Bakugou is sure he's seen this somewhere before.
Horns has ranted at him about stories like this, where a character's acquaintance is mind controlled or has their memories altered and they end up fighting their teammates in some ill-fated standoff. It always leads to some sentimental bullshit, where the poor woe-is-me characters can't bring themselves to beat the snot out of the fucker and end up getting ripped to shreds before snapping them out of it with some nauseating power of friendship nonsense that they pulled out of their asses.
That's what sort of stupid situation he knows he's been all but dropped into. However, here's the kicker.
Bakugou Katsuki has no issues beating the ever-loving shit out of an ally, let alone stupid Deku.
Deku didn't even offer a battle cry as warning, dust swirling where his feet once were as he became a blur charging through the air. His speed was nothing to sneeze at, but it was no match for Bakugou's reflexes. A spray of sparks, and the ash blonde was literally gunning down the other boy in a burst of small consecutive explosions.
The few that hit barely left marble-sized burns from their precision strikes, but Deku smartly didn't risk taking the brunt of it, kicking off to the side and dancing around the shots that he could. It was almost humorous that he seemed so much more refined in his fighting style in such a tremulous state of mind.
The nerd was right on him faster than expected, but he saw the attack coming a mile away, ducking under a roundhouse kick like it was a limbo bar. From the crater the resulting pressure wave left in the wall, the hit could have easily decapitated him, had it landed.
This really was a fight to the death.
"You'll have to do better than that," Bakugou jeered as he shot back up, bringing his fist up and following his momentum. His knuckles connected solidly with Deku's face, swinging down and throwing him against the floor. "If you want to best me!"
Perhaps it was in blind rage that Deku forgot he had a quirk, but the flurry of punches and guarding was still like a blur to the untrained eye. Bakugou easily followed every fist, moved on from every block, and before he knew it, Deku's face was turning black and blue.
"You see, nerd?" he laughed. "I'm not even using my quirk!"
An uppercut to the gut had Deku gagging, stumbling back as he coughed. With shaky hands, he wiped saliva from his face, his eyes sharp with murderous intent.
"You think you can beat me like back then?" the freckled teen breathed, his body practically vibrating with pent-up energy. "I told you I wasn't gonna be your punching bag anymore."
Deku leaped at him, like a tiger pouncing on unsuspecting prey. With a crooked smile and palms as hot as dragon's breath, Bakugou braced for the clash.
And then Deku spun in the air, so fast that he seemed to disappear, and suddenly, the heel of a tacky red sneaker is bearing down on him in a blast of glowing green cutting through the air. Almost caught by surprise, Bakugou's instinct was to guard, folding his arms protectively over his head.
The impact was immense.
His arms buckled, the atmosphere itself seemingly exploding in a wave of pressure, and before he knew it, the ground beneath his feet was creaking dangerously. Bakugou held firm, pushing against the power of One For All raining down on him.
The floor under him gave out first.
The sudden drop easily threw him off balance, explosions already sparking at his fingertips to right himself before an unfortunate landing, but then, from the corner of his eye, green flashed by in an instant, Deku rearing back for another kick.
"Just die!"
He struck his side in a flash of blinding pain, and for a moment, Bakugou considers how many ribs might have just been snapped. Thoughts screaming by a thousand miles a second, his next conscious sensation is the sound of shattering glass.
The sunlight peeking through the clouds hit him square in the eyes, the frigid air rushing past him sending goosebumps along his arms, and suddenly, his hands were alight with fire and smoke, his instincts kicking in before he could even realize that he was falling, thrown through a highrise window.
Above him, the windows left intact exploded, black tendrils surging out and down after him. With a flick of his wrist, Bakugou shot to the side, flying by the tendrils with centimeters to spare. Even if Deku was fighting to the death, his skills wouldn't suddenly improve because he was a little pissed, and he still had yet to catch him in their little games of tag in training.
Streaks of black roped through the air, the ash blonde spinning and flipping through the frozen air, blinded by crackling green lightning and sunlight. Braced for impact like Kirishima smashing through a wall with his hardening, Bakugou crashed through another window, darting from room to room until he was skidding past Deku with a feral grin.
Any other situation and the look of genuine surprise and frustration on his face would have been euphoric.
"I don't want you here anymore!" Deku shrieked, turning on his heel with his fist already ready. "I was only ever kind to you and you treated me like a pebble stuck in your shoe!"
