Chapter 4

Chapter Text

The moment Shota located Bakugo he wrapped his capture scarf around him and pulled him away from All Might. The kid didn't even try to resist.

"All Might," Nedzu said, jumping to the ground and putting his small body between the number one hero and the child who was at the center of his rage. "I must insist that you calm down. Death is part of being a hero. You know this."

"Part of being a hero?" All Might asked incredulously. "They're students. Not heroes!"

Shota was glad to hear that All Might hadn't forgotten that fact, even if it was way too late for Midoriya. "I told Bakugo not to. I warned him it would be a killing blow. He even acknowledged that fact and then HE DID IT ANYWAY!" All Might took a step toward Bakugo and Aizawa hurriedly pushed the unresponsive child behind him. "He's an arrogant, offensive, emotionless asshole, and I'm arresting him for murder!"

"Yagi, I need you to take a deep breath," Nedzu said, moving closer even as he signaled for Shota to move Bakugo away. "This is a tragic situation and one that needs to be dealt with using the appropriate channels. We have protocols for this very reason."

"He killed a student," All Might said, sounding more broken than Shota had imagined the smiling hero ever could. "He killed Midoriya."

"Aizawa, please take Bakugo to Recovery Girl's office. I will join you shortly."

Shota hesitated for a brief moment, unconvinced that All Might was calm enough to leave the chimera alone with him, but getting Bakugo out of the number one hero's sight might go a long way toward calming him down.

They were outside and heading toward the car before Shota had a chance to realize Bakugo wasn't just being quiet, he was in the middle of a serious panic attack.

Fuck.

"I can't believe that just happened," Kirishima said, his eyes never leaving the screen that showed Principal Nedzu talking to All Might in a hallway surrounded by the pieces of their fellow student's body. "That actually happened, right? We just watched a student get killed. That wasn't like a training video or a um… a… What did Aizawa-sensei call it after the quirk assessment?"

"A rational deception," Ashido answered moving closer to the screen to stand next to Kirishima.

"A rational deception. Of course." Kaminari grabbed onto the explanation like a lifeline. "That makes much more sense. I mean, who would give a volatile student like Bakugo a gauntlet capable of taking out a concrete wall and then let him aim it at the face of another student?"

"I don't think this was a rational deception," the girl with a hearing quirk said nervously. Damn, Kirishima didn't even remember all of his classmate's names yet. How could one of them be dead?

"I agree," the girl able to pull a fully loaded canon from her stomach said, nodding anxiously. "All Might doesn't seem smart enough to pull off something this complex." It must have taken a moment for her to realize the disrespect in what she'd said because she inhaled sharply and placed a hand over her mouth. "I…um…s…"

"You are correct," Iida interrupted, his movements even more robotic than they were earlier. "This is not the sort of trauma a school would inflict on first year students, especially not such a prestigious school as UA."

"So we really did just watch someone die?" the invisible girl asked, her voice hitching with emotion.

"What the hell?" one of the boys exclaimed angrily. He was still watching the silent footage of All Might and Nedzu talking in the hallway. "Did All Might just eat a chunk of Midoriya's brain? What the actual fuck?"

Present Mic had no idea how to approach the situation he'd just walked into. He'd gotten the emergency call from Nedzu only a few minutes ago and he'd booked it to the training area as quickly as he could to support the little listeners of class 1A. Mic and Shota both knew from painful, personal experience what it was like to lose a fellow student.

But to walk in just as half the class watched All Might chow down on a charred piece of dead student was not something he'd ever expected to have to deal with. The number one hero in Japan was a cannibal? Or a zombie? Or… What the ever-loving fuck?

And why the hell was Nedzu just watching him?

What. The. Ever. Loving. Fuck.

"Present Mic!" Aoyama called, clumsily tripping toward him as if he intended to get a hug. Nope. Not happening. The last thing the school needed was a charge of inappropriate touching leveled against a teacher moments after the death of one of their youngest students.

"Iida," Mic called, extremely relieved when the robotic-like boy intercepted Aoyama and launched into a rant on how important it was for teachers to be allowed to keep a professional distance from their students.

Okay, one disaster avoided.

"Mic-Sensei," Ashido asked, "what happens now?"

"Right now," Mic said, glad to see that the students were comforting each other despite most of them having only met yesterday, "I'm going to escort you back to the change rooms so you can pack away your hero gear and get back into your school uniforms. And then we'll meet in your classroom for a debrief."

"A debrief? Like what…um…pro heroes do after action?"

"Correct," Mic said, toning down his DJ persona to suit the solemn mood. "We'll go over what happened, discuss next steps, and make mandatory appointments for all of you with Hound Dog."

"Should we call our parents to pick us up?"

"Not yet, little listener," Mic said, wondering how the hell they were going to contain the fallout. Students died in hero schools. That was a fact of life. But it was usually while on internships to gain practical experience with hero agencies, not the second day of high school. Fuck, these kids were just babies.

And if UA didn't get on top of the narrative right from the start this situation had the potential to blow up in everyone's faces. What a total cluster fuck.

"Bakugo," a sharp voice growled. "Breathe, kid. You need to breathe."

Bakugo tried to follow the order but it was like he'd forgotten how to inhale. His lungs burned, his head throbbed, and his vision narrowed.

"Kid, don't do this to yourself," the voice said, devoid of emotion. "It was an accident. Not your fault."

"It was," Bakugo whispered, forcing out the last of the air in his lungs. "My fault. I thought…"

Bakugo finally inhaled a small breath even as the darkness claimed him.

~*~

Shota had already released the capture weapon from around Bakugo so preventing his fall wasn't quite as simply as tightening his grip. He managed to stop the kid from hitting the ground though, thankfully avoiding the damage that falling face first into concrete could have done.

He lifted Bakugo into his arms and quickly walked the rest of the way back to the vehicle he and Nedzu had arrived in. "Phone: Call Chiyo," Aizawa said, using the hated hands-free option on his phone. The moment the call connected Aizawa started talking. "Where are you?"

He settled Bakugo in the front seat, fully reclined, and then carefully arranged him so that he was laying on his side in a comfortable, but still accessible, position.

"En route to Ground Beta. ETA two minutes."

"Midoriya is beyond your help," Shota said, trying not to think too hard on a fact that would likely haunt him for the rest of his life. "Bakugo has gone into shock. We're in the parking lot just inside the gate.

"On my way," Recovery Girl advised in her calmest, most professional tone, the one reserved for dire medical events and big emergencies. "Any others, dearie?"

"Mic is with the rest of the class," he reported. "I don't know their status, but I'm assuming they were watching from the booth. Bakugo was more directly involved."

"I see," Recovery girl said. "I'll call Mic."

She hung up without another word and Aizawa was left to silently ponder how things had gone so terribly wrong.