no.1 hero (in training)

“Kacchan, no!” Now wasn’t the time to just charge in! There was a time and place for such tactics, certainly, but not when two ( frankly, ridiculous )  villains with impossible Quirks were out for blood. They had mentioned something about a traitor and that made Izuku’s blood run cold at wondering if there was any truth behind that statement ( or was it just all psychological play ? ) 

Regardless, now wasn’t also the time for him to dwell on it. Thankfully Todoroki was close enough to get a grip on Katsuki before he could go any farther. Then Todoroki threw up a wall of ice as means to distance themselves from Deep Space and Lunar Effect, but they moved quickly enough to join them behind it — now encasing them in even tighter quarters. And even though Todoroki hadn’t fought against Lunar Effect, Izuku had relayed some information about his fight the villain to the other. Now with Katsuki catching him up on Deep Space, at least the three of them stood on a bit more of even footing. 

( Tonight isn’t a full moon, which means Lunar Effect’s Quirk isn’t at its absolute peak. It might be a good time to test the strategy I have against potentially overcoming it. On the downside, if I’m wrong, I’ll put myself at a serious disadvantage for this fight … but assuming it won’t go on for long, it might be worth the risk. Furthermore, if Lunar Effect is using Madness, wouldn’t it be dangerous for Deep Space as well, if she got caught up in it? But she’s wearing a strange helmet on her head that she didn’t have last time. If that’s a way to protect herself from Madness — then that only bolsters my theory!   ) 

When leaving the dorms, after all, Izuku made a point of making sure he was caught on the cameras placed around, to make sure was monitoring them would catch him leaving at this. That meant it was only a matter of time before the pros arrived. He was being as responsible as possible.  

( Deep Space on the other hand … Todoroki’s fire is useless against her — not to mention I don’t know how he’ll be affected by Madness. Either way, we have to take her out first, since her oxygen deprivation is the more immediately dangerous element. ) 

Deep Space laughed while taking a step forward, as she said: 

“Let’s give the angry Pomeranian and his friends a taste of deep space, shall we?” 

And suddenly, all the air around them was sucked away. 

That awful, paralyzing feeling.

( → @ragexplosion​ ! ) 

                    Katsuki made the mistake of digging his heels into the ground for his own explosion, so when Todoroki grabbed onto the back of his shirt, giving him a hard yank, the fabric pulled tight against his chest and pushed him backwards off balance. He glowered at the wall of ice like it was an offence to him personally. It was. He didn’t need someone else’s tactics throwing him off. Half-n-Half should know when it came to close quarters combat, Katsuki knew what he was doing. He may not have pressed Deku for details on the attack but the woman wasn’t sporting any kind of physical enhancement Quirk that would mean she was resistant to a good right jab to the throat.

                   He had the luck of having inhaled hard to shout back another insult-- his mouth caught open and clamped shut tight when he felt the air around him start cooling, felt the breeze move toward her. At least having her close meant she didn’t have anywhere to run from another explosion. He slid his foot back and put out his hands again. Without oxygen, there was a limit to how big of an explosion he could make. He swallowed hard like that might push more air into his lungs. If he got in close-- if he knocked her out now. Maybe he could get her out of the way. Then they just had to deal with Top Hat Idiot Man and he had a glass jaw if memory served.

                   Without waiting on Deku or Half-n-Half again, he rushed forward, one hand extended. Calculated risk, feeling the initial vibration in his palm, bang! The sound barrier shattering explosion, a rush of gasses leaving his palm as the nitroglycerin broke down, enough pressure to shove the gas right into the woman’s face. Not close enough. He should have waited another step, she was moving out of the way-- Shouto’s ice wall took a bulk of the blast, and he covered his face with one arm, trying not to inhale hard. He probably should have warned his classmates not to breathe. Usually the gas from his explosion wasn’t a big deal, or a threat, to himself or his enemies. It just dissipated quickly in the natural air. Without natural air, that was a little more difficult.

                   This kind of fight called for decisive, immediate action. There was no time to waste worrying.

「 I do know how to use a sword, 」 Shouto said, and this was true to an extent. He could, in fact, use a blade to handle brigands and monsters that the group came across. However, his skills were clearly lacking in comparison to people like Tenya and even Izuku (but the latter wasn’t exactly a fair comparison: Izuku’s hand was being guided by all of the people who had used his sword before him). 「 There’s always room for improvement, is all. 」 It was just that, in Shouto’s case, there was quite a bit of said improvement room. 

