Chapter Text
One day, out of nowhere, Kirishima wakes up in a cell. There’s glass instead of bars, and in the top corner—way out of his reach—is a device that Kirishima can feel radiating some kind of energy.
The last thing he remembers is falling asleep on the couch. Again.
He had been on the phone with his mom and—he hates thinking about what he’d said to her. She was just trying to help, he knew that. But Kirishima took it all the wrong way.
And now he’s in a prison cell? He didn’t think he was that out of it. Maybe he was dreaming.
Trying to test out this theory, Kirishima slaps his face as hard as he can.
And it hurts like hell. He can feel the pain on every nerve-ending.
So he’s definitely not dreaming.
There’s a shout and then there’s a guard running towards his cell.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Where am I?”
“Why haven’t you given up on these mind games yet? Haven’t you done enough.”
“Mind games? I’m not sure what’s going on.”
“That’s enough out of you. Don’t make me bring Ground Zero over here.”
Kirishima stopped. He wasn’t sure what was happening but he really didn’t want to find out what “Ground Zero” was. It sounded like some kind of... torture device?
Kirishima nodded and sat back on the bed more confused than ever.
He put his hands on his head and ran them through his hair.
And his hair was way too long. He started panicking and pulled a strand to look at it. It was jet black.
Had he been asleep for a long time?
Feeling apprehension bubble in his stomach, Kirishima stepped towards the glass again, but this time looking at his own reflection.
But whatever that was definitely wasn’t his reflection.
He still had red eyes and sharp teeth. But he also had scars all across his face. Instead of a simple scratch on his eye, there was a jagged mark dragged down his face.
There were other scars, but the one that somewhat mirrored his normal scar was by far the largest. He lightly touched the scar and traced it on his face.
If this wasn’t a dream, he didn’t know what it was.
A sound in the hall caught his attention. It was a TV. It looked like it was playing the news. Or what passed for the news. Because none of what was being said made sense.
I was definitely the same year. But whoever they were talking about wasn’t the prime minister.
Unless there was a coup while Kirishima was asleep? Were his parents worried about him?
Better question: who was he right now?
He tries his best to listen in on what was being said.
‘New footage has been revealed of the fight between Ground Zero and Blood Riot, the one which finally resulted in Blood Riot’s capture and Ground Zero’s victory.”
Wait. Ground Zero?
And Blood Riot sounds kind of like his old Crimson Riot comics.
Kirishima watches the news broadcast and thinks he sees some of the pieces start to fall into place.
He sees two figures fighting on screen—albeit blurry through the glass of the cell. One is blasting explosions like nothing Kirishima has ever seen before. Is it some kind of tech?
And the other figure is wearing some crazy armor. This one is smashing through buildings and going in for the kill shot. People look afraid of him.
The explosion one is clearly trying to protect civilians, but the armored one seems to be trying to go for the innocent bystanders. He feels weak in the knees just watching the ruthless assault.
But what makes him really sick to his stomach is—is the fact that—
If he looks at the armored figure. With long black hair. There’s a close up of his face, and Kirishima can’t make out all the features but.
It’s him. Or whatever this him is.
He feels sick. Kirishima runs over to the small steel toilet and starts to vomit. There isn’t much in his stomach, but anything that was once there is long gone.
He decides, in that moment, that he deserves this. The other him definitely deserved it. And maybe he did too. Whatever in hell happened to him was probably meant to happen. The universe was giving him the punishment he deserved.
Apparently him throwing up drew the attention of the security guard again.
“Oi. Stop it.” The guard’s reactions towards Kirishima make a lot of sense now. Kirishima was some kind of criminal. Probably a murderer.
“That’s it. You’ve been too weird today. I’m calling in Ground Zero.”
Kirishima nods, feeling empty. He goes back to lie on the bed and stare at the ceiling. He can hear the guard walk away. The guard could call ‘Ground Zero’ all he wanted. Kirishima wasn’t planning on fighting back anyway.
After some time, the guard comes back with a pair of strange looking handcuffs. The guard slides them through a small opening in the glass. “You know the drill. Put these on.”
Kirishima obliges, though he stumbles a bit. These aren’t like any handcuffs he’d ever seen before. They were much bulkier—and made of some strange technology. He can tell the guard is getting impatient watching Kirishima fumble his way through putting on the cuffs.
Once the cuffs are on, the guard slides open the door and pushes Kirishima out of the cell.
Walking in this body feels… different. It makes him trip here and there. But soon enough the walk down the hallway is done, and Kirishima is shoved into another cell.
“Wait here.”
Kirishima sits in a chair with a table in front of it. And he waits. And waits. Then the door clicks open. And in walks Ground Zero—who is extremely attractive, much to Kirishima’s surprise.
He’s wearing just a black long-sleeve shirt and black pants. No explosive gear in sight.
