Unable to let the matter go after Bakugou pulled them aside that day Fumikage and Sadi searched under a private window for the site Bakugou had shown them, it had been laughably easy to do and they watched a couple of the videos, it... wasn't as horrible as he thought they would be considering what he expecting from a site about was all about torture.
Fumikage wanted to stop after the third video he chose started with Bakugou about to use his quirk on the boy solely known as 'Deku' but Sadi had stopped him *Fumi his eyes! Look at his eyes!* they hissed pointing with a single claw.
Fumikage had paused the video at just the right moment to capture the odd glazed over look in Bakugou's eyes, something that was very odd and Sadi forced Fumikage to skip to the end and let it play for the last three seconds at half the speed, seconds that showed as the haze in Bakugou's eyes cleared up and then shrunk as Bakugou's face contorted into horror.
Looking at more videos was distressing but made something very clear: Bakugou was doing these objectively awful things but there was never any sadistic glee from his actions. Younger Bakugou always looked guilty and that guilt would often turn into frustration but there was never any sign of happiness except for exactly one brief moment.
It was in the only video that showed Deku fighting back, Deku had slapped Bakugou by accident and for a single second Bakugou looked hopeful, but that hope was shattered once Deku began apologizing and was replaced by bitter disappointment.
Sadi had convinced Fumikage to give Bakugou a chance after that, Fumikage had been very hesitant and cautious as he proceeded to befriend Bakugou after the weekend passed and they went back to school.
It wasn't easy for him to separate Bakugou from the violent videos he watched but day by day Fumikage could say for certain he didn't fear Bakugou would attack them without cause.
Sadi, tired of walking on eggshells and not having much social etiquette just came out and asked Bakugou about why he did those things despite Fumikage hissing at them not to do that.
Bakugou scowled but did answer Sadi's question, telling them through gritted teeth about his mental condition and who Deku was to him, of the years of frustration and anger mixed with the toxic people who took advantage of it to use him against Izuku, as Deku was actually named.
Bakugou didn't paint himself in a sympathetic light in any way, shape, or form and he didn't sugarcoat what he did to Izuku by any means, Bakugou fully understood and believed that what he had done was unforgivable and that made him an utter bastard at heart.
That answer had not been what Fumikage was expecting, he would've thought Bakugou would try to throw the blame on someone else just a bit but the blonde only called his old teachers what they were. Negligent bigots, opportunistic maybe but negligence bigots all the same.
Because while it would be easy for Bakugou to put all the blame on his teachers Bakugou wasn't going to let anyone (in his words) infantilize him, his ED might make him more volatile but he knew what he was doing was wrong on some level since he felt awful as he did it, he was a dumb kid sure but Izuku was a kid too and had always stepped up to do what any hero would and protect/help everyone.
That conversation was a turning point in Fumikage's opinion of Bakugou and Fumikage was a touch more open to the boy and the results weren't what he was expecting.
Bakugou started giving them both little things, Bakugou would just be sitting with them outside at lunch then turn and offer them little clay figures, marbles, fake jewels, or scraps of weaved shiny fabric. All of those things made their hindbrains go crazy with happiness and Bakugou always gave both of them a gift, never just Fumikage.
This encouraged Sadi to always come out of hiding to greet Bakugou and speak with him, the blonde never seemed to mind and spoke with Sadi just like he did with everyone else, a constant action that finally sold Fumikage on truly befriending Bakugou.
Being invited over to Bakugou's house to study for their upcoming test had caught him off guard but Sadi had accepted for them both so Fumikage couldn't back out.
Meeting Bakugou's father sort of confirmed Bakugou took after his mother, though Fumikage was still very on guard and warned Sadi not to wander too far since he had no idea how the man would react to them just moving around their home, from experience though Fumikage knew most didn't like it.
So Fumikage was rightfully shocked when Sadi came back from the kitchen carrying their lunch and even more surprised to hear both Bakugous' thought of Sadi as a familiar quirk and that Bakugou senior had made a whole bowl of just meat for Sadi and asked Sadi things about their life.
The thing sort of left them both feeling like their world had been flipped upside down but once it had sunken in there was a wave of vindication in Fumikage's chest and he started going over to Bakugou's house as often as he could so Sadi could have someone other than himself to talk to.
Bakugou-San never seemed to mind Sadi's endless questions and even let Sadi help him with his work sometimes, regardless if it was his design work or cooking them lunch, and Fumikage got to see Bakugou carefully craft the clay figures then put them in a special oven that used his quirk to work.
After a couple weeks though Bakugou-San asked his mother if it would be alright for Bakugou to come over to hang out and his mother agreed almost immediately then started cleaning their house like mad.
Bakugou arrived at their house and before his mother could greet him Sadi had leap out and softly headbutted Bakugou as had become normal for them "Bakugou!" Sadi chirped while Bakugou gave a bemused huff letting Sadi nuzzle him.