Fingertips went to his neck, dabbing at the spot where Katsuki’s blade had pierced his skin. A few minuscule flecks of blood came off on his fingertips—nothing of real concern. Call him pompous, but in the back of his mind, he wondered if it would stain the collar of his shirt. If it did, he wouldn’t care, made clear by the fact that many of his clothes carried bloodstains now, but the thought occurred to him, regardless. 

「 We understood each other on that the first time that you said something along those lines. 」 How many times had Katsuki threatened him with death since then? Honestly, Shouto hadn’t bothered to keep track, considering that it was all bluff and hot air. 「 I think that we have bigger concerns than the idea that I might be lying. 」 They needed to focus on their enemies – on getting back to the palace and dethroning his father – and issues such as the natural elements.

                   “I prefer to focus on the immediate threat.” Katsuki practically hissed at him, sliding the edge of his blade along his pants to clean off the thin line of blood before he stuck it back into his belt. “And the immediate threat is the man sleeping among us who is keeping secrets and telling lies.” The King was far away, he was distant and for later. The next round of brigands and street thieves would surely be waiting to fall to them in the next town. The cold nights didn’t bother him and the heat was pleasant. He was far more adept than most here at hunting and preparing his own food. His highest threat was Shouto.

                  Katsuki reached his own hand up, his palm pushing into the thin line of blood on Shouto’s neck, half a threat to choke him half out of the fascination of his sun tanned skin against Shouto’s perpetually pale complexion. “My threats are not made without the promise of completing them, Half and Half liar.” He narrowed his eyes again and flared his nostrils, an expression not dissimilar from the dragon’s own huff of annoyance when not given what he wanted.

If Shouto was being honest, he wasn’t exactly happy with the fact that Katsuki decided to break their kiss. He’d just settled into it, and now he was left…wanting. Still, he knew better than to pull Katsuki back down to him and keep him there. He’d suppress that want this time. 

「Who told me…what, exactly? 」 Shouto legitimately had no clue as to what Katsuki was talking about, and while that confusion showed only slightly, it was genuine. Sexual orientation had never really been something thoroughly explained to him, considering that he was never around kids his age, so it never mattered. If Katsuki didn’t know that from the times that Shouto had asked him what ‘gay’ meant when he used it as an insult, then he was the oblivious one here—not Shouto. As far as he was concerned, if you liked someone, you liked someone. Whether or not they had the same sex or gender didn’t make a difference in that. 

Even then, why would he be doing this to mock Katsuki? He wasn’t the type to get his kicks out of making fun of people for things that he honestly didn’t care about. 「 I’m bad at making jokes. 」 That was his usual response when people laughed at something he’d said or someone asked if he was serious. 

Shouto pushed himself up onto his elbows, and once again, he was staring. He swore that he smelled some sort of hot pepper on Katsuki’s breath, and he wanted to kiss him again. A lightbulb seemed to go off in his head, based on his expression. 「 Is that what this is…? 」 Well, now he was unintentionally playing the pronoun game, which might unintentionally piss Katsuki off all over again.

                   He really hadn’t even considered it. Sometimes he was astounded by how easily Shouto missed obvious social shit. It seemed like he must be faking it or he might know but just didn’t want to say anything because it seemed like more effort to talk when he wanted to be quiet. He just... stared. Of course Shouto hadn’t even considered Katsuki’s attractions. Of course he had just... gone with his gut, and kissed him. Even if he didn’t know it, maybe Shouto had been picking up cues from Katsuki without even realizing that was what he was doing. It wasn’t as though Katsuki had ever looked at Shouto and thought-- well he just isn’t attractive.

                 “Fuck, you’re an idiot.” It was like trying to talk to a burned out Kaminari. How did he explain that he was angry about being mocked for liking guys-- because it seemed like people in this class always found something to mock about him, given his general attitude toward life-- and thought Shouto was just joining on the trend in order to fit in. Half the time now, he wasn’t being genuinely mocked but hit ego still didn’t like it.

                  Then Shouto was sat up, in his space again. Katsuki resisted the urge to lean back, out of his space, still processing that Shouto was actually genuine in expressing any kind of attraction to him. Katsuki had friends, obviously, but even then, people told him they couldn’t take him in large doses. His crew in middle school had followed him mostly out of habit, because he was the strongest, not because they liked him. Kirishima was the only person he considered a genuine friend in the class and even Kirishima told him he was impossible to be around sometimes. He’d been ass deep in a decent angry rant when Shouto had kissed him. Like he enjoyed listening to Katsuki going off on something.

herohalf:

        ( well.  .  . they weren’t stupid. a note threatening his mother was enough- subtracting his father from the equation and whether that was for their own benefit ( given his bastard old man’s strength ) or regarding the probability shouto wouldn’t actually appear, was smart nonetheless. ) 

he crumples it in his hand, frost slowly overcoming it before the paper freezes over– shattering into reflective shards within his grip without so much more than another move of an eyebrow. he grabs the map- walking away from his locker and slipping into a rather dark mood for the rest of that week as he considers everything now laid out before him. imagine– if he went to the police with this.  .  . oh, his father would be more angry about the media’s knowledge of where the woman spent her days than anything else. ( he would deserve it– but for her safety, her privacy shouto remains silent. )  

on that night– his hero costume was an absolute no, coming to the clearing in his p.e. clothes and an extra pair of spiked shoes ( a model vaguely inferior than those with his costume- but they would do for now ) he always kept hidden with the rest of his personal belongings inside the dorms. he arrives, alone at first and glancing around– alert until: 

‘ bakugou– midoriya.  .  . what are you doing here ? ’ and eyes round– immediately realizing something was absolutely not right. ‘ tch- so it’s like that– ’ this was a trap, specifically made for 3 students and no coincidence either, a villain wanted them dead. 

< @heromight​ >

Which villain had business with all three of them? Izuku knew two potential candidates had already been taken in by the police — was it someone else from the League of Villains? What would they gain from killing all three of them? The letter had said to “dress nicely” for his funeral, but Izuku came prepared in a T-shirt and basketball shorts with bracers on his arms and legs. But if there was three of them — well, that was a mistake, on the villain’s part. They all had suitably powerful Quirks. Together they’d make for a fearsome force. He remembered fighting Stain, still recklessly dangerous but survivable. 

“It’s a trap — you guys, we should stay close together,” Izuku said aloud, looking up at the treetops for any sign of an attack. They were met with a girlish giggle. 

“Those clothes aren’t very funeral appropriate, now are they? So unstylish!” 

Appearing from the dark behind them was none other than Deep Space, and with her, Lunar Effect. Izuku’s eyes widened. ( How is that possible? They were both arrested, I check the hero news every single day, there was no word about their escapes ?! ) 

Lunar Effect made a grand show of bowing, a smirk curled upon his lips.

“Let’s just say it’s difficult to contain my Quirk. So long as the lunar cycle exists … anyone and everyone can be touched by my Madness. And look — it’s almost my favorite time of month!”

While it wasn’t quite a full moon, it was close — waxing gibbous. That was how Lunar Effect left a trail of bodies in wake before freeing every single villain at the facility he was being held at, That was how he met Deep Space and they discovered their commonality — wanting revenge on the baby heroes who made a mockery of them. 

“Even if you were able to escape, how were you able to get those notes to us? If you stepped foot on U.A.’s campus, you would have been caught immediately,” Izuku continued, trying to buy all of them precious time. A combination of Deep Space’s oxygen deprivation plus Lunar Effect’s madness was the worst possible combination to fight against. 

To which Lunar Effect replied: 

“Silly boy. Don’t you know there’s a traitor in your midst?” 

→ ( @ragexplosion​ ) 

                    Katsuki wasn’t sure if the bubbling rage in his blood was an effect of the idiot in the top hat he’d already knocked out once before-- or if it was just that he was so fucking sick of this guy’s face and it was already one minute into the encounter. His fist met his palm. He didn’t want to listen to stupid talk. He moved toward the pair of villains, slowly, giving them a wicked grin.

                     “Who gives a fuck how they got out, Deku. They just invited us to come kick their dumb asses all over again.” He wasn’t interested in any traitor theory bullshit, or listening to the laundry list of perfect plans that came together in order for Lunar Effect and this bitch next to him to get out. It wasn’t going to accomplish anything. What was going to accomplish something was him sticking his fist in their faces until he killed them. Or close enough. “I’ll just get them both myself while you two stand there looking like fucking idiots.”

                      Not to mention, he had no idea how Todoroki was going to take to Lunar Effect’s particular skill. It was already tried and true he could keep the clearest head between him and Izuku. In fact, Izuku went completely off the rails for quite a while, only managing to push through the murk and slop that Lunar Effect left in the mind when a bullet was literally sailing toward an unsuspecting Katsuki. And even then, perhaps Lunar Effect had given up his grip, seeing how close he was to the end of the fight.

                        He may be rash, but he wasn’t an idiot. He had no idea what this woman’s Quirk boiled down to. The news hadn’t been clear and he hadn’t exactly wanted to talk to Deku or Half-n-Half enough to find out. He kept a small distance between them when he stopped walking, lifting up his hand. A big explosion-- separate them. He had no idea if she was going to enhance Lunar Effect’s Quirk or if she would end up separating anyway, but it was better to keep the battle in his control. Lunar Effect needed to be on the reacting end of the battle, not allowed to control action the way he did on the train.

