Chapter 9
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Over the next few weeks of class, things settle into patterns. I wake up early for a jog (this body still seems to produce a ridiculous amount of energy, despite no longer being a small child. Maybe I'm hyperactive) before taking a quick shower and getting ready for school. Bitch at Mom about bitching at me over breakfast, kiss my Dad goodbye, and head out the door at least thirty minutes before I really need to, since I prefer to be early.
Inevitably, Izuku is waiting for me with that stupid grin on his face and his hair in loose, messy ringlets around his shoulders. I braid it on the train, typically something simple but sometimes I let myself play around with more intricate styles. Izuku's got his Mom's hair, and it's really soft, but his curls give it enough texture that it can handle more complicated up-do's. Tou-san and Kaa-san must have passed on their fashion-obsessed genes to me, because sometimes I just can't resist showing off my excellent taste. The nerd should be grateful.
Once our train arrives, we head to the classroom, where typically only Iida or Todoroki have arrived before us. I sit down without greeting them; Iida because he's loud and annoying, and Todoroki because he seems to find niceties as useless as I do. Izuku, of course, greets them both cheerfully, and chats with Iida until the rest of the students start showing up in the last ten minutes before class begins.
Despite making new friends, Izuku continues to sit behind me, although Iida is blessedly willing to draw the nerd into conversation during breaks so that I can slip away and get some breathing room. If he didn't insist on getting on my ass about not wearing the school uniform correctly (seriously, have you seen that thing? Hideous. My parents would disown me if I didn't style it a bit), I might actually appreciate him for the breaks from Izuku's chatter alone.
Unfortunately, he continues to be a pain. Which is exactly why I vote for that bullshit 3D Printer girl instead of him when he insists on having an election to decide our class representative. She ends up tying with Izuku with three votes each, which sends the nerd into a panic as he insists that she should be representative and he can be vice-rep, while she just states calmly that they can be co-representatives, it doesn't matter. I'm starting to like her more, despite her nonsense quirk. Maybe she's just proof that string theory exists or something. Whatever.
The thing that has me squinting in confusion is the single vote next to my name. I didn't vote for myself, which means…. I turn my suspicious gaze to Izuku, who notices and manages to deduce the reason for my glare with just a few moments of spluttering confusion and looking around. When his eyes land on the board, he seems to realize, and he turns back to me in confusion.
"You didn't vote for yourself, Kacchan?" He asks. My glare turns into a frown at that, since it seems the nerd wasn't the one to vote for me if he assumed I voted for myself. The slightly hopeful look on his face has me shutting him down instinctively.
"I voted for Cheat Code." I say, pointing at the massive ponytail making its way around the class to hand out papers for our lazy teacher. Izuku deflates a little before perking back up and beginning to mutter.
"But if you didn't vote for yourself, and I voted for myself, who voted for Kacchan? No one in the class has expressed…"
"It was me!" A jovial voice chimes in from just behind Izuku's shoulder. The nerd yelps but thankfully stops his muttering. I glance over my shoulder to see absolutely ridiculous red hair spiked up, with two smaller tufts in the front styled into little… what are those supposed to be? Horns? Ears? Whatever they are, they look stupid. I can feel my eye start to twitch just from looking at this dude.
"Hah?" I scoff. "And who the hell are you?" I vaguely remember him introducing himself while everyone was talking about quirks, but I had forgotten most of what was talked about after Gravity Witch dropped the bomb about her quirk. Hardening quirk, good friend, always smiling… My knowing whispers, and I'm starting to think this guy might not be so bad, when it adds: red crocs.
Oh, fuck no. First the hair, and then crocs? No way am I associating with this guy.
Good friend! The knowing insists, but I mentally flip it off and turn my back to the red-haired eyesore behind me. Foreknowledge can fuck right off for all I care, I have standards.