Bakugou dodged the punch, but as he swung, palm sizzling, the air pressure of Deku's attack threw him back, almost leaving him vulnerable as he zipped into another open room and the wall behind him exploded. Like a line of dynamite on a mountain face, walls were blasted apart one after another behind him, following him down the hall until he was two steps ahead instead of one.
And then, spinning on his heel, he blasted the wall himself.
He didn't stop to breathe, his eyes burning with dust as green barely reached his senses. With a wide right swing, his explosion hit the mark, sending Deku skidding across the floor and through a window of his own.
Black tendrils caught him immediately, and within a moment's notice, he was rocketing himself back at Bakugou, fist raised high.
"You don't want to be around me? Wait for me in the land of the dead!"
Even with death in his eyes, the nerd still had the know-how to perform a successful feint.
Thinking back, Bakugou hadn't felt his gut rearrange itself like it did right now since All Might had gutted him. At least this time, he didn't throw up, Deku's fist burying itself into his stomach. He stumbled back, forcing air back into his lungs, only for the heel of a red sneaker to slam into his side. The impact with the wall sent stars spinning around his vision as he collapsed with the remains of the structure around him.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized he was alive. Either Deku still knew not to use One For All at one hundred percent and break his limbs or he wanted to draw this out.
His next thought was a throbbing pain in his shoulder. He winced, clutching it with a hiss, before pulling back his now bloodied hand. He wasn't sure if he'd busted it open from the brute force of the impact or his old nemesis rebar had struck again, but he was still bleeding quite a bit and that wasn't good. His side also hurt like a bitch.
Deku wasn't doing all too well, either, coated with deep cuts, dark bruises, and angry burns.
"You made my life a living hell!" The screech pierced through the air, and Bakugou found himself rolling out of the way of another tendril. "You pushed me around, threatened me, told me to kill myself, and I can't help but think how much better my life would have been if you'd just hit your head and drowned all those years ago!"
The explosive teen found himself stumbling into a corner, propping himself against it to catch his breath. He was well aware of Deku's stalking form, his footsteps slow and patient as he approached. With a deep breath, Bakugou didn't hesitate, making the first move and leaping at his freckled classmate with a roar.
Deku clearly hadn't been expecting it, going down like an anchor in the ocean as Bakugou grabbed at his face. The room lit up with a resounding bang, smoke enveloping the space as he went from sparking palm to clenched fist and the two fell to the floor.
"Wake up!" Bakugou screamed, fist connecting with Deku's shadowed face, hanging limply as Bakugou gripped the scruff of his shirt. "All the shitty training we did, and you're letting some stupid little quirk get the better of you?! Wake! Up!"
Deku spat to the side. "You think you can use training as an excuse to push me around just to make yourself feel better?"
It was a split second's decision that saved him, Bakugou's eyes widening as he shot himself aimlessly to the side. Even as he was rolling, he could see blackwhip retracting from where he'd been just moments ago. With a cry of frustration, Deku rolled to his feet and charged at him, death in his eyes.
With an answering grin, Bakugou raised his palm towards the roof, setting off a powerful explosion that sent Deku stumbling back and the ceiling falling. With practiced ease, Bakugou sent every small piece of debris he could see flying at the nerd, only some hitting their mark as Deku danced around them.
He was definitely slowing down, even as One For All glowed proudly around him.
"You'll never make up for it, you know!" he snapped. "The only atonement you can offer is blood!"
Deku took an unsteady step forward, on the verge of falling, but never quite losing balance. Bakugou just couldn't get over that damn look in his eyes, the spark of ferocity coating a black void of nothingness beneath.
Was Deku really still in there?
"I'll never forgive you." he stammered, voice hoarse. "I can't forg-g-give you. I- I..."
Then he started coughing.
"This is taking too long."
As dust and smoke rose into the sky, Uraraka couldn't help but agree.
By now, the crowds had been pushed far back from the ensuing chaos, where shards of glass and concrete rained from the sky. Uraraka couldn't see the action from this side of the Wobani building, but the flickers of orange and green light were all the context she needed that one, they were both still standing, and two, Deku wasn't snapping out of it.
If this continued on for much longer, someone was gonna get hurt.
"I know..." Uraraka muttered, mostly to herself.
Kandai seemed on the verge of a panic attack. "No, you don't understand. We're running out of time!"
Uraraka turned to him sharply. "I thought you told me everything!"