"Dark shadow no, you shouldn't just leap out at people." his mother softly scolded quickly reminding both of them they weren't in a place Sadi could interact and Sadi wilted a little and returned into Fumikage throwing out a quick sorry.
Bakugou blinked staring at the two of them with confusion, mainly his mother but held his tongue as his mother encouraged them to go have fun, she also reminded Fumikage not to do anything too crazy while she went to her appointment and that mom was in her study if they needed anything.
Fumikage guided Bakugou to his room, normally he wouldn't do that but Sadi could be free to come out and talk in his room so Fumikage pushed his embarrassment aside and welcomed Bakugou inside, in a few seconds though he noticed Bakugou was a bit off, a little glum maybe as he sat besides Fumikage on his bed with his shoulders slumped.
Sadi was sort of concerned and once again popped out butted heads with Bakugou "Hey what's wrong?" Sadi questioned and Bakugou stiffened glancing at Sadi's eyes, they both saw Bakugou mentally debating something in his mind before he looked down at his feet.
"Izuku's birthday is coming up." Bakugou grumbled.
"Oh." Fumikage commented unsure what else to say, Bakugou was troubled by this fact but he wasn't sure why.
Bakugou's relationship with his past victim was complicated to say the least, Bakugou was very fond of the greenette but couldn't ever say it without it becoming a garbled mess of hate according to what Bakugou had said the few times Izuku ever came up, and he had never dared to push for more info on the other boy seeing it as just too personal.
"Do you not know what to get him? Mom struggles with that a lot." Sadi inquired very innocently and Bakugou snorted.
"No you brain-dead penguin," Bakugou gruffly replied without any true malice "This is going to be the third time I missed his birthday." Bakugou explained.
Sadi tilted their head "Then why don't you go? Do you have an appointment or something?" Sadi asked and Bakugou groaned into his hands.
"Because I- I'm not ready to see him." Bakugou told them his fingers digging into his scalp.
"What do you mean?" Fumikage dared to ask confused, he could understand if Izuku never wanted to see Bakugou again regardless of their past relationship but for it to be Bakugou choosing purposely to stay away it was a bit harder to swallow.
"It's because the nerd is going to forgive me and pretend that nothing ever fucking happened Patchy." Bakugou replied confusing Sadi even more.
"But don't you want to be forgiven?" Sadi questioned, the few times they had done something bad they definitely wanted to be forgiven as soon as possible.
Bakugou scowled and he crossed his arms "No, I... I don't want Izuku to ever forgive me." Bakugou admitted rather painfully so as he ducked his head.
"Why?" Sadi pressed even more confused.
"Because if he forgives me then it's like all the crap I did doesn't matter and it's all water under the bridge, and that shit isn't right." Bakugou answered "What I did was, fucking horrible. No matter how you dress it up or try to justify it what I did to him is such backwards bullshit and it shouldn't be forgiven just because I'm not a complete jackass now." Bakugou ranted.
"And how the hell I'm I supposed to hold myself accountable if he keeps gaslighting me about it being 'not that bad'? I won't... and I might start acting like a bastard again because that's always what abusive dickheads do once their victims roll over." Bakugou elaborated getting a bit more vocal.
Fumikage blinked utterly surprised, he would've never thought someone didn't want to be forgiven because of that, sure he's heard of people saying they'd never ask for forgiveness but that was usually because they thought they didn't do anything wrong.
Not because of this... what do you even say to someone that says that? Because Bakugou had a damn good point, Fumikage had seen a bit of what the blonde did to Izuku and it was horrible.
"Well then why don't you tell him not too?" Sadi questioned making Bakugou scowl at them.
"Because I can't fucking talk to him anymore, Izuku wasn't a damn wizard that could understand everything I was saying before this and he'll just pretend that the shit I did to him didn't happen. And that's going to just piss me off and make it even harder for me to tell him to cut it out. I have a hard enough time talking to you fuckers about this crapstorm, how the fuck am I going to tell him?" Bakugou argued trying and failing not to snarl the words.
Sadi paused tilting their head "Then why don't you write him a letter? That way you can explain it all to him without blowing up and maybe get him to understand why." Sadi suggested having a rare moment of wisdom.
Bakugou blinked, considering it "I- I'll think about, not sure I can handle talking to him like that yet." Bakugou conceded a little stiffly.
Sadi nodded satisfied with the blonde's answer before going over to their shelf of keepsakes and grabbing the kitty Bakugou gave them to play with, their conversation was able to veer to lighter topics as Sadi asked Bakugou about some of the gifts he gave them.
Bakugou frowned suddenly as Sadi off-handedly mention their mother and turned to Fumikage "I wasn't going to ask but since Potty tried to help with make shitty situation I think it's only fair to ask what the fuck was that shit with your hag by the door?" Bakugou questioned and Fumikage glanced away.
