is All Might? He's supposed to be here?" Some of the students close enough to hear him ask the question turned their attention to the two, Bakugo among them as none had known All Might would be here as well.

"Yeah, about that," Thirteen started but stepped closer to Aizawa and spoke softer to not let the students hear. "Looks like he did too much hero work on the way to school and burned through all his hero time, he's resting in the teacher's lounge." She did raise a hand with 3 fingers raised, a message that only one of the students could both catch and interpret.

'All Might's supposed to be here?' Bakugo looked at the two, and at Thirteen's hands before he realized that there talking about All Might's 3-hour limit, which made it clear that he wouldn't be there, not unless he showed up in his skinny ass form but that would need its explaining. 'Why do I have a feeling he went and did something stupid?' He had known the man for months, and while a great hero-the best there was in fact, his sense was just annoyingly low. He was starting to suspect there wasn't a Ms All Might, not because he was too busy, but because he was as socially skilled as Deku at times.

"That's the height of irrationality, but somewhere I suspected this would happen and I'm now regretting being right," Aizawa replied, speaking just as softy as his fellow teacher even if he wished he could strangle the man who was supposed to be present. He knew that taking him on before he could even attend half the teaching classes necessary was a bad idea, but the principal had been insistent. Now he had Thirteen had to manage a group of 20 while they were separated over 3 locations, which would need to be cut down to just 2, limiting what he wished they could get done in their class.

"He should have enough in him to appear near the end, but that's it." Thirteen added in.

"I doubt him giving them parting words when he wasn't even heard to see the class will mean much, so we'll just have to make due." Aizawa would rather he didn't appear since they announced he was supposed to be present; it wouldn't look good for him to only show up near the end and then rush off. "It can't be helped, so let's get started." He stepped back and spoke louder, for the class to hear as Thirteen took centre stage.

"Oh, before we do, there is something I would like to discuss with the class, actually it's two, no three…maybe four…five-six…eight.." She continued to count up as she seemingly only recalled just how much she wanted to say, to the surprise and slight annoyance of their class.

'It's increasing?' The class thought while Bakugo wondered if she was as bad at this as All Might. However, she seemed to collect herself and started to speak.

"I doubt that I have to tell you what my quirk is, right?" Thirteen asked them, the class looking at one another in slight confusion before Kaminari replied for the group.

"It's black hole, right?" Thirteen nodded at that, giving them more to work with.

"Yeah, you can suck up everything in your way, debris and all!" Uraraka added with a pep in a step, getting an amused chuckle out of the veteran pro.

"Correct, to put it bluntly, I can suck up anything and turn it to dust, that includes people." The class's enthusiasm died there, Thirteen's morbid additional information lowering the mood as they started to think about it and realized how terrifyingly easy it would be for her to do that, just point her quirk at someone, or a group and let the suction do the rest.

"As you imagine, with a quirk like that, it's incredibly easy to unknowingly hurt or even kill people. I'm sure some of you have quirks like that, take Todoroki's ice for instance." Their attention shifted to their dual-haired classmate, to return the attention with a cold look of his own.

"I've seen the footage of it and would you all say that he could bury entire groups in one attack?" Thirteen asked them, with both Ojiro and Hagakure getting cold feet, though in the figurative sense as they had been the ones to face him so they knew more than the rest just how devastating he could have been. It wasn't nice to realize that he only didn't because he didn't need to.

"Well…yeah, he could but he wouldn't do that." Mina tried to speak up, with Todoroki now glaring at the pro as if insulted that she would ever imply that, but it was more personal to him as he took issue with her implying that he would ever use his mother's quirk like that.

"I'm not implying that he would, at least not by choice." Thirteen replied, though she quickly explained what she meant.

"In our society, from the moment that a quirk manifests, it's mandated that it and the user are registered which is used for our stringent regulations so for the most part, dangerous quirks don't seem to be much of an issue." This part they all knew, as they all recalled when they had to visit the quick doctors, to the tests, demonstrate their quirks, etc. It was a necessary thing too as if the government knew what your quirk was, it was easier for them to give aid if needed such as counselling in the case of Tokoyami and Hagakure, the former had to be extra careful in low-light environments, while the latter struggled to get noticed unless she was moving.

"However, I would like for all of you to remember that intentions or not, there are a lot of quirks out there that could kill with just a single misstep or incorrect judgement call. With Aizawa's fitness test, you got to experience the possibilities of your quirks. With All Might's hero class, you experienced what it was like to fight using them, and the dangers that came with that." They followed along, realizing the truth of their words as while brutal in the case of Bakugo, and just overwhelming in the case of Todoroki, it was still a good chance to see how they fought, what they could do against people that weren't target dummies or robots. Many of them had quirks that could be dangerous in at least a few situations if they thought about it.

