eight
Chapter Notes
tws for a tiny bit of blood and violence in this chapter, as it covers the hosu arc. also mentions/brief descriptions of child abuse on todoroki's part. it's all mostly canon- typical stuff.
damn i really disappeared for four months and reappeared from the dead with a 9k update,
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Endeavour is an asshole. He's a self-absorbed, bullheaded asshole who's stuck in the wrong career field.
"I didn't want you as an intern," are the first words he says to Katsuki upon meeting. The teenager blinks, lips pursing in confusion.
"No one's holding you at gunpoint," he points out a little dryly. "I'll gladly leave and intern under someone else."
At this, the flames around the hero flare out in time with his nostrils.
"Not even a minute and you're already giving me lip," he growls, eyes narrowing. "Show some respect for your superior, brat."
Katsuki has to lean back a little to make eye contact with the towering man.
"I wasn't—" he begins, before shutting his eyes and sighing quietly. He resists the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Whatever."
Endeavour's nose flares once more, akin to an angry bull, but he doesn't reprimand him again. Instead, he just glares.
"I was to take Shouto as an intern," he says finally, looking at him with such distaste that it's almost as if it's Katsuki's fault that his stupid drama queen son isn't standing in his place.
"But he wasn't interested. And my public relations officer seems convinced that I absolutely must take an intern. So I chose you instead."
It's true, Katsuki vaguely remembers Endeavour's son telling Aizawa-sensei that he was going to intern with some D-lister newbie hero. A choice so illogical, given the number of offers Todoroki received, that it could only have been deliberate. Evidently, the boy has a bone to pick with his father.
Katsuki clicks his tongue noncommittally, rocking back on his heels to appraise the giant man.
"Sucks to be you," he replies tonelessly. "Are we leaving or what?"
Endeavour doesn't grace him with a reply, simply turning on his heel and stalking off with his
flames billowing out behind him harshly.
"So dramatic," Katsuki mutters, having to speed walk slightly to catch up to the asshole's stupidly large strides. "I can see where your stupid son got it from."
The flame hero doesn't respond to the very-much audible comment, but his fire seems to swell ever-so-slightly in a way that has Katsuki's lips curling into a smirk.
If Katsuki thought Endeavour was an asshole in conversation, he's doubly so on the field.
"My daughter's blanket!" a woman wails on the scene of a house fire. "She left her blanket in there, it's all she has left of my husband!"
Endeavour doesn't spare her a second glance.
"I cannot reenter the building for a blanket," he says, stomping ahead firmly. "Please stay behind the yellow tape, Miss."
The woman sags, the little girl in her arms starting to sob at the declaration.
"You could just get the blanket," Katsuki points out helpfully, having to jog to keep up with Endeavour's pace. "The building isn't even unstable, and you don't have anything better to do right now."
The hero glances back at him with an irritated scowl at the words.
"I'm the number two hero," he sniffs. "I always have important things to do."
"Like what?"
Endeavour's face makes an odd jumpy motion at the question, before settling on a deep frown.
"Quiet," he barks finally. "Interns should not be asking questions."
"Damn," Katsuki muses, working up to a steady jog to maintain their increasing speed. "Now I get why All Might is number one and not you."
He has to duck back to avoid getting roasted by the sudden flare of heat that Endeavour's flames send curling in his direction.
"Boy, you have some nerve—" the hero begins, jaw clenching sharply as he stomps even faster.
"Touchy, touchy," Katsuki muses quietly. "You're very sensitive, Endeavour-san. You must've been real unhappy when your golden boy lost the sports festival to a kid who can't even use his quirk without breaking his bones, huh?"
At this, Endeavour finally skids to a halt, eyes pressing shut with unbridled fury.
"What," he grunts through teeth clenched so hard a muscle in his jaw jumps, "will it take for you to stop. Talking."
Katsuki grins serenely, rocking on his heels with his fingers interlaced at his back.
"It costs you nothing to go back and get that girl her blanket," he says cheerfully.
Endeavour's eyes snap open, fixing onto Katsuki's with such intensity that for a brief moment, the teenager thinks he might throttle him.
"You—" he breathes hoarsely. He heaves a deep, rattling breath, eyes absolutely murderous.
Then, without another word, the hulking hero whirls around and storms right back toward the flaming house. When he emerges moments later with a slightly ashy but generally unscathed blanket clasped in his hands, the woman and her daughter wail with gratitude.