"I'm Kirishima Eijirou!" The red idiot bounces up beside my desk as if I had not just obviously dismissed him. My eyebrow twitches. "We haven't really had the chance to talk, since you tend to disappear during breaks – how do you do that, by the way? It's super cool that you manage to just, like, sneak away without anyone noticing. Midoriya's always all 'Ah, he's gone again!' even though he usually sticks to you like glue." He shakes his head like a dog, as if that ridiculous tangent was a bit of water stuck in his ear that he could get out with a bit of effort. "Anyway, I saw your battle trial in All Might's class and I thought it was super manly of you to think of a way out of that situation when your back was to the wall. Like, super villainous to blow up the nuke and all, but since you were supposed to be a villain and it was part of a class exercise that was also cool? I don't know, man, it was just really cool of you to not give up even if it meant you lost too. Real tough. I just thought I could see that attitude coming in handy as class rep." He tosses a thumbs up in there, and when I just stare blankly at him instead of responding, his whole body (even that stupid hair) seems to deflate like a sad balloon. "B-but I guess you already know how cool you are, huh? Haha, sorry, this was probably embarrassing…"
"Kacchan." I flinch at the tone of Izuku's voice. He sounds way too much like Auntie Inko when he's not squealing like a stuck pig. Ugh, fine.
"It's fine, whatever." I grumble, glaring at the blackboard so I don't give Eyesore a filthy look. "Thanks for the vote I guess."
Izuku picks up my slack, babbling about the results of the battle trial and Eyesore's own teamwork with Tape Elbows as the Villain Team. I go back to ignoring them both, only briefly tuning in after the panic at lunch when Izuku decides that something Garbage Legs had done during the evacuation meant he deserved Izuku's spot as co-representative with Cheat Code. I hadn't even been in the cafeteria during the panic, instead enjoying my break far away from either Izuku or my new hanger-on while I had the chance.
Unfortunately, the election is not the last I see of that hideous mop of hair. I have a sneaking suspicion that Izuku said something encouraging to the redhead (probably something about that fantasy in his head where I secretly care under my thick layer of Leave Me Alone, but joke's on him; there are no other layers), but I can't prove this and no matter how hard I project my usual aura of I do not want to be around you, Shark Teeth doesn't seem to even notice, just cheerfully snagging the seat next to me at lunch, or teaming up with me during sparring practice or for stretches in gym class without even listening to my protests.
Izuku's beaming smile from his spot in the middle of his little Nerd Herd has me grinding my teeth. I have no proof that he's responsible for this, but it's so obvious when he keeps shooting
those smug looks over at me… And since when have I needed proof of Izuku's wrongdoing in order to exact revenge? Exactly.
"Kachaaaaan!" The dork whines from where I've pinned him to the dirt. He's a lot harder to wrangle than he was just a year ago, what with all the weight he's put on, almost all of it muscle. Still, I've done this often enough that it's practically muscle memory to trap his limbs and use his own weight against him. It's probably muscle memory for the nerd to give up at this point as well, since he could definitely give me a lot more trouble even without his quirk, but instead he wriggles pathetically and whines at me, just like old times. It's almost nostalgic.
Digging out that creepy notebook of his is even more nostalgic. Well, that's not exactly the right word. It's closer to PTSD than nostalgia, this feeling, but I push it aside in favor of pulling out the pen I had stashed in my pocket for exactly this purpose. Izuku hears the click and starts to wriggle more insistently, repeating "Kacchan?" in a nervous voice. I don't say anything, just flip from hero profile to hero profile and get down to work.
"Kacchan, what are you doing? Are you writing in my notebook? Kacchan!" The nerd almost manages to buck me off, and the jolt causes my pen to slip and send a crooked line through the monocle I've drawn over Kamui Wood's left eye. Oh well. "Kacchan, stop, that's private!"
"Oh, private, is it?" I echo, taking great joy in giving Mount Lady a handlebar mustache. "Private like my personal life is private, or who I decide to be friends with is private?" I add a few nose hairs just for flair. "Tell me, Izuku, since when have you ever cared about things like privacy?" And just to punctuate that point, I finish my work and drop the notebook down in front of Izuku's nose, open to the page detailing all of my measurements, including height, weight (morning and night, what the hell?), waist, shoulders, even the circumference of my head. I can tell I've made my point by the way the nerd has stopped fighting me, just letting his forehead rest against the ground in defeat.
I huff, standing up and brushing myself off, tossing the pen over my shoulder as I turn to walk away.
"Keep your nose out of my business, nerd. You're going to be a hero, you need to learn to meddle where you're needed, or you're going to waste all your energy on useless shit and fail where it matters." The slight sniffle behind me doesn't make me feel guilty. The idiot needs to learn this lesson sooner or later, and I have a feeling it's going to take beating it into his head a few times before he really gets it. Or maybe he never will. But a little suffering is the least he's asking for after trying to manipulate my life again. Besides, he'll get over it once he stops crying over his ruined notebook and realizes the pen I dropped is an erasable one. If he can't even notice such an obvious hint, then he deserves the continued despair and the notebook graffiti, and no one will convince me otherwise.