Izuku opened his locker one morning at the begging of the week and was met with a terrifying letter. 

It was sealed in a pristine envelope with no hint as to whom might have sent it. When he opened it and read its contents — he felt his heart drop and his stomach twist into knots. 

Dear Midoriya Izuku, 

You are being formally invited to a very special affair. More information about the time and date are listed in the map below. You’d do well to keep this information to yourself. If you tell anyone else — your teachers, your friends, All Might ( granted, he’s rather useless now, isn’t he? that retired bag of bones! )  — if you refuse to show up or try something covert to come with backup,  then you’ll be putting someone you love at risk: your beloved mother! You wouldn’t want to see her hurt, right? Right?

Now that we’re on the same page, we look forward to meeting you then! 

P.S. — Please dress nicely to your funeral! 

♥

The right thing to do would have been to tell someone. Anyone. But Izuku didn’t, for very obvious reasons. So he spent the rest of the week unnerved. Jittery more so than usual and unable to sleep. His friends asked him what was wrong, but he was unable to give them answers, so he fed them lies instead. And then came Saturday, in the middle of the night, Izuku snuck off campus to go where directed — deep into the dark woods a few miles outside of U.A.’s campus. 

Izuku expected to be met alone, by villains of some sort more than likely. He was ready to fight What he didn’t expect was to stumbled into two of his fellow classmates, both clinging onto the same map. 

“Kacchan? Todoroki-kun — ?!” 

Was this some kind of a joke? 

No — he didn’t think it was quite that. 

There was something very wrong. 

It was too quiet. 

@ragexplosion

                   Katsuki didn’t take kindly to being told what to do. He didn’t take kindly to much, but especially not being told what to do. His hand clenched around the letter left in his bag. In his things. Someone could have gone through his things-- not just someone, a villain. And a villain smart enough to somehow get into his things, and leave a note threatening his parents. Before he knew it, the letter was in flames in his hand, exploding outward. He had the map, still. But no proof to give to anyone otherwise that a villain was threatening his mother and father.

                    Without proof, people would just... think he was paranoid. So he’d do it himself, he’d go save his parents himself and then it’d be over and he could get the fucking credit he deserved. His behavior was easy to explain away, only a few people even bothering to note he was somehow more irritable than normal. And sneaking out was equally easy. UA was designed to be impossible to get into, not out of. And they had clearly never consulted his mother on how to keep teens from getting out of the house in the night.

                   He arrived on scene without his uniform-- there was no way he was going to get that out without getting caught. He was in the closest thing possible, his work out clothes. If anyone questioned him, he’d say he was a teen on a run. He had a plan for that. His plan if someone recognized him to say he was doing a training exercise and then vanish before they could check with a teacher. He even had a plan if the villains had a trap in the middle of the clearing he was told to meet in-- but he didn’t have a plan for walking out of the back alley he had come in by to see Deku walking up through the street lights like an idiot-- or to see Half-n-Half there already.

                     “The fuck is happening here.” Come to think of it... this park should still have the odd couple strolling around, but Katsuki hadn’t seen anyone on the street when he’d come around to it. Not even a homeless person.

『 ⇣☂⇣ 』THE CONTRADICTION in his statements had shown itself much more quickly than she’d anticipated. Even if he had insisted that he was FINE, it was obvious to her that he wasn’t. Murky orbs fixed themselves on the listless limb, shifting to the boy’s sweat-beaded face. OF COURSE IT HURT, but she knew he wasn’t about to admit to that anytime soon.

           ❝ We’d better get moving, before you become any more indestructible, ❞ she retorts, a slight ring of ( barefaced ) sarcasm in her words. A seemingly light hearted response, but out of the concern she did hold for her classmate. He might have been a relatively unlikable jerk, but that didn’t cancel him out of any possible hint of compassion shown. Hopping ahead of him, however, she continued to speak,

❝ Maybe we can find a teacher that can help. Or at the very least, some bandaging. I can lend a hand if you’re up to it. ❞

                If he weren’t already in considerable pain, he’d snap back at her. The frog-girl was already notoriously dry in humor, if he remembered. She wasn’t saying it maliciously. But then he only listened to about a third of what she actually said on a daily basis. And that was being generous. He held his arm close to his chest and frowned. “I don’t need a hand. I’m not a fucking cripple.”

