Chapter 16
Jessylane318
-Bakugou-
Up to Chapter 52 of TBAH: Family.
.
Bakugou Katsuki examines the competition flatly, less than impressed with any of them. Some extra squirting acid, an idiot with a hardening quirk, a pervert with stupid hair… He purposefully doesn't look at the green-fucking-deku. Stalking, persistent, annoying nerd. He's gonna beat his ass if he considers him long enough.
So he turns instead to the highest rankers, identified easily by that stupid waste-of-time exam.
Red and white hair, scar on his eye. Ice quirk. Easy enough to deal with.
Hot blood pumps through his arteries and he turns.
Dark hair, dressed in some stupid ninja get up, and quiet. It'd looked like a solid, shadow sort of quirk. Similar to the bird head.
Like either of them will be a problem.
He was the best.
Would continue to be the best.
Number One was where he was heading and he'd step on all these stupid looking extras to get there.
"We'll go in two teams at a time," All Might—freaking All Might was his teacher, hell yeah!—says, drawing four random names from a box. "Our first round will have Hoki and Mineta as the villains against Bakugou and Iida, the heroes."
He can feel the heat searing all the way to his head.
Teeth bared, he grins.
Time to show these fuckers!
.
.
.
The battle that follows is fast and loud. Ignoring the stuck-up extra prattling on about plans and suggestions, Bakugou stares instead at the building ahead, counting seconds until the timer buzzes. Finally.
"Bakugou-kun!"
He ignores the long-legged idiot, blasting ahead and tearing through the entrance.
Just his luck they're there waiting.
"Oh fuck yeah! I'm gonna blast you two-bit extras to hell!"
"Wait-"
The world deafens into explosive noise. He throws out his arms, two fiery blasts exploding towards the girl. She runs. Dodging behind a corner of the wall, he catches sight of smoke, of that little ball-headed moron racing back and suddenly there are tentacles beneath him.
Tentacles.
Lazily, as if someone had tied them back, they sweep at his feet. He jumps out of range, teeth clenching. He watched her manifest fucking spider legs out her back, what the hell was this shit?
They climb, nearly flat ends spazzing like dumb worms.
"What the fuck!"
Twisting mid-air, he explodes his quirk behind him, launching forward. The moron isn't even properly hidden, expression mixed into surprise. He sneers, blowing past her weak-ass defense and aiming a blow directly at her chest.
He can feel the heat on his face, the taste of victory in the-
Something quick as lightning reaches for his ankle.
His breath catches, pain ricocheting across his back—something slams him into the wall.
What the…
Electric, vicious energy rises—it has him grinning, has him dragging himself from the debris. Yes. A challenge—
Only when he finds her, finds the source, he's disgusted at shaking pale features.
Dark eyes, overlapping green-
"Ka-chan! Ka-chan!"
The feeling of imaginary slime pours against him, choking his breath.
"Fuck you," Bakugou snarls, pulling himself from the smoke cloud, hand reaching up to swipe at the imaginary liquid. He's not weak. He's not. "You're holding back!"
The shadows retreat. Curling tightly and wreathing against the moron.
"Obviously."
What's left of his patience snaps. Inferno snapping inside him, he glowers at the girl. She thought he was that weak? She thought she'd beat him holding back?
"Fuck that!" he snaps, white hot light already expanding in his bracers. "I want everything you've got!"
He readies himself for a fight. Steadies himself for the match that shows this stupid class once and for all, he's the best. The air contracts around him, the taste of nitroglycerin and smoke in the air-
She ducks and runs.
What the-
"Oh hell no-"
The explosion blows through what's left of the walls, tearing through glass and doors, and he braces against the heat—plows through it with the practice of a thousand attempts.
"Get back here!" is lost in the chaos.
He watches her stumble, grins ready to pounce-
Those shadows are back. Twice as fast and just as strong. He dodges the first, slammed by the second in a wall. Or at least, it tries. He sees it coming, jumping over a tentacle and using it to launch himself at the girl. He blasts forward, vindicated as she closes her eyes and braces-
"Fuck!"
An chest-sized something exploding from her arms, knocking him back and shoving him over debris.
He expects the girl to get up, to take the initiative—to fight!
He wants to curse as she runs. Again.
What is this, fucking tag!?
He's going to string her up by her fucking ankles. This fight should have been over.
He drags himself to his feet regardless though, wiping away sweat and blood and smoke, and he catches her in a stairwell, furious as she tries to fucking jam the door.
Blowing it off its hinges feels good.
"Stop fucking away, damn it, and fight me!"
He follows as she throws herself up the stairwell middle, shadows sling-shotting her as she stares back with massive, terrified eyes. She doesn't stop. Doesn't speak. He blows through the stupid fucking tentacle when it tosses him, and, clambering onto the stairs after being tossed into a railing, snarls.
"I'm gonna kill you, you scabby bitch!"
The slam of the door behind her as she runs is infuriating. He screams, explosions popping behind as he tears straight through it.
She's halfway down the hall.
"Gotcha!" he grins.
There's not time for hiding now. No nearby furniture. Explosions roar in the hall and Bakugou flies forward, a manic grin forming as he realizes finally—finally she was going to fight.
Doors are ripped off their hinges, she holds them out like shields. He lands on one with enough power to indent it. Knocking the girl back, he sails overhead, ready for the duck—it's a feint. He reverses the momentum with a powerful explosion, leg slamming into one arm and shoving her finally all the way to the floor.
The darkness rears, but he's ready—already tired of these same, useless tricks. He blasts away claws, tearing through them-
He just doesn't expect her to roll.