Now that I have to avoid not only one idiot, but two, whenever I want some time alone, I find myself taking more and more complicating paths through the school during breaks and whenever I can slip away before or after classes. The upside of this is that I get to see a lot more of the school, from the general education department (where all the doors are normally sized - is this discrimination?) to the staff room (where Midnight-sensei saw me walking by and dragged me in to coo over me to the other female teachers, which was both uncomfortable and oddly enlightening. Apparently, sexism in the hero industry is a serious issue. Like, woah). The downside to this is that I end up seeing a lot more of the school than I really wanted to.
For instance, over the first three weeks of classes alone, I have seen Izuku and All Might have hushed, incredibly suspicious-looking conversations in shadowy corners of UA no less than 10
times. The first, I just turned around and left, since it was a bit odd for me to have been wandering the halls behind the lunch room in the first place. The second time, I had to shake my head in exasperation; if they thought that tree they were standing behind did any good in hiding All Might's massive form from the sight of the rest of the school, they were both idiots.
The third, fourth, and fifth times, I began to get frustrated. The sixth time I turned a corner to find my childhood friend and my favorite hero having an obviously secret conversation in plain sight, I almost screamed. Does the Plot not understand that I already know? I don't need all these hints, universe!
The seventh time, I didn't bother turning around, and just continued walking until the two of them noticed me and jumped apart guiltily.
"A-Ah, Kacchan! I was, we were just-" Izuku stutters.
"Homework!" All Might yelps, or, with his voice, more like booms.
"Right! I had a question about my homework!" Izuku agrees, nodding frantically. I stare at them both with my most unimpressed look (which is Exceptionally Unimpressed, I'll have you know).
"Right." I say slowly. "The homework. For our Hero Basics class. Where we are never assigned homework. That homework."
I let them off after watching them sweat nervously for a few moments, muttering something about needing to talk to Aizawa, but after catching them in the same compromising position for an eighth, ninth, and tenth time later that same week, I decide I need to intervene. There is no way even the absolute dumbasses populating this universe could miss such an obvious connection.
I decide the easiest way to corner them both is to just wait for the universe to cause me to stumble upon them again, and lo and behold it delivers within a couple of days. The two of them have their heads bent together, looking at Izuku's notebook and chatting happily in the side-alley next to the kitchen where trucks drop off supplies for Lunch Rush's cafeteria each week. It's just isolated enough that I can justify confronting them here. Plus, seeing them jump in fright when I call out Izuku's name is hilarious.
"Look." I say to Izuku, glancing at All Might out of the corner of my eye to show that he's also included in this scolding. "I know you guys are trying (and that actually makes this worse), but you need to get better at making up excuses. I doubt anyone would be suspicious of you two talking, but your excuses are so obvious that they'll probably assume you guys have some sort of creepy illicit relationship going on. Especially if you keep inventing "Extra Credit Assignments" that don't exist. Like, seriously. I'm amazed Aizawa hasn't called the cops yet. He totally thinks you're a predator, All Might."
I watch Izuku scramble for an explanation while All Might's soul leaves his body with a whispered "predator…?" I roll my eyes.
"Listen, Deku. I don't give a shit if he's your forbidden lover or your estranged great uncle. Just learn to keep a secret before you get arrested. I'm not bailing you out if you do." Having said my piece, I turn to leave Izuku to comfort All Might, who seems to have been permanently scarred by my revelation.
"Wait." Izuku mutters behind me, voice rising in realization. "Estranged great uncle… Kacchan, you-"
"Fuck off, Deku." I interrupt, flipping him the bird. As usual, this does nothing to dissuade him. I can still feel his wondering stare on my back until I turn the corner out of sight.
The day of our field trip dawns bright and sunny, and I wake up in a cold sweat from a dream where everyone I touched turned to dust in my hands. The vague sense of knowing is clambering for attention like an alarm in my brain. There are villains, mostly just blurs – Extras, hardly even people – but a few stand out in my mind. One with blue hair and hands all over his body, one who seems to be made of so much black smoke, with glowing yellow eyes, and one… One that's a monster.
