God damn it.
"Ha! Get ready, Deku, because I'm gonna fucking kill you," Bakugou said from across the group.
This was the worst possible outcome. Izuku was going to be fighting Bakugou, and that was bad enough, but Bakugou was in the hero role in this specific scenario, which meant that Izuku would have to play the villain. The way he saw it, Izuku couldn't win on any front in this fight. Physically, Bakugou had the better Quirk. He could do more things with it than Izuku could with his, so he was screwed in terms of firepower. Utility, too, as Bakugou had recently displayed the ability to hover off the ground, meaning he had superior mobility. Izuku was also at a disadvantage in the sense that this would only add fuel to Bakugou's fire regarding his intense hatred of everything Izuku is. He'd taken to thinking that his Quirk was inherently evil, and that he was fated to be a villain because of it. His favourite taunt was 'killer'. It made Izuku's skin crawl, but he could ignore it most days. This didn't look like one of those days.
"That doesn't sound like a hero," Izuku said simply, and committed himself to not looking at Bakugou. The two of them, along with their teammates, began walking behind All Might as he guided them toward the building they'd be using as their playground in a few minutes.
"Hey, what do you think the weapon looks like? I know All Might said it was a bomb, but that doesn't really tell us anything, y'know?" Uraraka asked from Izuku's other side.
Oh, that was right. He was also working with Uraraka, which added onto his steadily increasing worries about this whole situation. That would've been fine normally, even preferred, but he was having issues meeting her eyes today, or any part of her, really. Izuku took a few moments as they walked to calm himself down and tell himself, in no uncertain terms, that his messed up feelings could wait until after this shitshow was over. Following that, Izuku turned to Uraraka and did his best to smile, before he remembered he was wearing a mask, and that was kind of pointless. He did anyway.
"I don't know. I hope it's not overly bulky, otherwise moving it would be more trouble than it's worth," Izuku said.
"Yeah, but with my Quirk, that's not a problem!" Uraraka said, waving to him in a way that showed off the little pads on her fingertips that her Quirk gave her.
Right. He had to account for the Quirks of their teammates in this fight as well. Uraraka's Zero Gravity, while wonderful and useful for a great many things, likely wouldn't be much use in a straight brawl due to both Bakugou and Iida's superior mobility. Those two were going to move fast and hit hard, and Izuku and Uraraka just didn't have that kind of power. They had utility powers, good for moving things or clearing an area, not fighting. A nagging feeling pulled on Izuku's mind when he considered this, and he knew what it was about. He could have an excellent Quirk for fighting if he'd just stop being scared of it. He couldn't help how his hands started shaking when he thought about using his Quirk on a person, how the sweat ran down the back of his neck and his costume suddenly felt so stiflingly warm. Izuku managed to keep himself quiet about it, but he became more and more uncomfortable with this whole thing the closer they got to the building.
The five of them stopped in front of a normal looking building.
"Alright, this is the one. The villain team gets to enter first, then the heroes after five minutes have passed, which starts when you make contact with the bomb. I must go now, to lead your classmates to the observation area. Good luck, you newbies!" All Might said, before vanishing in a blinding display of speed.
As the wind died down after All Might's exit, Izuku and Uraraka nodded to each other and walked through the threshold, officially starting their five minute lead. They made their way up the building, looking for the bomb. They eventually found it on the third floor out of five, in a room by the left corner furthest from the building's entrance. It was a large, round thing, clearly based on a nuclear warhead, but it wasn't very heavy. Izuku could probably carry it by himself, as it was made of foam. That would be an issue with Bakugou's fire-based attacks. Maybe that was a parameter of the exercise itself; not destroying the bomb as a hero, which would kill everyone if the simulation was to be treated like reality. All Might had made it clear that they were to behave as if they were really heroes and villains clashing over possession of a weapon. That meant that Bakugou was liable to disqualify his own team with an attack. Izuku could work with that. If he could make Bakugou somehow destroy the bomb, then he wins. After all, the only thing that separated heroes and villains once the fighting started was the willingness to end lives to achieve a goal, even their own. The bomb going off prematurely was likely a win condition for the villain team, so Izuku could use that to his advantage.