Ground Zero makes his way to the table and slams his palms down onto it with enough force that Kirishima can feel it in his bones.
“What the fuck are you playing at?”
Kirishima’s heart is beating at lightning speed. He isn’t sure what to say, so he stays silent.
“I’m supposed to be done with you!” Ground Zero sounds angry and frustrated. Of course he would be. He was dealing with a horrible person.
Kirishima tries to speak, and his voice cracks, “I’m sorry.”
That has the opposite effect on Ground Zero on Kirishima had thought. Rather than be appeased at all, Ground Zero narrows his eyes and jumps towards him.
He picks Kirishima up and slams him into a wall. Kirishima was a little startled at that, but he thought he could handle it. That was until Ground Zero’s bare hand starts to crackle with explosions. Kirishima can’t help the way his jaw drops and his pulse beats even faster.
Ground Zero doesn’t let any of this pass him by. He brings his face within inches of Kirishima’s, glaring intently. “Who the fuck are you?”
Fear crawls into Kirishima’s throat. He’s not scared of Ground Zero—everything about this situation was telling Kirishima that he was the good guy. It’s just that Kirishima had absolutely no idea what to do.
Should he keep up the charade? Should he be honest? Would anyone even believe him?
Who would? He didn’t even believe himself. He couldn’t explain what was going on because he had no idea. So bluffing it was.
“I’m… me.”
“What’s your name?”
Kirishima did not know what the right answer was, “Uh, Kirishima Eijirou.”
“You don’t sound very sure about that.” Ground Zero slammed Kirishima against the wall again, and Kirishima felt his brain rattle. “I’m going to ask you again. Who are you?”
“My name is Kirishima Eijirou.” He stares Ground Zero in the eyes. Trying to be intimidating. It probably wasn’t working.
“I don’t think so.” Ground Zero leans in and he’s nose to nose with Kirishima. “I know Kirishima Eijirou. And you’re no Blood Riot.” His voice is thick with menace and his red eyes bore into Kirishima’s. “Where is the real Blood Riot?”
“I—”
“Don’t lie this time.” His hand crackles with explosive heat.
“I don’t know! I don’t know, okay!” He can hear the desperation in his own voice. He puts his still handcuffed hands in front of him, hoping to get some space to breathe.
Ground Zero stops his hand from crackling. But he doesn’t back up much further. “Explain.”
“I don’t know what’s going on! I just woke up here, in a prison cell! I’m me, but I’m also not me. You want the truth—I have no fucking idea who or what I am.”
Ground Zero drops Kirishima back onto the ground and walks back towards the door. He opens it, takes one look back at Kirishima—who is sitting on the floor, breathing heavily—and then slams the door behind him.
Kirishima spends the next three days in his cell with very minimal human contact. A guard came in twice a day with food. Twice more to take back the food. He was escorted out once for a shower. Sort of. He just stood under some water for a minute.
He isn’t any less confused about what was going on. Kirishima wishes he was smarter, so he could figure everything out.
From what he can tell, this isn’t the same world he remembers. If it’s the same world at all. For one thing, people have powers.
The fighting he had seen on screen wasn’t tech or armor. It was powers.
That meant that Kirishima wasn’t just a villain, he was a supervillain.
And Ground Zero is a superhero.
All of which makes Kirishima’s head spin. He really wonders if Ground Zero will be back, even to just ask some more questions. Maybe then Kirishima could ask some of his.
Kirishima is sitting in his cell when a guard comes to him. It’s not for a meal, it’s too early.
Kirishima stands up, excited. Ground Zero must be here. He hasn’t been excited for much these days, but he desperately needs to get more information.
The guard slides him the handcuffs, and this time Kirishima puts them on faster. He lets the guard push him out and doesn’t trip on his way to the same room he had been in before.
His heart is beating fast—he taps his foot over and over on the floor.
And then in walks Ground Zero—and some woman. Kirishima stops tapping his foot.
“Are you ready to talk today?” Ground Zero asks, and this time he actually sits down in the chair across from Kirishima instead of just going in for the kill.
“I’ll answer any of your questions.” Ground Zero looks satisfied with that, but Kirishima has to play his cards just right, “—if you answer some of mine.”
Ground Zero narrows his eyes, and it looks like he’s calculating something, “Fine. But you have to be completely honest.” He points his thumb toward the woman standing in the corner of the room, “her quirk is to detect biological signs of lying and brain signals. She’ll know if you’re lying or not.”
Quirk? Was that what they called powers
Kirishima can see that the woman looks… scared. Terrified, actually. Of him. Kirishima closes his eyes, feeling like his bones were filled with lead. “I’ll be honest, I swear.”
“We’ll see about that. I’ll go first. What’s your name?”
“Kirishima Eijirou.”