The League of Villains, my mind hisses, hurt Aizawa, hurt Izuku, hurt Tsuyu, hurt Thirteen, hurt All Might, hurt Tokoyami, hurt Shouji, hurt Bakugou hurt me took me run run run get away.
I count my breaths, using every tool I know to deal with the anxiety spiking in my chest. It hasn't been this bad since Aizawa used his scarf on me that one time. Was the field trip today really going to be that bad?
Bad bad bad men. Bad things, bad creatures. Nomu. Nomu, All for One, One for All, forest, kidnapping, blue fire, black portal.
I groan, resisting the urge to press the heels of my palms against my eyes. That's a habit leftover from Whoever-I-Was, but if I give in to it after sweating all night, I'd be more likely to blow my eyes up than relieve the headache I can feel building. There are so many things I know that I shouldn't, things I can picture in my head as easy as breathing – recipes and hairdos and creative uses for my quirk. I can see Izuku's future in my mind's eye, standing tall and strong as the greatest hero. I can see my own face, snarling and furious, in so many places. I can see villains and friends and mountains and rivers and none of it is any help if I don't know what it is.
My life doesn't look like a cartoon. I can't always recognize people from the faces in my dreams. Most of the time this doesn't even really feel like remembering something. More like knowing it as fact. I know that I need to breath and I need to eat, and I know that Izuku will one day fight a serial killer in an alley and another day a kid is going to punch him in the crotch. Sometimes I know that I am supposed to be different, supposed to care less and want more, but most days I forget everything except the day-to-day routine of class and classmates and schoolwork.
Dangerous. The knowing whispers, and I wonder if maybe Whoever-I-Was is still there, sending me little messages and memories, or if these are really just my own thoughts. Careful. Careful. Run run run.
Yeah, fuck that. I stand up, using my homemade soap to neutralize the sweat from the night before and then rinsing off the desensitized sweat with a hot shower. I stick to stretches this morning instead of a jog, hoping the yoga will help me relax. It doesn't.
I don't fight with Kaa-san at breakfast, giving both of my parents a kiss on the cheek before I leave. Izuku's happy babbling about what he thinks the field trip today will be about is ignored in favor of tying his hair up in a secure, functional braided ponytail. The last thing I need is his hair getting in his way and changing something from the original events for the worse.
Dangerous, dangerous, run run run.
The bus ride out to the USJ is like a dream. It feels like I'm listening to everything through cotton. I watch myself raise a hand and flip off the blonde with the lightning bolt in his hair as if it's
someone else controlling me. I don't remember any of the jokes or banter that must have happened to make everyone laugh so much. I can't feel my own legs as they carry me from the bus to the building and stand me in front of a hero in a space suit. Thirteen, hurt, hurt by the portal and their own quirk.
When the first villain steps through the portal, sound comes rushing back like my ears have popped after going through a tunnel. I gasp silently as I fill my lung deeply for the first time since I left bed this morning. My arms and legs are tingling, my heart is picking up speed, and my eyes are on the swirling mass of darkness in the center, waiting for one of the big players, on the main characters, to step through and show themselves.
Ah, I realize. I'm not nervous at all. The bastards responsible for this. The assholes who came here to kill my teachers and classmates, who targeted a bunch of children for the sake of their fucked-up propaganda, step out of the portal as if they're entering a tea room for lunch. A thrill runs up my spine. Yeah, I'm not nervous. I think again, lips pulling back to bare my teeth. I'm furious.
Run. My mind whispers. Hurry, hurry.
Sorry, I tell - it, her, myself, whatever - but heroes don't run, they fight.
Chapter End Notes
Kirishima: So, what do you think of Midoriya? Bakugou: Deku? Annoying. Sort of like one of those birds that lives on the back of a rhino and eats flies off of it or something. And it's fine as long as the bird just eats flies and doesn't bother the rhino or do anything annoying like peck the rhino in the eye fucking deKU- Krishima: Okay, right, I think I get it.