"Good man," Katsuki grins, tiptoeing to clap Endeavour's back heartily (and ignoring the growl he receives in return). "At this rate, you may even catch up to All Might one day!"
The rest of the patrol is tense, but Katsuki does good on his promise and shuts up for the most part.
That evening when he's lying in his agency-assigned bedroom, Katsuki receives an oddly threatening text.
[Unknown Number]
I need to speak with you.
6:46 pm
Me
??? who the fuck is this
6:49 pm
[Unknown Number]
Todoroki.
6:50 pm
Me
wtf do u want
6:51 pm
Me
loser
6:51 pm
[Unknown Number]
Meet me outside.
6:51 pm
Me
the fuck??? where???
6:52 pm
As if answering his question, there's a sharp rap at Katsuki's bedroom window that almost has him jumping out of his skin. Through the evening light filtering in, he can just make out the silhouette of a person standing outside the window. He rolls to his feet, stomping over to yank the window open.
"What the fuck, Icy-Hot?" he snarls. "You been watching me sleep or something? I ought to call the fucking cops on your ass!"
Todoroki flushes slightly at the accusation, shrinking back slightly.
"I'm not—" he begins, voice cracking mid-word. He swallows, clearing his throat before shaking his head slightly. "I am not here with indecent intentions," he stresses.
"That's what all the perverts say," Katsuki mutters, making the other teenager splutter.
"I want to know why you chose to intern with my father," Todoroki says quickly before Katsuki can fluster him any further.
Katsuki blinks.
"You're asking me why I'm interning with the number two hero?" Katsuki echoes slightly disbelievingly.
Todoroki nods stonily.
"If you have made this decision out of some petty need to provoke me following our—"
"Dude," Katsuki says, one part amused and the other incredulous.
"I'm interning with him because he's the number two hero and I want experience. Full offense, but you're really not as important as you think you are."
Todoroki blinks at the words before his cheeks darken subtly.
"Endeavour…" his eyes lower to the ground, and he huffs quietly. "Can we talk about this outside?"
It's fucking cold, and Katsuki wants to sleep, but he nods his assent anyway, stepping out of the
window in his tank top and sweatpants.
He sits at a park bench, and Todoroki stands next to him like a weird brooding asshole.
"Are you. Not gonna sit down?" Katsuki asks slowly.
Todoroki stares at him, and Katsuki clicks his tongue awkwardly.
"My old man has been stuck in second place forever," the other tells him in lieu of a response. He's watching Katsuki gravely, with a sort of intensity that makes the blonde realise with despair that this is probably going to be a Long Talk. Fuck, is the asshole going to spill his tragic shounen protagonist origin story now?
"But no matter how much he tries, he can't surpass All Might. So he moved on to his next plan," Todoroki says grimly.
Katsuki grimaces. So this is the tragic shounen origin story. He should've brought a jacket.
The standing boy raises his head upward and examines the night sky.
"Have you ever heard of quirk marriages, Bakugou?"
Katsuki pauses, head snapping up to stare at the other as his stomach drops at the words. The implication is clear, and suddenly the situation is far less humorous.
"Are you saying..." he trails off hesitantly, already half-knowing the answer.
Todoroki drops his gaze to meet Katsuki's, eyes serious and heavy before they turn away again.
"My father is a man with both accomplishments and money," he murmurs. "To win over my mother's family, take control of her quirk… it was easy for him."
Katsuki's throat goes dry, but Todoroki continues stubbornly, with the air of someone who has not been given much opportunity to speak about this before.
"He's desperate," he huffs simply, bitterly. "Trying to fulfil his selfish desires by raising me to be the one to surpass All Might where he couldn't. He drove my mother insane with his abuse."
Katsuki isn't sure what expression he's displaying on his own face right now, but Todoroki's is as stony and unreadable as always.
" Your left side is unsightly, " he whispers, hand raising to ghost over the raised scar that stretches across half of his face. "those were the words my mother said as she poured boiling water on me."
The city is quiet. In the distance, there's the sound of cars on the highway.
Finally, Todoroki turns his gaze to meet Katsuki's fully. The blonde can do nothing but stare back, mouth glued shut.
"Why are you telling me this," Katsuki utters numbly. Todoroki sighs, before his shoulders jerk in a half-shrug.
"My father… is not a good man."
There's silence for a few more moments before Katsuki realises that the other isn't planning on saying anything else.
"O...kay," he says carefully. "That. That really sucks, man. But I also can't exactly just—ditch this internship with him."