Ground Zero turns to the woman; she nods. Ground Zero turns back to Kirishima, brows furrowed, opening his mouth for another question. “Wh—”
“It’s my turn,” Kirishima interrupts, “What’s your name?”
Ground Zero frowns, but he answers, “Bakugou Katsuki. I’m only telling you that because it’s common knowledge.”
Kirishima supposes that’s fair enough.
“Where are you from? When were you born?”
“That’s more than one question,” Kirishima notes, answering in full anyway.
Bakugou looks at the woman after every answer, and she nods every time. Kirishima hopes that means Bakugou will start to trust him. Or at least that he’s being honest.
“What is ‘quirk?’ Does that have something to do with the powers?”
For a long moment, Bakugou just stares at Kirishima. Kirishima squirms anxiously in his seat.
“You’re lucky this shit’s also common knowledge. Shit you should definitely already know.” Bakugou roughly explains about a system of powers, and he even goes into extra details about the system of heroes as a career—and how they were there to combat supervillains.
More and more pieces start to fall into place for Kirishima. He’s starting to think he really is in an entirely different world. Or a really elaborate and oddly realistic dream. Maybe he’s in a coma.
Because the most difficult thing to believe would be that this was all somehow real.
There’s a little more back and forth between Kirishima and Bakugou. Bakugou asks more about Kirishima’s background: his childhood, his parents, and such. Kirishima asks more about the world he’s in.
What Kirishima really wants to ask about is who he was. Whose body he was in. But he was scared.
Bakugou twists his body to face the woman, “What’s your assessment about all of this?”
She twists her hands together, but she steps forward, coming to stand next to Bakugou. Closer than she had come to Kirishima all day. Which gives Kirishima the smallest sliver of hope.
“He hasn’t lied once today. He’s nervous, but he’s been entirely honest.”
Bakugou nods, but he presses a little further, “There’s more isn’t there.”
“Yes.”
Kirishima sits on the very edge of his seat.
“I studied the scans of Blood Riot’s brain right after he was captured. And the man sitting in front of you… his brain is completely different. He might look the same on the outside, but other than the exterior... he’s a wholly new individual.”
Kirishima exhales a little in relief, at least there was some proof that there was something strange going on. It wasn’t just him losing his mind—most likely.
But Bakugou just leans forward. “So he’s a different person. Doesn’t tell me if he’s good or not. Or if he’s somehow working with the other Kirishima Eijirou.” He leans across the table and grabs Kirishima’s shirt in his hands.
“Here’s the part where your honesty actually matters. Lie and you’ll fucking regret it.”
Swallowing thickly, Kirishima nods.
The woman touches Bakugou on the shoulder, “This is much harder to assess for honesty, so just try to stick to yes or no questions, please.” She shuffles back to her corner.
“I get to ask all the questions now. One: Do you think you’re a good person?”
Kirishima blinks at that question. Did he think he was a good person? Bakugou didn’t hold back. That was a complicated thing to answer.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes or no.”
“I—No. No, I don’t think I’m a good person.” The answer feels like lead in Kirishima’s throat.
Bakugou doesn’t seem to falter from the answer, “Have you ever murdered anyone?”
“No! Of course not!”
The questions come rapid fire after that.
“Have you ever hurt someone to benefit yourself?”
“No.”
“Have you ever stolen something?”
“No.”
“Have you ever kidnapped anyone?”
“No.”
“Have you ever intended on doing any of the things mentioned previously?”
“No.”
“Have you ever conspired to commit a crime?”
“No.”
“Have you ever been in contact with the other Kirishima Eijirou, also known as Blood Riot?”
“No.”
Bakugou’s voice drops lower, “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”
Kirishima shakes his head at the sudden change of pace.
“I don’t—That’s not a yes or no—I’m,” Kirishima starts to think of the answer and his throat closes up.
“I’m done.” Bakugou stands up suddenly, pushing his chair back. “Did he lie once? Even a little bit?”
The woman shakes her head.
Bakugou points her towards the door and she leaves quickly. Before the door closes, Kirishima hears a sigh of relief.
Bakugou starts to leave too, but Kirishima still has to know.
“Wait!”
“What?” Bakugou spits out without turning around.
“I need to know. This other Kirishima Eijirou. Blood Riot. What did he do? Why do you hate him so much? Why is so everyone scared of him—of me?”
Bakugou looks back at Kirishima for a moment. And though the look isn’t soft by any stretch of the word, it holds more gentleness than any look he’d gotten from Bakugou before. But Bakugou walks out of the door, slamming it behind him.
The next day Kirishima gets a slip of paper with his first meal.
It’s from Bakugou: a list of Blood Riot’s crimes. Kirishima puts his food to the side and looks at the note.
The list is overwhelming, to say the least, turning Kirishima’s blood ice cold. It’s a very long list of crimes. But one thing is clear.
The other Kirishima was a serial killer. He starts to understand where the name Blood Riot came from.