As Izuku imagined himself fighting against Bakugou, working out his plan, he felt himself become short of breath. He started sweating again, feeling his hair start to stick to the back of his neck. Izuku suddenly felt as though his mask was suffocating him, and ripped it off with fervour, and the sudden inrush of fresh, unfiltered air with the first big breath he took after that made him dizzy. He stood there for a while, not breathing and not moving an inch, until he swayed slightly due to the dizziness. There was a hand on his shoulder immediately, holding him in place, and he looked around to see Uraraka beside him, gripping his shoulder firmly so that he wouldn't fall. His knees had become weak, and he couldn't seem to move.
The sensation of Uraraka's hand on his shoulder allowed him to snap out of it. He took in a ragged breath and tried to step away from her, because now the touch was suddenly too much, but he tripped over his own clumsy feet and fell to the ground, with his back to the wall. Uraraka retracted her hand as if she'd been burned. There was a look in her eyes, the sight of which still made Izuku's stomach squirm, a look of that same concern and hesitation, but that was immediately replaced with a more steady look, a kind of determination that Izuku had only seen in her before, with All Might. He looked away from her as he understood what was coming next, too embarrassed to even look at her.
"Are you okay?" Uraraka asked. Izuku knew that tone. She was asking, but she knew the answer.
"Yes. Don't worry about it. I'll be fine," Izuku said, his breathing still uneven and shaky.
"You will be fine? That means you're not right now, and I am worried about that. Midoriya, this has happened twice today. Something happens, and you become … I don't know, distant. Like you're not really here. Is something going on? D-do you not want to talk to me?" Uraraka said, beginning to fidget with her hands.
"What?" Izuku asked, taken by surprise. He shot up to his feet, still trembling slightly. "Of course not! You're fine. More than fine; amazing! Honestly, I don't even know why someone as great as you would want to be friends with me, so the last thing you should worry about is if I want that, too, because I do. Of course I do. The last thing you'd be to me is a problem."
The natural pinkness of Uraraka's face seemed to deepen, but Izuku hardly noticed it in favour of how intensely she was meeting his eyes. The question was implied, and Izuku struggled to find a good enough lie to cover him in this particular situation. He wouldn't get into it now, but he could at least let a little bit of the truth out without making himself seem like a total loser.
"I'm scared," he said, short and sweet.
"Of Bakugou?" Uraraka asked.
"Yeah. It's a long story, but he's gunning for me. I don't stand a chance against him. As much as I despise his attitude, and pretty much everything else about him, his Quirk is great. Even if I wanted to use my Quirk, I wouldn't have a shot against his ranged explosions," Izuku explained. He felt his hands start shaking again, but he curled them tight and refused to show Uraraka just how weak he felt.
"Well yeah, but this is school. He won't go all out to hurt you if there are teachers watching, right?" she asked.
He had to laugh at the memories that forced their way into his brain at the question from Uraraka. She didn't know, obviously, she couldn't have known, but he had done exactly that in the past. Setting his followers on him when he looked particularly villainous that day, all in sight of teachers who'd thought the same thing. It was all they could do to accommodate the future hero's proactive villain hunting.
"People see what they want to see. If they see Bakugou decisively crushing me, they'll see a brave, powerful young man in need of nurturing, not what he really is," Izuku said. He'd gotten control of his breathing, but his hands were still trembling badly, and Uraraka seemed to take note of that from how her eyes flickered down and back up while he spoke.
"And what is he?" Uraraka asked.
Izuku stayed silent. It wouldn't do him any good to spill his life story to Uraraka here and now. She didn't have to know all that. Izuku focused on getting himself together, but something else prevented him from planning for the exercise any further.
"Five minutes are up! Heroes may enter the building!" All Might's voice rang out from the earpieces in their costumes.
Crap, how long had he been out of it? Never mind that now, he had to tell Uraraka his half-baked plan to make Bakugou destroy the bomb. He ran through it in his head. It was pretty barebones, more of a single idea than a step-by-step instruction, but it would have to do.
"My plan to deal with Bakugou is to bait him into attacking the bomb, hypothetically making it blow and causing the heroes to fail," Izuku said hastily.