He winces the moment the words leave his mouth, unsure of how to ideally react but knowing that this is probably the dictionary definition of how not to respond when your classmate decides to unload all their childhood trauma onto you. It's rude—it probably surpasses rudeness, really, and heads straight into utter asshole territory. But it's true. He isn't allowed to drop his internships mid- week without providing a valid reason to Aizawa-sensei, and he has an odd feeling that Todoroki doesn't want Katsuki airing out his family's dirty laundry to their homegroup teacher.
Fortunately, the other doesn't look too offended.
"I just wanted you to know," his stoic classmate says simply.
"Okay," Katsuki says again, a little awkwardly. "Well. If that's all?"
Todoroki just nods curtly and proceeds to turn on his heel and slink off without another word.
Katsuki is left sitting on the bench in his sleepwear, feeling an odd mixture of irritated and guilty.
After a few more minutes of sitting in silence, he decides to head inside and get some sleep, too.
The next morning is more patrolling.
Katsuki, to his own irritation, is having a little difficulty interacting with Endeavour following the night's conversation. He'd shown minimal reaction while talking to Todoroki, but now that he's had a night to process exactly what he'd been told, the weight of the situation is sinking in and he feels vaguely nauseous every time he looks at his mentor.
"You're less… talkative today," the flame hero notes offhandedly as they walk out of the agency building.
Katsuki doesn't reply with much more than a grunt, feeling less inclined to hold small talk than before. His lack of reaction earns a brief side glance from Endeavour, but the hero doesn't follow it up.
Katsuki is too busy mulling over the new information to care from the previous night.
He's walking next to a man who bought out a woman's family, abused his own child to fulfil his own selfish desires. Every time he glances up at the hero he's walking alongside, it feels unfathomable. But then he remembers the haunted, distant look in Todoroki's eye, the way Endeavour has, in the short time Katsuki has already spent with him, continually pursued villain arrests over civilian rescues, and it doesn't feel so implausible.
His steps falter until Endeavour is a few paces ahead of him, disgust curling low and acrid in his gut.
The patrol is quiet. He tags back, observes what he has to and doesn't talk to Endeavour unless it's absolutely necessary.
It's when they're heading back to the agency that Katsuki feels it. An itch at the back of his neck, as if he's being watched. It's just like the sports festival. He whips his head around, but can't discern anything odd from the rush of exhausted students and workers making their way home after a long day.
He turns back, but moments later the tingling prickle of his nape returns and he turns around again, eyes narrow.
"What is it?" Endeavour snaps.
Katsuki glances back at the hero, eyeing him for a moment before reluctantly acquiescing.
"Have you noticed anyone watching us?" he asks quietly.
Endeavour turns to give him a somewhat incredulous stare.
"I'm the number two hero, boy. If you don't like being watched then you made the wrong internship choice."
Katsuki sighs, not bothering to explain himself.
"Whatever," he mutters, deciding to let it go. As much as Endeavour is a shitty person, he's also the number two hero for good reason. If even he hasn't noticed anything, it's probably nothing after all.
However, it's not even moments after this decision that he feels the prickle again, strong enough to have a shiver course down his spine.
He whips around fast enough for his neck to crack, just in time to meet eyes with a man who's watching him from across the street. He's familiar, in a distant sort of way, and Katsuki realises with sharp disbelief that he's the same person who had been staring at Katsuki during the sports festival, following his match with Tokoyami. The man is wearing the same pressed suit, close enough this time for Katsuki to pick out his features; the deep red hair tied back neatly, the glint of amber eyes in the evening light. The man is watching him intently, but this time when Katsuki catches his gaze he physically jolts, eyes widening imperceptibly in shock at being caught.
Katsuki's own eyes narrow, and he's turning to stomp towards the man instinctively before he has time to think about it.
The first time, during the sports festival, Katsuki had brushed it off as coincidence. There had been many spectators, and it had been entirely plausible that the guy was just a weird scout for some obscure hero agency. But a second time?
Katsuki's many things, but an idiot isn't one of them.
But the moment Katsuki starts to head towards him, the man straightens, finally shifting from his unmoving position as he turns to slip back into the crowd with unexpected agility. This only cements Katsuki's conclusion that this guy isn't just some random weirdo, but before he can follow, he's bodily yanked back by a grip at the neck of his hero costume. Then he's being turned to face a very irritable-looking Endeavour.
"Where do you think you're going," the hero demands sharply.