There aren’t any details about exactly how everything was done, but it’s enough for Kirishima to decide he won’t be eating that day. And he decides that he’ll let them keep him in the prison cell.
Kirishima had always wanted powers. To be strong enough to make a difference. He was weak in his own world, but he’d always assumed that if he were stronger, things would be better.
Turns out, as soon as he got power, he turned into a fucking monster.
He deserves to spend the rest of his days rotting in this cell. Especially after—Kirishima’s train of thought is cut off by a guard coming to his cell, “Hey, you got company again.”
He’s surprised that Bakugou came back so quickly. But it works out for Kirishima. He can tell him that he won’t fight his situation. He’ll sit in his cell peacefully for however long he’s stuck in this universe.
The walk to the other room is familiar to him now. He sits down on the chair, placing his cuffed hands on the table and resting his head on top of them.
Bakugou walks in and takes a seat in front of Kirishima. He’s alone this time, and looking less angry this time. More pensive.
But he still looks pretty angry.
“I have a theory. About what’s going on here,” Bakugou says, “but I want you to tell me what you think is going on first.”
Kirishima shakes his head, “It doesn’t matter what I think. I’m not going to fight. I’ll stay here without any fuss, you don’t have to worry. You can be well and truly done with me like you wanted.”
Bakugou narrows his eyes and puts his elbows on the table, “Fine. I’ll go first.”
“I think you’re from an alternate universe of some kind. At first I thought it was an elaborate trick by Blood Riot, but even he couldn’t change his brain chemistry to the point of being a different person. A person who has never hurt anyone before.”
‘That’s not quite true,’ Kirishima thinks to himself. He has hurt people. But he’s impressed that Bakugou was able to figure it all out.
“And then maybe I thought he replaced his mind with someone else’s, but someone from this world. But you really had no idea about anything in this world.”
“I’ve thought of everything else, and nothing would make sense but this. What do you think about that?” Bakugou asks Kirishima.
“You don’t have your friend with you to make sure I’m not lying.”
“Don’t need her.”
Kirishima relents. “I think… I think you’re right. I don’t belong in this world. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t belong in this prison.”
Bakugou sits up straight and rolls his eyes, “Only someone with a bleeding heart would say that they deserve to be in a cell for crimes they didn’t commit.”
“You don’t know what I’ve done in my world.”
“I do, actually. You fucking told me yesterday. Whatever you’re feeling guilty about is your problem, but no reason to stay here and take up space.”
This is an entirely unexpected outcome and Kirishima isn’t sure what to say. “What about Blood Riot? Do you think he’s—that he’s in my body?”
Bakugou nods stiffly and looks to the side, “That fucker somehow managed to get out of prison. No wonder he looked so fucking smug when I brought him in. He had a contingency plan.”
“What if he comes back into his own body and you’ve let me out?”
“I doubt he plans on coming back soon, but we’re going to try to find a way to put him back in his own body—and get you back to yours.”
Kirishima runs his hands through his hair as best as he can with his cuffed hands.
“We’re going to release you,” Bakugou says, “I’m working on the paperwork and talking with people now. Setting some things up. Might take a while, but I’m not letting you rot here because of him.”
Bakugou says the last word with so much venom, Kirishima can feel it in his veins. Even though he doesn’t think he should be released, he’s glad to not be on Bakugou’s bad side.
Bakugou leaves shortly after that and Kirishima is taken back to his cell.
He stays in the cell for another week, and he begins to wonder if Bakugou changed his mind. Kirishima almost hoped that he did.
But then a guard comes to his cell, “Is it true?”
Kirishima stands up and approaches the glass, expecting to have to put on handcuffs. But instead the guard slides open the glass door without them. “You really aren’t him are you?”
Kirishima doesn’t step outside, and he isn’t being pushed. He stares at the open door and stands still.
“You’ve been acting different for a little while now. I wasn’t sure what to make of it until Ground Zero told me.”
Kirishima doesn’t move from the entryway. Is this happening?
“Come on. It’s time to go.” The guard waves him out the cell, but for the first time there’s no aggression.
Stepping outside the cell for the first time without handcuffs, Kirishima feels a wave of something hit him, but he couldn’t explain the sensation even if someone put a gun to his head.
It rushes over him all at once and he stumbles forward, barely catching himself before he falls on his face.
The guard actually gives him a look of sympathy, the most warmth he’s received since he’s been in this world, “That’ll be your quirk coming back to you. First time without it being suppressed I’d imagine.”
Nodding, Kirishima stands up straight and follows the guard to a new room. There he finds a change of clothes. It’s just jeans and a T-shirt, but it seems like a world of difference from the gray he’d been wearing.
The door closes behind him, and Kirishima changes into the clothes.
He knocks on the door once he’s done and it swings open to reveal Bakugou, but this time he’s in the clothes Kirishima remembers from the news broadcast the very first day.