"I told you everything I know for sure!" he yelled. "Nobody's ever gone for this long before, but- but- but..."
He swallowed heavily. "Bad things happen to a person's body when under the influence of my quirk for too long. That's what my dad once told me, anyway, 'cause I inherited my quirk from his side... I don't know what happens, but he said-"
"So why-?!"
"I don't know!" Kandai snapped. "People always snap out of it by now! They trip and fall, or run into a lamppost, or- or something!"
And suddenly, a whole new level of urgency was presented to her.
Uraraka wasn't sure what 'bad things happen' meant in this case, but it definitely equated to Deku being in way more trouble than she'd initially realized. Now both he and Bakugou were in danger of killing each other and for all she knew, neither was aware of it.
There had to be something she could do.
"Am I going to jail?"
The question startled Uraraka, staring down at the boy in a stupor. "Kandai..."
"I... I-I don't wanna go to jail!" he exclaimed. "Please, not like dad! Please!"
"Kandai-"
"Mom hates me already! I don't-! She can't be right! Not again!"
"I- Reiji-"
"I'll never do it again! I promise!" he sobbed, tears in his eyes. "I'll even be quirkless and never use it again! I'll wear quirk-suppression gloves, or go to therapy! Just, please, don't take me to jail! I'm sorry! Nothing like this ever happened before!"
Uraraka searched for words, lost in this boy's sea of turmoil as he collapsed into her arms, choking on his cries. The brunette grimaced, anger still bubbling in her bleeding heart as she gently patted the boy's head in a desperate attempt to offer comfort. "Reiji..."
"So that's what happened."
Both of them jumped, Kandai tense like a spring as he stared back in blind terror. Uraraka gasped. "Hawks!"
Kandai didn't dare run, even as his knees wobbled, as the winged hero strode up to them, an easy smile on his face and a natural weightlessness to his gait. Reporters hovered close by, enamored by the easygoing hero and desperate for the latest scoop as he approached the two of them.
"Good afternoon, kiddos." Hawks greeted lazily. "Mind filling me in a little more?"
Someone once said to always expect the unexpected. Of course, that fucker went by the name of Captain Obvious, but even Bakugou found himself thrown off his game by the sudden sound of Deku's choked gargling.
Curling into himself, Deku choked and gagged, his coughing loud and disturbingly wet. With one final heave, blood poured through his fingers, dripping from his eyes like tears and bathing his chin in a crimson red.
And despite himself, Bakugou found himself freezing.
He hadn't known that the quirk's effects were hurting him.
"I want you...to die," Deku choked out, swaying on his feet as green lightning continued to crackle to life. "So I never have to see your face again...and remember."
The sudden wave of air pressure was immense, the remaining windows cracking and lighter objects rolling across the floor and embedding into the walls. Bakugou's mind was reeling, a churning mess of half-baked plans and mingled expletives as it slowly dawned on him that he didn't want to kill him-
Was the nerd dying?
"Remember the burns, the fear, the loneliness, all for something that didn't even matter."
At this rate, he was really gonna kill himself.
"Dammit..." Bakugou gritted his teeth. If they kept fighting as they were with whatever the quirk was doing to Deku's body, then at best, he was going to tear himself apart until he ruined his hero career for good, either by killing someone or permanently injuring himself.
At worst, he was going to drop dead at any moment.
"Fuck!"
They reacted in sync, Deku sending a desperate hail-mary St. Louis smash just as Bakugou blasted himself out of harm's way and towards the first staircase he saw. He was still saying something, still ranting about the childhood that Bakugou had ruined, but he didn't take the time to listen, taking two steps at a time. Then three, then four, and before he knew it, he was using his quirk to shoot up the stairs, Deku racing after him from below.
Despite the sprays of blood, the nerd wasn't slowing down. If anything, he was pushing himself harder, desperately fighting for what he believed was the closure he deserved. Blinded by artificial rage, he didn't even stop to consider what was happening to him. Deku may be reckless on a normal day, but at least his own body would try to tell him to stop.
"-...SMASH!"
It was less so an impact and more so a wave of energy that slammed into his back, knocking the air out of him as he found himself rocketing upwards out of control. The shock of freezing air had him gasping, burning his lungs and leaving him winded.