Kirishima: So, what do you think of Bakugou? Izuku: He is my inspiration. My brother in all but blood. I would die for him and I have absolutely no doubt that he would do the same for me. One day when we are the top two heroes, I will have all of Kacchan's merchanidise, limited edition and signed, and he will pretend to throw away all of the hero merchandise I give him but one day I'll catch him wearing one of my t-shirts as pajamas and he'll say it's just because he hasn't done laundry but I'll knOW- Kirishima: OKAY RIGHT, I think I understand thanksbye-
Chapter 10
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
This hand-covered creep has the audacity to complain about All Might being late to his own murder. He pitches his voice into a childish sort of drawl as he speaks, whining when he doesn't get his way only to go eerily still as he gleefully wonders "will he come if we kill some kids?" It's obvious that he's a fucking man child but his thoughts are perfectly cognizant as he pretends to consider whether he should kill children (of course not you fucking idiot) as if the army of low- level thugs that have been taking this opportunity to spread out across the various sections of the USJ training facility were not hired exclusively for that purpose.
I'm going to kill him, I realize. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But one day I am going to be the one to put this dusty motherfucker in the goddamn ground. And I'm going to like it.
When Aizawa launches himself into the crowd of villains, and Kaminari attempts to get a signal through to outside, I'm already turning to order Iida to run a message back to UA. Before I can convince him to stop arguing and get going, we need backup, dammit – a black mist is spreading out between us and our escape route. Shit. That was fast.
"We've come to kill All Might." The portal fucker announces politely. He then apologizes for "doing his job" as if he's not one of the masterminds behind this clusterfuck. I'm too busy trying to comprehend this guy's fucking audacity to stop Eyesore from launching himself forward with a battle cry. There's a split second where I think he's going to get killed, where the black mist wraps around him and I'm sure he's going to get teleported to some point like, a thousand feet underwater or the center of a volcano or something, but then the mist is reaching out and grabbing more and more students and I'm shoving anyone I can reach away in the hope that it will miss them and then-
I land in the top of a tree.
I hit a few branches which are definitely going to bruise later before I manage to catch one and slow my descent. Before I can do much more than figure out which way is up, the leaves around me are sharpening into blades. Someone's quirk, I think with a wince as one of them catches my shoulder. I shouldn't have let Kaa-san talk me into showing so much skin in my hero costume. Yeah, fuck this.
It's a quick job to blow the tree and all of its annoying leaves to bits. Using my quirk to soften my landing, I find myself in a crowd of villains, many of them with camouflage quirks uniquely suited to a forested environment, based on the massive headache that I get while trying to get a visual on how many there actually are. Others, like the one with the leaf-sharpening quirk, probably also have quirks to match the area I've been tossed into.
There's a second as I look around at the dozens of real-life, full-grown, not-stuck-in-the-awkward- stage-of-puberty villains and I think how am I going to get out of this? But then I remember I'm Bakugou fucking Katsuki and I have the power of not only plot armor but existing solely to make the OP main character feel weak. Like wow what a head trip no wonder original Bakugou was such a dick.
Okay, so, I'm probably invulnerable or some shit but that doesn't mean everyone is. Which means I need to figure out how to get out of here and keep as many of these actual literal children safe as
possible. Seriously, these are grown men and women and whatever that one over there is – and they're going after kids like they're full-grown heroes!
Like, just look at Mineta and Kaminari. They flirt with the female teachers like they don't understand that they look like actual infants to them. They talk about the girls in class as if they're a whole other species. Make perverted jokes but occasionally give away little hints that show they don't actually understand the things they're joking about. These are babies. These are just kids.
Yaoyorozu still hasn't seen enough of the world to know how privileged she is. Todoroki thinks that costume looks cool. Tokoyami quotes philosophers and MCR lyrics and has no idea how much he's going to cringe over that fact in a few years.
And I've only known them for a few weeks (and reluctantly at that) but it's fucking obvious that these are good kids. Some of the best. Gravity Witch wants to help her parents and can't see that they're working themselves to the bone because they want her to have the freedom to make her life decisions without keeping them in mind. But she does it anyway because she's considerate and loving and kind. Robot Legs admires his brother so much that he doesn't see the problems with nepotism and grandfathering in hero candidates in this industry, and focuses only on becoming someone others can admire just as much. It's naïve, it's problematic, but it's sweet.