"Today, you shall learn how to use your quirks to save people, to learn how to use your quirks to the fullest and start forging the skills and judgement abilities you'll need to maximise yourselves and your powers in the field. Your gifts are a blessing that not everyone can say they have, they aren't for harming others but to help as many people as possible, as is the highest honour that a hero can aim for." Thirteen finished, lifting the mood a little as they were eager to prove themselves, and what better way than to demonstrate that they could do the job without harming someone?

"Thank you for listening." She finished her speech with a bow, getting applause from the students.

"That was amazing!"

Aizawa stepped forward, happy that they could get to it, they didn't have time to spare now that they already had to cut out what they could do and squeeze what they could. "With that out of the way, we're going to split-" Only for another interruption to occur, this one being an unexpected blackout-no, that shouldn't be possible.

"What the heck?" Mina asked she was all pumped up for training and now this, did UA forget the pay the darn electric bill?

"A power outage?" Shinso asked.

"Now of all times, wouldn't the staff have conducted maintenance before we arrived?" Yaoyorozu asked as they looked at their teachers, both seemingly as annoyed as them but more was to come. By the fountain that sat at the centre of the USJ, there appeared to be a strange distortion, as if the air itself was being messed with, immediately after that distortion gained shape as a large black cloud-like mass, something that both UA teachers picked up on and went into high alert. From the cloud portal, a single grey-haired head stepped out, a person wearing simple black clothing but with the macabre of severed hands across their body, including one covering their face.

"Everyone get back!" The students looked at Eraser, seeing him far more alert than he just was, as if a switch had been flipped as he turned back to them, facing the fountain where their unwanted guests stepped out. "Thirteen, protect the students!" Thirteen didn't reply with words but stepped up to be behind Eraser but in front of the students.

"Eraser-sensei, I thought this was rescue training, why are they fake villains here?" Kirishima asked as he could barely make out the shapes of people entering through the black portal, when did UA have portal tech?

"They're not fake," Aizawa replied, the students realizing that this wasn't an exercise and that the growing mob of people weren't there for anything good. Down with the arrived villains, one last figure stepped out of the portal, taking position next to the grey-haired man. Their form was something none of them had ever seen as those closer to the front, or with better vision could make out that the figure was larger than any of them by a wide margin, being closer in size to All Might-with just as much muscle mass if not more to them.

"Villains, I count at least 50 of them," Aizawa spoke, keeping it brief as he put on his goggles and grabbed his scarf.

"Looks more like 60, this isn't good, Eraser." Thirteen replied, the mass of villains before them being extremely concerning as it was just the two of them, with the added difficulty of the students as well.

"Thirteen and…Eraser, that's it? Wasn't he supposed to be here?" The grey-haired villain spoke up, observing the two pros from behind the hand he wore as a mask. To his right, the black portal shifted form, being a little more humanoid even if it was still mainly a dark cloud.

"The schedule that we procured the other day was clear, Shigaraki. All Might was meant to be part of this class." They replied, their glowing yellow slit eyes not spotting the symbol of peace.

"So, these were the guys behind the trespassing the other day, at least we know that." Hearing this, Aizawa narrowed his own eyes as they now had some suspects to explain how the media had gotten in, and how their main gate got reduced to rubble without anyone realizing it.

"What the hell, man? Where is he? I went through the trouble of gathering all these people and All Might goes and doesn't spawn when he's supposed to." The grey-haired villain complained, scratching his neck as he looked at the mob of grunts he had gathered as they slowly advanced on the heroes and students. "All Might, the symbol of peace and the world's strongest here, apparently you can add tardy to that list as well." He muttered as this threw a serious wrench into their plans. He had even made sure to get his hands on some extra assurance for the heavier hitters and their secret weapons to increase their base health, defence and attack, only for the main boss to have a glitch or something and not spawn where he was supposed to.

But he calmed himself, master had been clear in his lessons that sometimes, these things happened and how like a floor boss that could switch its kit and attack pattern randomly, it was about how much he could adapt. "But, I wonder," And he had a pretty good idea of what he could do to adapt to the problem. "Will he show up if we slaughter a few kids first?"


A bit shorter then I was expecting, but its as good as spot as any to cut things off. As you all just read, this was mainly from Bakugo's POV as a means to explore how things have progressed in the outside world. As for what you call can do, as mentioned in the chapter, in this universe, there is a super popular fan poll on sexiest heroes, what I'm asking you all is to create top 10 lists of your own, and I'll pick the one I like most, so go nuts, people.