Hands clawing at his uniform, she's straddling him in seconds, liquid shadows raining down circling, flooding-
Flooding his mouth. Thick and tar-like and sludge. It claws at his throat, pawing at his ears, arms—he's going to drown in it-
A beam of light explodes at his chest.
Shuddering and breaking through the darkness in an instant. Shadows disperse like morning fog, what's left clawing at the girl's head, climbing down her open mouth and throat.
He remembers the sensation, eyes wide.
Silent horror as if time had suspended itself just for this.
What…
The hell?
Except she chokes and swallows. Body slumping forward. The smell of his smoke lingering with her hot breath against his neck.
It's all he needs. He shoves her aside, and in one fluid motion has tape out and around her wrists. She doesn't move, and he doesn't care. He needed to win.
.
.
.
The next time he sees those shadows, they're at the USJ.
Crashing through the front of the building like a fucking wave.
He nearly seethes.
Holding back.
She wasn't holding back. She wasn't even trying.
She'd given him nothing.
Explosions crackle in his palms.
"H-Hey man! You good?"
She'd taken one look at these villains and judged them worthy, but him-
"Dude-"
Bakugou ignores the shitty-haired moron, explosions shoving him forward.
He'd be the best, damn it.
He'd be the best, and he'd make sure everyone recognized it!
.
.
.
"What the hell was that?"
Bakugou snarls as he grabs the idiots shirt and drags her forward. Eyes narrowed, lips curled back, and teeth gritted. His entire body radiates with disgust. And she just dangles there. Dark hair swept back, expression numb.
Like she doesn't even fucking care.
There's something wrong with her. He's absolutely positive of it.
"What?" she asks, and the boredom snags at every fiber of his being.
Best. Win. Conquer.
He rattles her by the shirt, so beyond pissed he hopes it shakes something on. This was a competition! A competition and she was doing that bullshit. He wanted tidal waves. Wanted effort.
Winning by proxy isn't winning at all!
"You were third and you just fucking gave up! You helped that fucking Deku and then walked! What the fuck! You fucking choked!"
She digs her feet into the ground, one hand rising to cover his fist.
"I don't care."
Infuriating!
"The fuck is your problem, you scabby piece of shit?" he snarls. Why the hell won't you fight?
"You," she snaps, leaning forward and stomping at his foot. It's so fucking plebian that he avoids it easily. But she makes her point. The two of them are drawing a scene. Even the teachers, still up in the stands look concerned.
Concerned about him.
Keh.
"Dude, that's so unmanly-"
"Shut up Shitty hair," he growls, releasing her and stepping back. "You fucking give up like that again and I'll beat your ass for a month!"
He can see exactly how ineffectual it is, until an idea sparks. A wide-eye purple-balled hair glaring behind her. That stupid weak-ass pervert. He smirks. "Actually, you do that shit again, and I'll beat that little purple shit's fucking face in for a month."
She stiffens, sparking.
Good. Finally.
"Leave Mineta alone."
"No," he sneers, too excited by the fight, by the prospect of a real win. "Make me."
"Dude!"
Bakugou walks away, unbothered by the hissing, spitting creature at his back. Better angry than fucking dead. He ignores his classmates, catching fucking Deku's eye and ignoring him too. Shitty nerd. He can feel those calculating green eyes, almost hear the stupid fucking mutters.
1st place.
Of all people, she'd given him fucking first.
There was no way in hell he wasn't taking it back.
He'd be number one.
Always.
.
.
.
The festival passes in a blur.
He triumphs over each stage.
He watches her too. Dark hair, fury written in her every stance. She blows through the extras like he does. Like that half-and-half bastard, and he's ready for their fight. Ready for the finality. Matched against the girl that fought a fucking villain (a real one and not one of those extras left on the sidelines) he'd win. He'd settle it for certain.
Except those fucking extras interfere.
"Anybody seen Iida-kun?"
"Oh, I think he went to find Hoki-chan?"
"Hoki?"
"Yeah, someone said she was crying."
Crying.
The wimp that returns is even more pathetic than that numb idiot staring dumbly back. It's… It's maddening. Beyond irritating. He scoops up that purple shrimp and is halfway over the balcony before anyone can stop him.
"YOU FUCKING IDIOT! FIGHT HIM! DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP! YOU SCABBY-NECKED BITCH-"
The girl that makes eye contact is pathetic.
He lets the extras drag him back, ignoring all their chastening and the little grape-ball's sobs, furious.
Quitter.
It gets even worse when the ice bastard throws out fucking fire at the nerd, but can't be bothered to use it to face him.
Insulting. Insolent bastards.
He wins pathetically.
He tosses the metal later, disgusted.
A win like that wasn't a win at all.
.
.
.
Things don't go any way he plans though.
His internship is weird as hell. The shadow girl is weird as hell. That damn nerd keeps copying him, and the extras seem to think they were friends. Bakugou scowls. Glowering across the lunch mess at the dark-haired girl sitting alone.
The red-head, Shitty hair or something, follows his sight, blinking at the empty space normally filled by that gen. ed. kid. Fucking weirdo.
The shadow idiot was always picking up weirdoes. First that little pervert, then that loser.
He looks away and eats, annoyed when the red-head starts asking questions.
"Dude, you think her boyfriend ditched?"
Pinky awws. The dumbass battery perks excitedly.
He skewers the other boy with a death glare and Red laughs, dragging himself from his seat and grinning some shark-y grin.
"I'll go check! Hey wish me luck, maybe I can even get her to sit here!"
Bakugou doesn't care.
Doesn't care when the girl walks back, and certainly doesn't care when she smiles.
Extras. He only cared that when they fought, he was gonna get a real win.