"I first heard Sadi's voice when I was four but Sadi wasn't strong enough to manifest themselves yet, so most people thought Sadi was just an imaginary friend I had made up. Sadi first came out of my form when I was six and my parents took me to a, quirk specialist." Fumikage explained, loathing calling that crazy man anything of the sort.
Bakugou's eyes narrowed "And that bastard spewed bullshit about Potty not being a familiar?" Bakugou guessed rather easily and Fumikage nodded.
"He kept insisting that Sadi wasn't even alive and that I was using them as an excuse to do things, neither of my parents are that naive though and they believe Sadi is aware... just not their own person, more like a dog that can speak." Fumikage confirmed, though he wished there was a better way of saying it.
"But they're clearly not, I'm pretty sure Sadi is like some kind of twin that didn't grow right cause your egg ate his, that chimera sci-fi shit you hear about in magazines right? Wouldn't a blood test clear that shit up?" Bakugou argued and Fumikage was almost insulted Bakugou thought he didn't think of that.
"Our parents had us tested for that when Sadi appeared and all three labs confirmed we were not twins, that is why we stopped trying to convince people otherwise." Fumikage replied his tone a bit clipped.
Bakugou scowled for a bit slightly confused then his eyes widened and he got a feral grin that made Fumikage's animal-hindbrain panic for a second with how down right predatory the look was.
Before he could ask why Bakugou looked like that, the blonde grabbed his arm and started dragging them outside to the backyard "Bakugou?" Sadi questioned slightly worried and Bakugou smirked back at them.
"If those quacks can't prove Potty exists, then I'm going to prove it." Bakugou confidently told them.
"What?" Fumikage said shocked, what could Bakugou do to prove it? His quirk had nothing to do with this kind of thing and he was far from a credible scientist.
"If you're a chimera then Potty has to have a physical body inside you somewhere right? It ain't visible but it has to be somewhere and an x-ray can show that shit and no one can say they ain't real right?" Bakugou reasoned with a shit-eating grin.
Fumikage's mind stopped as he processed what Bakugou said... he was right and it would be so easy to do, why had he never realized that he had the perfect solution right in front of him? How many years did Sadi suffer for no other reason than him giving up too easily?
"But how are we supposed to convince them to give us an X-ray Fumi?" Sadi questioned and Fumikage knew it would be a hard sell as well.
Bakugou's grin waned "I'm going to blast you off your ass, say I had a fit or something, I've got enough... practice to do it without actually hurting either of you but it'd be more than enough reason to get them to take you in to make sure I didn't break one of your ribs or fracture your skull." Bakugou explained.
Fumikage's mouth fell open *That's your plan!* Fumikage thought in disbelief.
"But won't you get in trouble?" Sadi questioned concerned, bringing up an idea that hadn't occurred to him but was a valid point now that it was brought to mind.
Bakugou froze for moment then shrugged "Definitely, but you'll be free to live in your own house and I can live with that shit." Bakugou responded trying to brush it off.
Fumikage mouth opened then closed, that wasn't... okay. Fumikage would love to have Sadi able to talk with their parents but there had to be a better way than by throwing Bakugou under the bus.
"There's an old bridge in the woods, we can go outside and pretend I fell off it and hit my head." Fumikage offered instead and Bakugou paused with an eye raised.
"You know you'll have to actually take a swan dive to convince them Patchy and we can't guarantee you won't actually be hurt if you do that?" Bakugou pointed out making Fumikage's chest feel tight.
"Yes, and I'd rather live with that than force you to hurt me." Fumikage replied.
Bakugou's hand trembled slightly but he stiffly nodded "Okay, let's go throw you you penguins off a bridge then." Bakugou agreed and Sadi began giving Bakugou directions to the bridge, Fumikage following anxious but hopeful as they went outside
Five hours later with a slight headache Fumikage couldn't help smiling as he stared at the black and white print of an x-ray of his chest, there snuggled in with his stomach and liver was a hollow mass that the doctors had no idea what it was but Fumikage knew it had to be where Sadi lived inside him.
Their parents were discussing setting up a biopsy to see what it was considering the doctor didn't believe the mass was a tumor, once they got it done Fumikage was sure it would prove what Sadi was and He could finally re-introduce their parents to his sibling and their other child.
*It's finally happening Fumi!* Sadi chirped in his mind and he chirped right back, the fall had hurt and his ankle would need a month to heal but it was absolutely worth it *Fumi, Fumi! We need to find something really pretty and shiny to give Bakugou!* Sadi told him and Fumikage couldn't help nodding his head.
Bakugou had just done the impossible and soon Sadi would be free to roam their own home and freely help him with things, Bakugou truly did deserve to get something special for his part in this.