Katsuki groans internally, still trying to crane his neck backwards to keep his eye on the man in the suit.
"There was someone—" he grunts, twisting in Endeavour's iron grip. "I saw someone watching!"
The flame hero's expression remains unimpressed, if not supremely irritated.
"Pull yourself together," he rumbles, dangerously low. "When you are interning with me you will not wander off to your heart's content. Is that understood?"
Katsuki curses under his breath, finally managing to squirm out of the other's hold. But when he whips around searchingly, the creepy man has already disappeared into the throng of civilians.
"Is that understood," Endeavour repeats stonily behind him, completely uncaring of Katsuki's inner turmoil.
The blonde curses passionately again.
"Fine," he spits, defeated.
His skin still tingles sharply, an odd sort of intuitive hum under his skin at being watched that has him on edge the rest of the evening.
The third day of patrols, there's still a heavy, hostile tension between Katsuki and Endeavour. They don't talk for most of the day, beyond barked orders from the hero and grunts of affirmation from the student. For evening they head to patrol in Hosu, where they mostly just walk around and (as per Endeavour's stupid orders) ignore all the fans' attempt to talk to them. Katsuki bitterly wonders how the fuck the man even got to second place when it's so clear he doesn't give a fuck about the people he saves.
They're about halfway through the night patrol when Endeavour's walkie talkie buzzes in. Katsuki perks up at the noise, wondering if they're finally going to get in on some real fighting.
However, he doesn't get a chance to find out.
" Endeavo...r…!" the crackling voice cries over the line. "...questin…. ackup... llains sighted…"
The voice then dissolves into static, before there's a crackling boom and the line disconnects.
Endeavour, to Katsuki's begrudging acknowledgement, doesn't waste a single moment. His expression hardens instantly, shifting from irritable to something more serious and heavy, eyes sharpening with an analytical glint.
"To the main plaza!" the man barks sharply, before storming off. Katsuki follows without questioning it, watching from the corner of his vision as Endeavour jams a few buttons on his walkie talkie before raising it to his mouth.
"This is Endeavour," he says, words steady and clear despite their brisk pace. "Currently moving towards the centre of the city. Any more details available on the villains?"
"Kamui Woods," the person on the other side says. "Requesting backup immediately outside the
main mall."
Endeavour grunts out an affirmation, and the two converse in clipped tones as they agree to meet a distance away from the scene to get details before moving in.
As they draw nearer, the screams become audible. Dozens of them, accompanied by huge, crashing noises from the centre of the city. The air grows hotter, and the smell of burning plastic starts to fill the air, acrid and sharp at the back of his throat. The two increase their pace in unspoken synchrony.
They meet Kamui Woods at the edge of one of the main malls.
"Large villain," he bites out breathlessly from behind his mask-like faceplate. "Unsure of its quirks but definitely has multiple. So far we're aware of muscle augmentation and an ability to manipulate its tongue into a web-like structure."
Katsuki's eyes narrow, thinking back to his USJ experience at the mention of a large villain with multiple quirks. He's not sure about the tongue thing, but muscle augmentation sounds far too familiar.
"What did it look like?" he cuts in, unflinching despite the way the two heroes whip around to stare at him sharply.
"Who are you?" Kamui Woods bites out. Katsuki opens his mouth to respond, but Endeavour's already cutting in.
"He's my intern," the flame hero grunts.
Kamui doesn't spare Katsuki a second glance.
"He shouldn't be here," he tells Endeavour. "This is too high-risk."
"What did the villain look like?" Katsuki says again, sharply. Kamui turns to give him an exasperated glare, but the blonde powers on.
"The one you're talking about. Did it have its brain exposed at the top of its head?"
At this, the hero falters.
"Yes. It did," he says, watching Katsuki intently now. "Do you know anything about it?"
Katsuki nods quickly.
"We faced something like this at the USJ. It's likely not the same villain exactly, because the one we faced is probably dead, and as far as I know it didn't have the tongue manipulation quirk. But it's definitely of a similar origin."
He pauses, thinking back to the day of the USJ. The way Shigaraki had ordered around that Noumu so easily, had giddily spoken of its multiple quirks as if showing off a prize pet. He thinks of the empty glint in the Noumu's eye, completely lacking in consciousness.
"I think the League of Villains is making them. They're called Noumus," he says, breathless with his own revelation.
"The USJ…" Kamui echoes quietly. "So you're… ah. You're the sports festival winner."