His hero clothes.
“You ready?” Bakugou asks. He’s wearing a mask over his face and Kirishima can’t seem to find the words to answer him.
Bakugou starts to walk ahead, “You’re going to have to be.” He calls out behind him.
Kirishima follows him.
They step outside of the jail and Kirishima gets to see the outside world for the first time. He expects it to be completely alien to him. But it isn’t as different as he’d thought. It’s like his world, but with a few small tweaks.
Bakugou stops on a set of stairs, “Stay here.” He continues forward to a podium where people with microphones and cameras are waiting.
It’s a press conference.
Of course Bakugou would have to explain publicly why he’s letting a known serial killer, a supervillain, just roam free after working hard to capture him.
Kirishima clasps his hands together nervously. He hadn’t expected to be in the public eye. Of course he was too dumb to think of it. The crowd can’t see Kirishima from where he stands yet.
“If you heard rumors that we were releasing Kirishima Eijirou, also known as Blood Riot, today, you’d be right.”
A gasp ripples through the crowd, then reporters crowd Bakugou asking frantic questions.
“Before you ask dumb shit, let me explain. As of 12 days ago, the real Blood Riot managed to escape captivity. He did this by switching his consciousness with that of another Kirishima Eijirou from an entirely different universe.”
The cameras keep flashing and reporters keep asking more and more questions.
“If you all would just shut the fuck up and let me talk, you might find some of your questions answered.”
Though Kirishima admires his brash and direct attitude, he couldn’t help but wonder if that was really the best way to deal with the press.
“I personally conducted interviews and had experts involved in the situation. It was clear that this was not Blood Riot any longer, but someone else. This person had committed no crimes and justice called for his release.”
“I will oversee this all myself. You all know that I am the last person who would ever want Blood Riot back on the streets, or anyone else to get hurt because of him. But I am sure that this new person won’t do anything like that.”
Kirishima isn’t sure what he did to earn such confidence from Bakugou.
“The public, all civilians, will be safe. There’s no need to worry. We will be working our hardest to find the inter-dimensional tools Blood Riot used to escape, and to help this version of Kirishima Eijirou back to his home.”
“That’s all for now. Direct all other questions to my agency.”
Bakugou steps away from the podium and walks towards Kirishima. “It’s time to go. Get ready for a shitstorm with the press.”
Kirishima walks alongside Bakugou and he tries his best to duck his head and avoid eye contact with anyone. But he can hear the yells. People really hate him. Just as they should. Kirishima even narrowly dodges a tomato thrown at him.
Eventually, Bakugou takes a sharp turn and then another, and then they’re on an empty street where there’s a car idling.
“Get in.” Bakugou gestures Kirishima into the back of the car. Bakugou sits in the front.
As the car drives away, Kirishima thinks he should say something. Bakugou said a lot on his behalf. He even freed him from prison.
“Thank you.” Kirishima says, making Bakugou whip around and stare, “for saying those things about me. And for getting me out of jail. For everything.”
Bakugou sits normally in his seat again and grunts in response.
The rest of the car ride is all silence until the car parks in front of an apartment building.
Bakugou gets out of the car, and Kirishima takes that as his cue to get out too.
The car drives away, leaving Bakugou and Kirishima standing there. Bakugou takes a set of keys from his pocket and buzzes them into the building. They walk up four flights of stairs and stop in front of a door.
“This is where you’ll be staying.” Bakugou holds out the keys.
Kirishima takes them carefully, “Than—”
Bakugou slams Kirishima up against the wall in a way that is oddly familiar to Kirishima. “Don’t think that just because I said what I said I won’t be watching your every move.”
“If you make even one wrong move, one little fucking slip up, you’ll have to deal with me. Understood?”
Kirishima nods.
Bakugou lets go of him and walks away.
“Bakugou,” Kirishima calls out to him.
Bakugou pauses, but doesn’t turn to face Kirishima.
“I’ll prove myself to you. You won’t regret what you’ve done. I’ll show you that you can trust me. I don’t want to be him.”
Kirishima doesn’t get a response. Bakugou just walks down the stairs.
Kirishima unlocks the door and goes inside his new home.
It’s nice enough. For what it is.
There’s a bed, and a sofa. A small kitchen and a very small desk in the corner. And a bathroom.
As he locks the door, he realizes he has some questions for Bakugou that he hadn’t gotten to ask.
What is he supposed to be doing here? He doesn’t have any money. He doesn’t have a job. He doesn’t have friends. He doesn’t have a family.
He’s alone.
He doesn’t have clothes. He doesn’t have food.
Fuck.
Before anything else, Kirishima really needs to change his hair.
On the desk there’s a phone and an envelope of cash which would have been highly suspicious if there wasn’t a note attached to it.
The note says something about food and holding him over until he could find a job.