Even fucking Mineta, who really needs to get a goddamn clue, is here because he looked around and realized that if he wanted people to like him, he was going to have to be admirable, and he's taking steps to reach that goal. It's sort of gross still, but when the other options like assault or quirk misuse never even occurred to him… when he says things like "this is the only way" and dismisses more villainous options without thinking about it. Sure, he needs to realize that his behaviors are the exact opposite of the admirable image he's aiming for, but when you get down to it, he subconsciously knows what's wrong and right, and is aiming for the better option.
These are kids. Good kids. Bright, innocent, naïve little idiots who have not been around long enough to learn how fucked up the world really is. Kids who haven't seen enough of humanity to know how the hero industry can be exploited and misused. Kids who have hope for a future that can only exist if that hope continues to burn bright in them long enough to spread to others. And these second-rate villains want to snuff that out.
On a scale of one to Uraraka's Quirk, this is Beyond Fucked Up. I won't stand for it.
It feels better than the entrance exam did, pushing myself to take villains out efficiently and without lethal force, trying to keep track of multiple opponents (many of which I can't see god what a migraine) while staying a step ahead in the fight. I have to keep my quirk focused on helping with my maneuverability, just to make sure I don't take a knife to the kidneys while I'm blowing some dude's face in. It's smarter to just use my explosions to keep myself moving, dodging around trees and making turns too sharp for someone without my quirk to copy. With my hands occupied with that, I only have my legs to fight with, but that's fine.
The steel-lined boots of my hero costume are meant to help me deal with the recoil of my quirk, but the extra weight and the sharpened grips are meant to be able to dig into any surface, and the UA support department definitely makes good on its promises. These babies can keep a grip on concrete under some serious concussive force. They do a pretty graphic number on any exposed flesh the villains make the mistake of showing me too.
Still, I try to stick to using the grips and my explosions to form a sharp pivot around which I can add extra force to a classic roundhouse kick. The steel in my boots keeps my toes safe from the force. The villains aren't so lucky.
I'm not sure how long it takes to subdue the last of the villains around the area – it's difficult to tell when they're all really taken care of, since so many of them are using hiding and ambush tactics. Eventually, though, my headache passes and I've used the capture tape that is included with student hero costumes to bind their hands and feet where they fell. It's as I'm making a sweep of the area, paranoia telling me there's still someone hiding even though my quirk-induced headache is gone, that I spot a blond head peeking out from behind an outcropping of rock a way a way. I squint.
"… 'S that you, Sparkles?" I call. The blond head jumps, before the other student sheepishly makes his way out from his hiding place. His sparkly cape is torn, and he has dirt in his neatly-coiffed hair, but other than that he looks untouched. Aoyama, my knowing whispers, laser quirk, makes him nauseous, speaks French.
French, huh? I ponder. I hardly notice as he makes his way over to me, giving a wide berth to the many unconscious bodies I've left around.
"B-Bakugou-san!" He says in a poor imitation of his usual pomp and circumstance. "Excellent work taking care of these villains! I was just, um, waiting to intervene when you needed my help, but since you obviously had it handled… But if you hadn't, I would have stepped in right away!" Oh, he's worried about having hid. I realize.
"You were right to hide before they saw you." I interrupt him, kicking one of the unconscious villains in the thigh with a scowl. "These assholes don't care whether you're a kid or a Pro Hero, they wouldn't hesitate to kill. Scumbags."
It takes a couple seconds for my rage to settle enough to realize that Sparkles isn't making any noise. This wouldn't normally be odd, but as far as I can tell from the last few weeks of trying and failing to ignore my irritating classmates, this kid can't stop talking so long as anyone is giving him even the slightest bit of attention. And often times even if they aren't, he'll chime in to other people's conversations in order to get their attention.
Looking more carefully, I can see that he looks a little green around the mouth, and his knees are shaking. But the most worrying thing is that I can't see his eyes. They're trained on the ground as if it's the most interesting thing in the world. This kid…
"Look, I'm not…" I huff, shoving my hands in the pockets of my costume's shorts. "The villains who organized this attack, they want to hurt UA and All Might. Those are some big names in the hero industry. It's pretty safe to assume that what these guys want the most is negative publicity for heroes in general. If you want to help thwart their plans, the best thing to do is to stay safe. You're… We're just kids. We might not feel like it, but to the rest of the world, high school first years are really young. One of us getting hurt, or dying, could be just as bad for the reputation of UA and heroes in general as these guys actually managing to beat All Might."