"Okay! Let's do this," Uraraka replied, energetically pumping her fists in the air. Izuku pulled his mask back up onto his face to hide the small blush and smile that overtook his lower face.
There was less than a second of silence before a loud boom rang out from outside. That had to be Bakugou entering the building. Izuku's hands were still shaking. Was that going to interfere with the pressure commands that the gloves worked with? He didn't know. The time limit was fifteen minutes; Izuku wasn't sure he could hold out that long if Bakugou didn't fall for his plan. That was probably what was going to happen. Bakugou would figure out the trick and just blow Izuku away. He wouldn't be able to do anything against the overwhelming force that was Katsuki Bakugou. All the memories of Bakugou hunting him down after school to 'play' hero and villain came rushing back. This was like that, but a dozen times worse, because now he was being officially endorsed by All Might himself to go after Izuku like he was an animal that needed to be put down.
Izuku looked over to Uraraka, noting that she was breathing in unnaturally deep, measured draws of air. That was when he realised that she must have been scared, too. Izuku was in his head about his own worries, when Uraraka was right next to him, on his team, in the same exact spot with even less to go on regarding how to combat Bakugou and Iida. All of his ramblings about how he was unbeatable were probably making it worse for her. Bakugou and Iida were both in the top five of Aizawa's tests yesterday. Meanwhile, Uraraka and himself were in the mid-to-low tier of the class, at tenth and fourteenth respectively. That meant that they were vastly underpowered for this fight, but they were in it together. He couldn't be dragging them down even further with his negative self-talk and anxiety.
Knowing that, Izuku made a choice. He decided to ignore all of his worries and focus on his plan. It needed to work for them to win, and so it would. Uraraka had agreed to his plan just now with no hesitation whatsoever. She had placed her complete trust in Izuku. He wasn't about to let her down.
He walked over to the door, turning back to Uraraka on the way. As he walked backwards, he knocked his mask down and smiled as best he could. This got Uraraka's attention, and her eyes were on him as he kicked the door open behind him and gave her a thumbs up.
"I'll deal with Bakugou. Iida's legs are his weapons, but also probably his weak spot, so if he goes to kick you, take advantage of that," Izuku said.
Izuku then refitted his mask and pulled his hood up. Uraraka liked it, so he'd wear it properly. He barely got a glimpse of the light flush on her cheeks and the wide, bright smile that Uraraka sent his way at his farewell, but oh, was it doing things to him. He'd be thinking about that for a while. Izuku needed to focus up, though, because there was a loud, consistent series of bangs and booming noises coming from what sounded like the floor below him. Bakugou was making his way through the building, and would come upon him in no time.
Understanding that he'd wasted too much time already, Izuku broke out into a sprint as he heard the door to the bomb chamber close behind him. He made his way toward the stairwell as fast as he could, hearing the sounds of Bakugou's advancement from the floor below. He had to think of a way to at least delay Bakugou, if not stop him in his tracks completely. Izuku knew that he was never going to completely stop him, so delaying Bakugou had to be his play. When he burst into the stairwell through the door, Izuku immediately began looking around at things he could use to get in the way of the stairs leading to his floor. There weren't any loose objects around that he could throw, but … if he used his Quirk, Izuku could make debris. Was it worth it? All Might mentioned an observation area, so the class was watching him right that second. He hadn't exactly put his best foot forward yesterday, and that was likely still in the forefront of their minds when it came to Izuku, so was it the best course of action to display his Quirk so openly so soon? He didn't know. He had to do something, though, so he didn't really have a choice but to use it right now.
Bakugou broke through the door on the floor below. Izuku had to act now. What to do specifically was still in question, though. There wasn't a whole lot that he could use loose rubble for, and he couldn't just go around Decimating things at random. Seeing Bakugou's blond hair poke out as he climbed the stairs, Izuku activated the pressure-sensor in his costume, causing the tips of his two metallic finger-guards to snap up onto the tops of said fingers and allow him to use his Quirk. Izuku looked around once again as Bakugou came into full view, seething with what looked like a euphoric anger.
"Well, at least you've got some balls, Deku. Come to face me like a man, eh?" Bakugou growled.