Kirishima ignores the note for now, grabs some money and heads out to go to the convenience store he remembers passing on the way there.
It would only be a two minute walk, but Kirishima knows that he’ll pass by people. And probably be recognized as a serial killer.
Which is part of the reason why he needs to change his hair to his own style as soon as possible.
Kirishima makes it to the store with only a few wide-eyed stares or death glares.
He’s really glad that currency and stores seem to work the same in this world. Even if some people look a little different from what he’s used to. He could’ve sworn he saw someone with a birdhead.
If the situation had been a little different, Kirishima would have thought everything was so cool. Right now, though, he was living his worst nightmare.
The store employees start to greet him, but the words die as they look at him. Kirishima goes straight for the hair aisle.
He finds his usual hair dye and hair gel, which is probably the only good thing that has happened to him in a very long time.
He grabs a razor and some scissors too, and he places the items on the counter for checkout.
The cashier seems to want to die after she lays eyes on Kirishima, but he doesn’t know how to reassure that he wasn’t going to kill her.
She rings up his items quickly, and he pays the proper amount. It’s a little cheaper than usual, he thinks. She might have given him a discount out of fear.
But Kirishima would give all the money in the world for her not to be scared of him.
Kirishima bolts back to the apartment, filled with a sudden burst of energy.
He goes to the bathroom and starts to cut his hair. He’s no professional barber, but he doesn’t want to try his luck by going out in public too much.
Between the scissors and the razor, he manages a decent cut. He thinks.
Then he takes the hair dye and goes through the familiar process of dying his hair.
As he sits on the closed lid of the toilet, if he closes his eyes—if he focuses on the smell of hair dye, the weight of it on his head—he could almost imagine he’s home.
A prickle of tears sting the back of his eyes. He wants to go home.
More than just despising himself for how he left things, for the things he did, he was petrified about thinking what Blood Riot was doing in his body.
After reading about his crimes, Kirishima knew there weren’t any lines Blood Riot was afraid of crossing.
Thinking about it makes Kirishima want throw up all over again. So he keeps his eyes closed and waits for his hair to be ready.
Kirishima is just getting out of the shower when suddenly, his body turns from normal to… a rock?
“Oh shit,” he realizes that it’s his ‘quirk.’ He has powers.
He isn’t really sure how to deactivate these powers. It isn’t strange to him, though, that he’d be horrible at controlling the powers. He closes his eyes and focuses on the feeling, and then willing the feeling to go away.
Before he opens his eyes, he can feel it go away. He sighs in relief.
After he goes to sleep for a very long time, Kirishima is going to talk to Bakugou.
The next morning Kirishima puts on the same clothes he had the day before. He had discovered clothes in the closet, but he didn’t feel comfortable taking so much.
He isn’t sure why they would give him all of this.
The night before, Kirishima had looked up Bakugou online and turns out his hero agency was right across the street from where Kirishima was staying right then.
Definitely not a coincidence. But convenient for Kirishima.
He walks out, trying to walk like himself, and not a convicted supervillain. He’s not sure how effective he is at it, but he does get less stares. He gives his hair a lot of the credit.
He gets to the agency in no time. He approaches the receptionist stand and tries to remember who he used to be.
“Hi, I was looking for Bakugou Katsuki?” he tries to put in the same amount of brightness he usually used to have.
The receptionist glances up for half a second then gives her attention back at her screen, “Ground Zero is very busy, sir. What’s your name? Do you have an appointment?”
“I’m Kirishima Eijirou,” Kirishima says, a little embarrassed to have the name.
The receptionist looks up so violently, Kirishima is concerned about the safety of her neck.
“Oh.” She blanches a little, “I didn’t recognize you. You… really don’t look like him.”
“Thank you.” Kirishima scratches the back of his neck awkwardly.
“I’ll show you to his office. He’s in today.”
“Thank you so much.”
She gives him a look and he can see her mouth ‘holy fuck.’ He genuinely admires her ability to stay professional in this situation.
They walk up two flights of stairs and go down two hallways. It’s a very big agency.
They stop in front of a closed door, “He’s just right through there, you can just knock.”
Kirishima raises his fist to knock, but turns to thank the woman one last time, “Thank… you.”
She’s already gone.
Kirishima knocks.
A few seconds pass, then the door swings open dramatically. “What the fuck did I tell yo—” Bakugou stops mid-shout and stares.
Kirishima sends him a small wave, “Hi. I wanted to talk to you about some things…”
“Holy fucking shit. Shitty hair, what did you do to your hair?”
“Oh, yeah. This is how I wear it in my world. I figured I could use all the distinguishing features I could get. Does it look bad?”
“No. It’s—it’s really different, which can only be good. I almost didn’t recognize you at first.”
“Oh. That’s… good.” Kirishima nods.
“Well, what the fuck do you want, Shitty Hair?” Bakugou crosses his arms.