He's staring at Katsuki with his full attention now, previously dismissive air gone.
"Do you have any other information you can tell me?"
Katsuki swallows.
"They don't seem to be intelligent. They follow the orders of Shigaraki—he's one of the main guys from the League. The one we faced also had the ability to absorb shock. I don't know if the one we're facing now has that quirk, too, but it's better to be wary. It also had the ability to regenerate its flesh after sustaining damage. If there's another Noumu here… I don't know how many more there may be," he mutters grimly, speaking more to himself than the two heroes.
"All Might barely even won against the one from the USJ."
There's silence following his words for a long moment before Kamui Woods lets out an uncharacteristic, low, "shit."
Katsuki doesn't blame him.
"What other heroes are on duty in the area?" Endeavour asks, cutting through the terse quiet.
"The Fly," Kamui grunts. "Manual."
He rattles off a few other names, but Katsuki's brain is caught on the last one.
Manual?
Katsuki's vaguely familiar with the name, but he can't put a face to it.
He racks his brain for an answer but comes up empty.
Manual, Manual, he thinks to himself. Where do I know that name from?
Then he realises with a jolt: Iida's internship preference. He remembers hearing about it the day their choices had been due, remembers wondering why the hell Iida had chosen Manual. The guy was some newbie hero, one who hadn't even broken into the charts yet. Iida had received many offers from higher-ranking heroes than him but refused to elaborate on his choice when asked.
Katsuki, at the time, hadn't dwelled on it for much longer than a few moments.
He blinks, wondering if he's going to see the taller boy tonight.
"It's inevitable," Endeavour is in the middle of saying when Katsuki tunes back into their conversation.
"Patrols have been upped since Stain's attacks in Hosu, but we couldn't have accounted for this. Perhaps the league of villains is working with Stain?"
Katsuki's brain shorts out almost instantly once again.
Hosu, he thinks. Stain's attacks were in Hosu.
His heart drops into his stomach.
"Is Manual based in Hosu?" he cuts in rudely, interrupting the heroes' conversation but too panicked to care.
"Manual?" Kamui echoes. "Yes, if I'm correct he is. His usual patrol route circles around the Hosu area."
Katsuki is an idiot. He's an idiot. But Iida… he's an even bigger one.
"I have to go," he says distantly.
Endeavour and Kamui Woods whip around to stare at him incredulously.
"Now isn't the time to mess around," the former says sharply.
"I know," Katsuki murmurs, mind racing. "I know, trust me. You two… you need to go stop the Noumu. We've been standing around too long."
He turns, fiddling with his gauntlets to pull them off his arms and shove them behind a dumpster, neutralising them with a button hidden in a side panel so that no one will accidentally set them off.
"What are you doing?" Endeavour demands, too confused to even be angry.
"I won't need these," Katsuki mutters. "They're useless right now."
He turns, lifting his gaze to meet the two heroes'.
"The Noumu at the USJ could only be stopped when All Might hit it faster than it could regenerate," he tells them. "Don't let it kill anyone."
With that, he turns around and sprints off into the city, ignoring the calls of the two heroes from behind him.
As he runs, Katsuki thinks back to the articles he'd read.
Of all of Stain's attacks, more than 60% of his victims had been found in places without many people. Empty corners, dimly lit streets. Ingenium himself had been found in an alleyway, unconscious and alone.
Katsuki starts at the outer edge of the city, as far away from the chaos as possible. It tugs at something deep in his chest to head away from the screaming and noise, from the terrified civilians, but he holds onto the faith that Endeavour and the other heroes will handle it.
From here he checks every alleyway he passes, scans every side street sharply. Despite the chaos that's happening in the very same city, this area is unsettlingly quiet. There's no one around, and there are more streetlights flickering than there are working ones.
As he runs, he calls Iida on his phone. The other had given the entire class his phone number at the beginning of the year, giving some stupid, pretentious speech about being a dependable class representative. Katsuki had grumbled but saved the number all the same, along with all of his classmates' ones, and he's never been more grateful for it.
Unsurprisingly, Iida doesn't pick up. The call goes straight to voicemail.
Frustrated, he opts to text the other instead, knowing subconsciously that it's futile.
Me
don't do it.
9:29 pm
Me
iida where are you
9:29 pm
Me
call me back
9:30 pm
The messages are delivered almost instantly, but they aren't read. He curses, unsurprised but disappointed all the same as he shoves his phone back in his pocket and begins to search the streets again.