"Like a man? That's wack and you know it," Izuku said, trying his best to stall for time as he put a plan together. Of course, he did mean what he said, but he was kind of just putting his mouth on autopilot while his brain tried its best to put up the immovable object to Bakugou's unstoppable force.
"Nah, you know what's wack? You coming to UA even though I told you not to apply, asshole. What are you even trying to do? Your power's only good for killing! Why do you think that you can stand on the same stage as me with such a villain's Quirk?" Bakugou rambled.
"I'll be a hero, Bakugou. Just watch me. I want to help people, which already makes me better right now than you'll ever be," Izuku said. He'd figured out something that could work, so now he just needed Bakugou to attack him.
Luckily for him, Bakugou was no longer interested in standing around and talking after that insult. The blond began to stomp up the steps, his palms sparking with held in power. Izuku adjusted his stance and shifted to the side, facing the window on the other end of the landing Izuku was standing on. He reached back, his arm hidden from Bakugou's sight due to the angle, and pressed on the wall with all five of his fingers, activating Decimation. Izuku dug his fingers into the concrete, carving out a piece of the wall and turning it to dust in his hand. He held onto the dust, closing his fist around it and keeping his attention on Bakugou.
Bakugou, probably wanting a more personal, climactic battle to sate his need to live like the heroes they'd read about in comics and manga when they were young. Izuku used this to his advantage, as when Bakugou stepped onto the landing and stood over him, throwing his hand back to throw a blast at him, Izuku threw the dust in his hand at the blond's face, pelting it right at his eyes. It looked to be a success, with Bakugou abandoning his attack and wiping at his face for a moment. That moment was all that Izuku needed, though, as he then launched the second part of his attack.
Izuku leapt upward, using Bakugou's still body as a springboard and, while he was rising into the air, activated the second pressure-sensor in his costume, freeing his second hand for Decimation. He then got as high as he could in that one leap and reached out to the ceiling, but found that he didn't have quite enough power in his legs to reach a whole other floor, pretty much, with one jump, even if he'd been given a platform to launch off of. That plan was a bust. Instead, Izuku activated both pressure-sensors and sealed his gloves as he fell back toward Bakugou, who was just now regaining his vision. Too bad that Izuku came back down on him right at the very moment he opened his eyes again, elbowing him in the stomach and knocking the wind out of him, as well as sending the two of them to the ground.
Using the few brief seconds he'd get from stunning Bakugou once again, Izuku immediately set off up the stairs. He got about halfway up before he heard the strangled shouting of Bakugou, presumably telling him to stay still. Izuku wasn't about to give up his only advantage; Bakugou didn't know how he'd prepared for UA. He couldn't do weightlifting, or hand-to-hand combat, or anything extreme like that, but he did work on cardio during his runs, and he did practise parkour and freerunning in his spare time, so he had that going for him. He knew how to move, and so he'd used that as best he could to claw the upper hand away from Bakugou during this fight.
As he rounded the turn and started up the second flight of stairs leading to the floor above, Izuku pressed the sensor on his costume, releasing his hands for Decimation. He then got low and slowed down, dragging both hands behind him along the stairs as he climbed them. This began spreading hairline cracks along the concrete surfaces, and if Izuku was correct, causing small failures in the structural integrity of the flight of stairs. He got to the top of that flight and immediately turned around to press his hands on the final step, leaving it for a few moments as the ground underneath Izuku slowly began to crack and break apart, but not fall just yet. He'd Decimated enough of it to leave it weak, unsafe to climb, but it wouldn't completely collapse until someone actually did try to walk up it. Speaking of, Bakugou came round the corner, in a full run, right as Izuku lifted his hands away and sealed his hands up again. There was no way that he was going to even potentially risk someone getting close to his hands when he was using his Quirk this much.
Luckily, that worry wasn't justified, as Izuku's plan went off exactly as he'd imagined it. About a quarter of the way up the stairs, they began to collapse under Bakugou. He barely made it a third of the way to Izuku before he fell to the area below, which was more stairs, but between the unexpected fall and the decently sized piece of debris and concrete that were falling on and around him, it was sure to do some damage and slow him down in the long run. Izuku watched carefully as Bakugou stayed still for a moment, seemingly unconscious. Then, he screamed. It didn't sound like a pain scream, as none of the truly dangerous pieces had fallen on him, it was more like a howl of rage that pierced Izuku's senses like nails on a chalkboard. It was something that sounded wrong, and Izuku felt like it was only an omen of things to come, a warning.