Kirishima doesn’t bother asking why he’s being called Shitty Hair when Bakugou knows his name perfectly well. Kirishima actually appreciates the nickname.
“For one thing, I wanted to talk to you about,” Kirishima steels himself, trying to be brave, “I want to learn how to control this body’s quirk. And I want to use it to help people. And I’d really like your help.”
Bakugou steps aside and points to a chair in his office. Kirishima takes the seat.
Bakugou sits at his desk and crosses his arms again, leaning back in the chair. “Explain. I’m not a fucking charity, I don’t do shit just ‘cause”
“Well. I hate that this body I’m in is me, but also not me and that it’s been made to do some of the worst things I could ever imagine. I want to make up for it.”
Bakugou raises his eyebrows, he can tell that isn’t everything. Kirishima is in awe of how perceptive he is.
“And. I’ve always wanted to help people.”
“In my own world, I’ve always strived to help people. But… I wasn’t good enough. A month before I came here I was out with my friend Tetsutetsu. We were just out shopping. And then I went off to grab something. When I came back, someone had a gun on Tetsutetsu.”
“This guy was trying to rob the store I guess. And then I wanted to step between him and Tetsutetsu, to de-escalate the situation, but he just—” Kirishima realizes, as his voice breaks, that he’s crying, “He just shot him. And he grabbed whatever he wanted.”
“I was too slow. I was too weak. And Tetsutetsu was hurt really badly. He got rushed to the hospital, but he still hasn’t woken up. At least not since I got brought here.”
Kirishima raises his hands to wipe at his eyes, “And fuck. Now I have this power. And even though it was used to do some awful shit, I just want to make a difference.”
Kirishima is still wiping at his eyes when Bakugou responds, “You’re a fucking idiot.”
“What?”
“Is that the shit you’ve been feeling bad about since you got here? There’s nothing you could have done. Taking responsibility is all well and good. But do it when it’s necessary. Not just so you can wallow in your self-pity.”
It takes Kirishima a moment, but he registers Bakugou’s words as what they are. They’re a kind of comfort. Bakugou is trying to tell him it’s not his fault.
“But, fine. I’ll train you.”
The next day Kirishima is dressed and ready at 6 AM. Just as he and Bakugou had discussed. Hair spiked. Wearing whatever he had found in the closet.
It was time to start making some wrongs right.
Bakugou knocks on the door at exactly 6:01. Kirishima hops up and opens the door, feeling a smile bloom on his face, “I’m ready!”
Bakugou stares at him for a second, “Then let’s go.”
They walk about 4 miles to a large, but worn-down gym. It looks entirely abandoned. The handles to the front door look rusted and unused. Bakugou kicks the door open with no regard for the deteriorated exterior of the building.
“So. You know pretty much jackshit about quirks.”
“That is correct, yes.”
“Well, I could start by explaining quirk theory and—”
“Yeah that’s not going to really help me.”
Bakugou groans dramatically. Kirishima starts to understand that Bakugou is quite the drama queen.
“Look, man, I’m just more of a hands-on learner.”
Bakugou takes a sudden swing at Kirishima, which he manages to dodge at the last second.
“That hands-on enough for you?”
“You know that’s not what I meant, but yeah. It is.”
“You have decent reflexes.”
“I mean I am trained in like 3 different martial arts. Even though I haven’t been able to practice these days…”
“Then why the fuck didn’t we start there?”
Kirishima laughs a little, “Because I thought we were training for quirk stuff!”
Bakugou glares at him, “You, Shitty Hair, are a dumbass.”
“Probably.”
Bakugou sits down cross-legged on the dusty gym mat underneath him. Kirishima follows suit.
“Your quirk is called hardening. Mine is obviously explosions.” Bakugou makes a few small sparks as a demonstration.
“Your quirk is cool as fuck dude.”
“I know,” Bakugou smirks. “Has your quirk activated at all yet?”
“Once. I think I made it go away though? That’s good right?”
“Not bad. It’s somewhere to start.” Bakugou nods, and Kirishima enjoys the small compliment.
Bakugou makes him activate and deactivate his quirk repeatedly. The first time, he can see Bakugou flinch a little. But the more he does it, the less Bakugou reacts. It almost feels like it’s training for Bakugou as much as it is for Kirishima.
Eventually, Kirishima feels like he’s gotten a decent grip on the quirk. It feels so strange, but also invigorating. He wants to test it out for real.
“Can we try to fight maybe?” Kirishima asks.
“You can try to not fall on your ass within a minute.” Bakugou says, standing up.
Kirishima pushes himself up as well and gets into a fighting stance, activating his hardening.
Bakugou lifts up his arm and sends a powerful blast towards Kirishima. Which blasts Kirishima completely on his ass.
The smoke clears and Kirishima can see Bakugou grinning victoriously, “Looks like you’ll have to try a little harder.”