"Y-You don't think they can really beat All Might, do you?" Aoyama asks nervously, finally looking up. I almost wish he hadn't. His eyes are red and watery, pupils blown wide in panic. He looks even younger like this, and I want to punch someone. Preferably Whoever-I-Was for having all these dumb soft feelings for kids and babies or whatever.
"Don't be fucking stupid." I say, instead of doing anything disgusting like patting him on the head or something. "Maybe if All Might was alone, and surprised, sure – they probably have some sort of plan for fighting him after all – but with back up and knowing what he's heading into? No way. All Might will take care of this as soon as he gets here. So, our job is just to do our best to find our classmates and stay safe until help comes. Got it?" I wasn't going to wait around for Aoyama to cry some more before doing exactly that, so I've already started walking, pulling the other blond with me and angling him so that my body will block the unconscious villains from his immediate sight.
If Whoever-I-Was remembers right, most of the students should be able to handle themselves in the battles they end up in, so I prioritize getting Aoyama to safety before I figure out my next step. I only know basic first aid, but I'm pretty sure the shaking that I can still feel through my (relatively gentle, give me a break) grip on his arm is a sign of shock.
We pass through the mountain zone on the way back towards the entrance (I have hazy not- memories of a safe zone near the entrance where students had gathered the injured… Thirteen? Aizawa? Near the end of the fighting.) and almost get electrocuted when we come across Earworms, Pikachu, and Cheat Code fighting their own share of Discount Baddies.
It takes a bit of convincing (read: another speech about the importance of prioritizing student safety and an embarrassing pep talk about the capability of our classmates to handle themselves) before the other three students agree to join us on our way to the safe zone, but I feel better knowing that they're heading away from more potential fighting. Four kids accounted for, fifteen to go.
Thankfully my stupid foreknowledge doesn't decide to let me down again this time, and Gravity Witch, Arms Galore, whoever that guy who eats sugar is, and Tape Arms are all gathered around the fallen form of Thirteen, attempting to perform first aid around their teacher's strange anatomy. Arms Galore surprises me by taking Aayoma aside and talking quietly with him, getting a few nods and muttered responses from the mostly-silent blond. When he wraps his (many) arms around the other student in a hug after getting another nod, I turn my back on the two. Looks like Arms has some experience with shock victims. Good. One less thing to worry about. Kaminari has been sat down next to where Gravity Witch is focusing intensely on patching up Thirteen, and Cheat Code is working on creating as many bandages and medical supplies as she can, it looks like. Jirou is talking with Tape arms and the others.
I have eight kids with me, which leaves eleven unaccounted for. Garbage Legs has escaped to warn the teachers, as Gravity Witch confirms for Jirou and Cheat Code, and the pillars of ice in the landslide zone suggest that Todoroki is also doing fine.
It's as I'm trying to get a read on how our classmates our doing from the elevated vantage point of the entrance that I see two green dots and a purple dot making their way towards the central conflict through the water of the lake.
I don't even realize the dots are students before my feet are moving. I throw myself off the edge before anyone (even me) can react, and it's only as I'm falling toward the crowd of villains that Aizawa had been fighting that I realize those dots are Izuku, Tsuyu, and Mineta. The image of Izuku's arm being broken, of Tsuyu's head being dissolved, of blood arcing through the air from the Nomu crushing Aizawa's head against the ground – a hundred random images flash through my mind and I don't know which are not-memories and which are just my panicked imagination, so I just move faster.
I don't have time to go through the villain hoards so I go over, using that stupid explosive- propulsion method I know from alternative-Bakugou, but also using the occasional villain as a springboard in order to speed up and to minimize the amount of attention I'm drawing (explosions from among the villain hoard fighting are less conspicuous than explosions from the sky above). My mind is running a mile a minute, considering and discarding plans as too dangerous, wouldn't work, leaves the kids exposed, can't afford the sacrifice, too dangerous, too dangerous, too dangerous –
I still haven't settled on a plan by the time I launch myself off of the last villain in the crowd and into the open air between the Extras and the stage where the main action is playing out. Everything feels slow and oddly weightless as my body arcs through the air, and I see the portal waiting to the
side near where that monster Nomu many quirks danger - is pinning Aizawa to the ground. Handyman is Naruto-running across the stretch of land between his allies and the shore, where Izuku, Tsuyu, and Mineta stand frozen. He starts to raise his hand when he's still several meters away, just as my feet touch down on dry land, and all of the plans running through my head are gone, my thoughts are silent, my mind is empty.