"Where do you get off pretending that you can be a hero, Deku? Look at this! Look at what you've done! Do you think this is what a hero does?" Bakugou screamed.
Izuku took in the scene of the wrecked area of the building, and suddenly felt a weight in his chest that hadn't been there before. This was the exercise. Izuku didn't want to be doing this, but it was what he'd been instructed to do. He was the antagonist of this make-believe scenario. He didn't like causing destruction. He'd been pushed into it without being able to talk about it with anyone. Just like … the first time his Quirk activated. He'd been confused, pushed into using this power to destroy, to kill, due to others bringing him to that point. This was no different. This was the same. It was the same. He was the same. Izuku was destroying because he'd been pushed. He'd been nudged in a direction and just gone with it. He should've fought it. He should've tried harder. If he had, maybe Bakugou would've respected him more. Maybe he'd have been saved the years of torment. Maybe he wouldn't have graduated primary school with a class a third the size of the others. Maybe Izuku wouldn't have ended someone who had only ever helped him. Maybe he'd be happy.
Izuku heard something in his ear, a voice. It had to be Uraraka, trying to talk with him on the communicators they'd been given, but it was strange. He couldn't hear her properly, like the earpiece was far away. Oh, it was happening again. Okay, Izuku just had to breathe. It'd be easy. He could do this. One breath in. No, that was just a tiny squeak that didn't even count as a word. Breathe. Still nothing. Oh, here came Bakugou again. That'd get his lungs working, probably. Nothing like a good whack upside the head to snap him out of it. At least, that's what everyone in middle-school used to think.
There was a great flash, and Bakugou was lifted into the air by his Quirk, one large blast launching him up toward the ledge Izuku had created. The blond grabbed onto the edge of the landing and immediately hauled himself up to stand over Izuku once again, staring into his eyes with that sharp glare that sent shivers down Izuku's spine. It was the first sensation that returned to him, right before Bakugou's gauntlet hit him on the temple, sending him to the ground. Izuku pressed his hands flat against the ground as he pushed himself along the ground with his feet, but his Quirk didn't activate. He remembered with a pang of fear that he'd sealed his hands up again after he'd set his trap. He felt his back hit the wall, and he realised that he was cornered by Bakugou here.
"See what I mean? You talk like you're hot shit, but when it comes down to it, you're a coward, Deku. A liar. You're not like us. Honestly, what did you think would happen? D'you think you'll just walk back into class and pretend to be one of them? No. You can't be a hero. You're weak. Worthless. Less than scum. You're a dirty killer, Deku, and now I'll show you what happens to villains when the heroes catch them. Don't blink, I want you to look when I kill you!" Bakugou yelled, and threw out his hands to aim point blank at Izuku's face.
A voice came from his earpiece, and Izuku was genuinely starting to doubt if it was broken or something, because it was just as far away and intelligible as Uraraka was. It sounded like All Might, though. After a moment of deep, focused breathing, Izuku felt the pins and needles that had started to spread across his body fade, and All Might's voice became crystal clear once again.
"Young Bakugou, you can stand down now. Young Iida has captured Young Uraraka and made contact with the bomb. The hero team wins!" All Might said.
Immediately, the look on Bakugou's face shifted from a kind of morbid delight in how he'd been playing with Izuku, to pure, unchecked hate. He seemed to consider something for a moment, his expression taking on a thoughtful quality, but it was only that split second where Bakugou seemed to pause for anything resembling contemplation. Then, his palms started glowing a searing hot yellow.
Izuku pushed on his costume's pressure-sensors and unleashed his Quirk on the nearest thing he could touch before the blast went off — Bakugou's own gauntlets. He knew that he put all five fingers on at least one of them, but he didn't get to see the result before a burst of blinding light and deafening sound erupted right in front of his face and he lost consciousness.