                He followed after her, wincing when he moved too fast, jostling his injured arm. Maybe he should take it slower, but he had a point to prove now. Deku never let injuries like this slow him down, why should he let one pained arm ruin him? “Whatever. I can wrap it up if we find something.” He’d live. If it was going to be anyone, he was at least grateful it was frog-girl. She knew not to talk too much and she was smart enough not to harp on his injury.

-rises from the ashes-

As soon as he slammed the wall, she stopped talking, stunned into silence. Her mouth hung agape– the shock not quite setting in, the hurt on her face apparent. Although there wasn’t an explosion to accompany it, she almost felt as if it were. Her mind wasn’t quite processing, until he continued to talk.

She’d never thought he was particularly friendly, but as the school year had gone on, she couldn’t help but wonder if he was warming up to any of them. At least, she’d only been asking about how the remedial classes were going– it certainly seemed like they were challenging, based on their faces. 

“I–” She finally started to speak, the frog in her throat gone. Swallowing hard, hazel eyes turned upwards to meet his intense stare. “I considered everyone in my class to be my friend.” She spoke with conviction now, although her heart was hammering in her chest. 

Resisting the urge to snap back, to say what was really on her mind, she bit into her lip, turning away from him.

“I was wrong.”

                  He felt something like guilt bubble up in his throat. He didn’t have any actual issue with Round Face other than the poor company she kept but it wasn’t her fault someone with such a bubbly personality would take pity on someone like Deku and become his friend. There was no real reason for him to explode on her just because he was in a bad mood over an argument she wasn’t even remotely involved in. She’d just... asked about something that was involved in the argument he’d been having.

━ [ STARTER // CLOSED ] @ragexplosion.

━ Hana didn’t think he was so PRONE to exposing himself to danger until such an unfortunate incident occurred and he was left soot-cheeked and grimy and wet-eyed because of the DUST flitting around. He coughed into his sleeve as it cleared, waved his hand, and peered at the kid that had saved him from the perilous danger of a- was that a PIANO?

How comical.

❝ Thank you,” he rasped,  ❝ that’s, uh, quite the explosive quirk you’ve got there.”

THEN he pieced two and two together. Katsuki Bakugou.

                 Katsuki stood directly beside the man, managing to bump him only a little to the side. If he tried to blast away the falling object without getting in close, he risked knocking debris into his face and exploding him. Who stood under dropping objects? Idiots, that’s who.

“Okay … ” 

When he wanted, Katsuki had the ability to act like a huffy mother. More than likely, Katsuki picked that up from his mom. It was scary how alike they both were, right down to their looks. In an off shoot of a thought, Izuku wondered if Katsuki would also gain the perks of his mother’s Quirk, that allowed her to look so youthful despite her age. 

“But Kacchan, you know you don’t have to do any of this, right?” He started, after snapping back to reality, while staring down into his empty bowl. “You don’t owe me anything. We can just go back to how things were before.” 

Honestly, Katsuki being nice to him made him uncomfortable and twitchy — he wasn’t quite sure what to do with this side of him anymore. 

                 This was why he never did shit for anyone. Every time he tried to do something nice, it was thrown back in his face with a ‘this is so unlike you, Katsuki, it’s weird when you do this’. He resisted to urge to throw the table just to prove a point and instead stood up sharply. “Then fucking starve for all I care, Deku. See if I do shit for you again.”

                    The chair squealed against the ground as Katsuki stood up and then kicked it until it smacked hard against the table. He dropped his bowl in the sink without bothering to do the dish, or clean the pot. Deku could do that if he wanted to pay Katsuki back for the meal, since fuck him for doing something decent for once. For feeling guilt and acting on it.

                    “Ever with your head full of your own ego, aren’t you, Kacchan?” His mind placed him in front of the school after their hero vs. villain lesson from All Might. Izuku’s body was broken and bruised, but Katsuki’s ego probably got the worst of it. His friend cried that day. He never saw Kacchan cry until that day. Like a fool, Izuku told him about how he obtained One for All, a gift from fate itself. Katsuki didn’t believe him.

                     “I wish Iida would have been able to make it. Then I wouldn’t have to be the only one separating you two later tonight. He is fast enough on his own to stop the both of you on his own without breaking a sweat. I can probably do use Full Cowl a few times, but I don’t know how long I can keep it up. We will just have to see. It’s going to be an adventure.” 

                  “What did you fucking say about me, Deku?” He could strangle this kid. He could throw him into the ground and strangle him to death. Or just explode his face off. Both would be satisfying. “You’re the one with the huge fucking ego.” With his stupid secret Quirk and his stupid incredibly powerful punches. Katsuki absolutely fizzled with rage when he thought about it, but he also couldn’t let this opportunity to discover more about his secret go.