They're just kids, something in the emptiness sobs. Sam, Ellie!
I don't know how I close the space between us. I don't know whether I thought to use my quirk or if I just booked it as fast as my two legs could carry me. Either way, the crazy bastard's hand is only a few scant feet away from making contact with Tsuyu's face when I realize that I'm about to rugby-tackle a man who only needs physical contact to turn me to dust. Out of all of the plans that had run through my head on my flight over, exactly none of them had included engaging the guy with the disintegration quirk in a full-contact sport. For fairly obvious reasons.
Despite the fact that this is unarguably the stupidest thing I could have chosen to do, my body doesn't hesitate. My mind stays empty aside from the distant, unhurried realization that I'm going to die for this. I angle myself to hit below his center of mass, using my shoulder as a pivot point to fully take the asshole off his feet, hoping he'll land on his head with the full force of both of our momentums behind him. I see Izuku's hands reach towards us in my peripheral vision, and I think idiot, you're too far away, and the fondness in that thought sends my rage at this villain to new heights.
I realize I'm crying a moment before impact.
He's faster than I give him credit for, reacting to my unexpected interference with no hesitation or visible surprise. Just twisting even as I tackle him so that both of us are sent in a painful, uneven roll across the shoreline. At some point we must have hit the water (or I'm bleeding to death from the knee down on both legs) because my feet feel wet when we slow to a stop.
There's a moment of stillness as everyone comes to terms with how we've landed. I'm on top with a grip on Handyman's shirt just in front of his sternum and above his right shoulder. Most of the hands have been knocked off in our sprawl, including the one over his face. Despite his disadvantageous position, he's sporting a manic, crack-lipped grin. His left hand is pinned beneath his body from how we rolled, but his right is over my carotid artery, all five fingers pressed down hard enough to bruise. There's a single heartbeat, half a breath, where the entire world seems to wait for something, and then the arrogant bastard's smile twists into something bitter and he starts to say "You really are cool, Eraserhe-"
I dig my thumbs into his eyes.
His monologue is cut off by a pair of screams; his own, in agony, as his free hand moves to claw at my wrist and his whole body twists to try to buck me off, and mine, which rises up and rushes out of me without consent (just like these stupid tears), full of rage and stress and a determination to not lose to this bastard in any arena, not even this one. I don't have time to finish hooking my thumbs into the soft flesh before what feels like a small freight train hits me in the side and launches me into a pile of debris ten meters away. I have the petty thought that throwing me off like that probably did more damage to his stupid eyes than I could have done myself, before the Nomu appears above me where I'm lying winded in the dirt, and rears back its arm to finish the job.
Maybe this won't be the first time physics decides to actually work in this god-forsaken universe, I think unenthusiastically to myself as the fist comes towards me, Maybe I'm wrong and the momentum in that thing isn't enough to reduce me to a smear on the ground. If I'm lucky, maybe
Kaa-san and Tou-san will get to have a closed-casket funeral, and they won't have to settle for burying an empty coffin.
I never get to find out, since between the fist coming down and when it would have landed, Izuku decides that he's going to save me from my impending doom with a quirk he still can't control. Despite the fact that the Nomu is literally designed to defeat All Might, you know, the guy whose exact quirk you have except a weaker, uncontrolled version?!
So Izuku breaks his limbs uselessly at the Nomu (or, well, a limb, but still), which does exactly no damage to it, but does manage to distract it long enough for me to roll out of the way of its incoming fist. I stagger upright (ow ow ow definitely broke at least one rib) and manage one uneven step towards Izuku before the entrance doors fly open with a familiar burst of displaced wind.
"I am here."
Chapter End Notes
I'm too lazy to go through and proofread this chapter so if there are mistakes suck it up and read past them lol.
Bakugou feels like a stressed camp counselor at the most dangerous summer camp ever right now, and he is Not Pleased.
Poor Kirishima didn't get to bond with Baku-bro over their manly villain fight, because Baks didn't think to attack the Very Obviously Stronger Than Us Villain Over There. Baks is a pusillanimous little shit, ain't he?
Tune in to next week's episode of Bakugou Has to Do Everything Around Here for All Might Finally Doing his Goddamn Job.