Fuck!

Bakugou thought as the sludge monster envelops his body, trying to take over. He sees a crowd gathered around to see his misfortunes while random heroes attempt to rescue him.

How did Bakugou end up in this unfortunate predicament? Let's start from the beginning…

In a world where everyone his age yearns for a strong quirk to become a hero, Bakugou is the only outsider. Bakugou Katsuki, by conventional means, is not a normal kid. He just wants to live a normal life, away from these so-called heroes and villains as possible. Although he can't recall any clear memories of his past life, he still retains some habits of his previous adult life.

One of them is a strong desire to never stand out. It kept him from telling the full truth when kids at the kindergarten asked what his quirk was.

"I can make small fireworks from the palm of my hands." Bakugou answered and lighted up tiny explosions with his hands, showing his quirk to the kids clustered around him.

"That is so cool Bakugou!" The kids showered him in praise. "It's so pretty!"

"It's nothing special. I can't do much with it, anyway." Bakugou stopped the firework show and shrugged. Pointing to the kid with dragon-like wings, he said, "you can fly with your quirk. That's way cooler than what I can do."

Bakugou maintained this facade of mediocrity throughout his kindergarten and middle school. No matter what the subject is, Bakugou is always number three in the class. Perhaps the most annoying thing about lying low is enduring years of boring school lessons. For example, the current lecture about future careers. There is no point. Everyone in his class wants to become a hero.

Right after class ends, Bakugou prepares to go home by gathering his belongings into his backpack. Before he leaves the door, a neighboring classmate asks him, "Bakugou, where are you going for highschool? Any hero schools?"

"I don't think so. Hero life is not the lifestyle I want. I think I might pursue art." As Bakugou turns around to answer the question, he sees some of his classmates gather and surround Midoriya.

"HAHA, did you hear that? Bakugou doesn't want to become a hero. And he has an explosion quirk. But somehow Quirkless Midoriya here thinks he will get into freaking UA!" They sneer at Midoriya, looking like those stereotypical and one dimensional bullies in manga books.

Midoriya cowers, afraid to look up. Bakugou breathes out a sigh. He should have left earlier. But now, out of social obligations, he has to interfere.

"Thanks Kacchan, for helping me out back there." Midoriya says, catching up to Bakugou walking back home.

Bakugou nods. He stopped trying to correct the childish nickname Midoriya gave him in preschool. Trying to call Midoriya by Deku just backfired on him. Midoriya finds it endearing and thinks of it as a special symbol of their friendship. Just to clarify, they are not close friends. The only reason they know each other is because of their moms friendship and that they always end up in the same classroom for some odd reason.

They walk in silence for a while until Midoriya breaks the ice and asks in a quiet voice, "Kacchan, d-do you think I can become a hero?"

Bakugou stopped strolling, it's the first time Midoriya asked this question directly.

Midoriya always had this absurd hope that somehow without training, he could become stronger and be a pro hero.

Bakugou turned around and stared at Midoriya directly in the eye. "No" he says firmly.

Midoriya's eyes widened, "no?"

Bakugou sighed. "You can't become a pro hero when you can't even stand up for yourself," he said. "Why do you want to become a hero anyways. There are plenty of other career options that save people's lives. Like becoming a doctor or a firefighter. Why are you adamant on becoming a pro hero? It's time to grow up."

Midoriya is silent. He probably needs time to process and to accept reality.

"Alright, I'm going to run some errands. See you tomorrow." Bakugou waves goodbye and heads towards the shopping district looking for more art supplies.

—-

How embarrassing, being held as a hostage by a villain in public. Bakugou hates being the center of attention like this. To make it worse, he also lost the brand new art supplies he just purchased.

BOOM!

Bakugou's anger reaches its peak and he explodes out of the sludge monster's grip with his hands. Fire and explosions engulfed the city street, changing the color of the sky to red for a brief second. Broken shards of glass and debris of concrete flies everywhere.

However Bakugou doesn't even have the time to reconcile before the sludge villain regenerates and recaptures him. "What a perfect skin suit with a powerful quirk! Stop resisting and accept your fate! No matter how hard you try, I can always regenerate. You and I will be one and become the most powerful villain!"

Fucking bastard! I will make you wish you were dead! I can't…breathe…

Bakugou's vision starts to blur from the lack of oxygen. He tries to calm down and think of a way out. He could turn the entire sludge bastard into a bomb and ignite it. But since he is stuck inside the sludge monster, he would be obliterated as collateral damage.

Why is it so hard to live a normal and peaceful life?

"No, you idiot! Stop! You're gonna get yourself killed." Suddenly Bakuou heard someone yell while a familiar green thing rapidly approached him…it's Midoriya!

How pathetic, he doesn't need anyone to save him!

Taking the distraction as an opportunity, Bakugou twisted and let out a deep breath of air he had been holding. It forms a bubble-like air shield and propels him out of the sludge monster. Explosions followed. This time, finishing the sludge villain for good.

When dust settled, there was no trace of the sludge villain. Only an uninjured Bakugou remains in the arms of a middle aged absurdly muscular dude. Another one of those heroes…"You mind letting me down, old man?"

"Old man?! Ahem, I mean of course." He lets Bakugou down gently. "Good job kid! You did great!" The old man gave a big thumbs up to Bakugou and flashed a smile so bright that it could blind people's eyes.

Ahhh, now Bakugou remembers. This old man is the so-called symbol of peace Midoriya has been obsessed with since he could remember. All Might, the number one hero in the hero rankings. Why couldn't he have come sooner? Then he wouldn't need to expose his aerokinesis after a decade of hiding.

"Thank you." Bakugou calmly dusts off the debris from his clothes, prepared to leave behind perhaps the most embarrassing event of his life. He feels his nails growing.

He has to get out of here ASAP before all those reporters swarming around All Might realize he is gone.

"Wait up, Kacchan! That was amazing! What you just did. Your quirk is so powerful! I didn't know you had a dual quirk? Explosions and air shields, attack and defense! Imagine all the people you can rescue if you become a hero!" Midoriya rambles, certainly more enthusiastic than ever.

Bakugou rolled his eyes. "Midoriya Izuku. Let me be clear once and for all. I despise being the center of attention. I will NEVER EVER become a hero."

Note:

uhh I finally recovered this account so I'll copy over what I had in ao3 over...