In a risky bid for control, he raised his hand upward and blasted himself down, landing roughly on his side and rolling around what he dimly realized was the roof of the building. He'd lost his scarf somewhere in the process, left fluttering in the wind as echoing footsteps not far below caught his attention.
Said attention was caught between that and his side screaming at him. The back of his shoulder was still slick with blood and he was sure he had some bruises of his own. His trembling hand hovered over his throbbing side as he stumbled to his feet, Deku calmly ascending the last flight of stairs as he did so.
"What's the matter, Kacchan?" he sneered. "You don't look so good."
Bakugou spat out dust, and possibly blood, but he didn't have time to check. "You ain't looking too great yourself, dumbass."
Deku frowned heavily at that, but then, an almost manic grin crossed his face. "You know, now that I think about it, I'm being the hero I always wanted to be." he chirped gleefully, stalking towards him. "If you live to become a hero, more people will suffer like I did."
There was something painful about that coming from his mouth, but it washed over him a moment later.
In the deafening silence that followed, only broken by the distant wailing of sirens and roar of helicopters, it didn't matter in the face of death at the hands of an innocent wannabe hero.
"You're not gonna forgive yourself." he said lowly, the rumble of his own voice catching him by surprise. "I don't know if the Deku I know is home at the moment, but you're not gonna forgive yourself and I don't want you living with that."
He didn't even know why he bothered, why he was resorting to talking when he knew from the beginning that it wouldn't even work. And yet, in some pointless last-ditch effort, in some hope that he wouldn't have to truly dirty his hands, he was flapping his lips, all but praying for a miracle.
His palms were warm, a light steam rising into the clouds as an impending warning that the adrenaline in his veins was trying to tell him. He doesn't want to kill the stupid nerd. It would be on his permanent record.
If anything, dying here would be karmic.
But...
He doesn't want his...friends living with any of this, or his annoying parents, because they're good people. Idiots, but good.
It doesn't matter that he doesn't want to die. No one should have to agonize over him.
"You won't become a hero." You might not even let yourself. "You're really gonna give up your dream over a grudge? I don't want to beat you like this!"
Wake up.
By the time he'd steadied himself, Deku was standing right in front of him, eyes shadowed and frown deep. The hairs on the back of Bakugou's neck were standing on end, staring down at the freckled dork for any signs of recognition. He knew better than to think that words would have any effect, but the nerd had surprised him before.
Of course, he blamed this surprise on possibly losing more blood than he'd originally thought.
A flash of green, and there was a hand around his throat. The ash blonde choked, grabbing at the offending arm on reflex, but full cowling was in overdrive as he clawed at Deku's hand. The blood running down Deku's face sent his adrenaline-fueled mind into a frenzy.
"If my last act as a hero is saving the world, then so be it."
He squeezed, Bakugou kicking at him on reflex. His foot connected solidly against his side, his nails racking against his exposed arm as he squeezed harder, lines of magenta running across his body.
At this rate, he was gonna decapitate him, after all.
"Dek-" Gagging noises were all he could manage, a sick sense of joy crossing Deku's bleeding eyes. His nose had long since started to bleed, joining the stream now coating the front of his shirt. It was a question of which one of them would give out first, Deku to blood loss or Bakugou to asphyxiation.
The thought felt almost hypocritical, but in complete and utter honesty, Bakugou didn't want to hurt Deku anymore. His body was practically tearing itself apart from the inside out, or possibly worse, and if Bakugou fought to save himself, he might end up killing him.
But he didn't want Deku to give up on his dream out of guilt. One of them had to reach number one, and if Bakugou wasn't around to do it and Deku still didn't make it to the top after all the talk he'd been throwing around lately, he was gonna haunt his ass for eternity.
His brain was running on zero oxygen, left with nothing but survival instinct, and suddenly, Bakugou found himself holding his smoking palm out, because in the long run, he realized, there was a better chance of Deku surviving a bomb to the face then Bakugou surviving headless.
And so, with his palm raised just above their heads and his vision graying out, he fired.
The blast easily rivaled that of the sports festival, seen for miles across the city. Bakugou found himself tumbling through the air, oxygen rushing back into his lungs as the world spun. For a single moment, he saw Deku, his body lifelessly flopping down the stairs that he'd trudged up from. Around them, the roof of the building buckled, bits and pieces giving in to the strain and collapsing.
And for a single moment, just before impact, Bakugou promised whatever deity was up there that if this building went down with him still on it, there would be hell to pay.
And everything went black.