Bakugou’s smile is new to Kirishima. It’s… nice.
He doesn’t realize that he’s gawking until Bakugou comes over and kicks him in the leg, “Get up, idiot.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
“That was a decent sized blast, but I’ll go easier on you from now on.”
Kirishima is annoyed at himself for needing Bakugou to go easy on him. Which even he knows is stupid when Bakugou has been training for years and Kirishima hasn’t even had a day. “Thanks.”
Bakugou goes in for an attack again, but this time it’s more like sparring that Kirishima is used to with a hint of quirks on the side. It’s obvious that Bakugou is pulling his punches, but Kirishima can feel himself getting used to the motions.
After a few more rounds of Bakugou beating Kirishima, they stop.
“That was pretty good for a first day,” Bakugou says.
Kirishima, still breathing heavily, just nods.
“I can’t train you every day, obviously. I have shit to do.”
“Oh.” Kirishima should have known, that Bakugou was a busy man. He couldn’t waste all his time training the person inhabiting the body of a villain he had put in prison.
“We can do this once a week. But while I’m busy, I called in a few favors with other heroes.”
That surprises Kirishima, “Oh! You didn’t have to do all that. But, thank you. Really.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Bakugou doesn’t seem to want to accept Kirishima’s thanks. Which is fine.
“You can come here whenever you want, by the way,” Bakugou mentions. “I own the building, and no one comes here.”
The two of them start to walk back to Kirishima’s apartment, “I don’t.” Kirishima wants to articulate what he’s saying properly, “I don’t deserve everything you’ve done for me.”
“Stop—”
“Wait. Just let me say it. I’m currently in the body of the worst person imaginable. I don’t even want to begin to think of what he’s done to you. And for you to trust me, for you to risk so much for me. It’s too much.”
“I want a way to give back. I need to do more to make up for all the time and energy I’m taking up.”
“Isn’t that why you wanted to train and shit?” Bakugou sounds exasperated.
“Yes, but—” Kirishima tries to talk.
“My turn. Yeah this is a really fucked up situation. Blood Riot did some unthinkable things, some of them targeting me. But you’re not responsible for any of that. And you didn’t ask to be here. You want to be home. Just keep being a good person.”
“Okay.” Kirishima can’t find the words to respond.
“And if you hurt anyone, even a little, I’ll fucking end you.” Bakugou threatens him.
But Kirishima is used to the threats at this point, “I’m not going to disappoint you.”
They make it to Kirishima’s door. He hadn’t thought Bakugou would walk him all the way to his door, but he couldn’t say he really minded.
Before Bakugou leaves, he says, “Just so you know, Shitty Hair. It’s pretty damn easy to tell the difference between you and him. So you don’t have to worry about that.”
Kirishima’s heart warms at that.
Bakugou walks away, but he turns around as he’s halfway to the stairs, “But just because it’s really fucking easy for me to tell the difference between the two of you, doesn’t mean the public isn’t going to give you hell.”
Kirishima nods, “I’ll show everyone that I’m not like him. For however long I’m stuck here, I’m going to show everyone.”
Kirishima meets the other heroes who will help him train the next day.
One of them has a quirk which gives him six arms and he wears a mask over his face; his name is Shouji. The other has a quirk called “Dark Shadow,” which gives him some kind of shadow creature he can control. He also has a black bird’s head.
The man with the shadow quirk, Tokoyami, looks familiar, “Were you following me that first day I got out of prison?”
Tokoyami nods, “I was given the task to watch you for protection.”
“Whose protection?”
Tokoyami shrugs, “I believe it could have gone in either direction.”
“Well, I appreciate it.”
The more Kirishima sees of the world of quirks, the more in awe he is.
Tokoyami and Shouji are amazingly skilled, and incredibly helpful. Kirishima could tell they were uncertain about him, but he hopes by the end that they had faith in him.
He spends the next few days alternating training between Shouji and Tokoyami. The two of them start to talk more to Kirishima, and he starts to feel a little less alone.
At the end of one of their training sessions, Shouji tells him that Kirishima has grown a lot in his quirk use, and Kirishima starts to tear up.
It’s one day before he’s supposed to be training with Bakugou again, and Kirishima is excited. Training against Tokoyami and Shouji is exhilarating and fun.
But training against Bakugou had been unforgettable. And he wants to talk to Bakugou more.
Kirishima goes to the same convenience store to buy some small things, like a new toothbrush. He had broken his own while he was practicing his hardening while brushing his teeth. He’d gotten distracted by seeing his reflection in the mirror.
When he gets there, it’s the same girl at the counter. He gives her a friendly wave, and she sends him a small smile. Kirishima is happy at the progress.
As he’s paying, Kirishima says, “I wanted to apologize for probably scaring you the first time I came in here. I know I look like… him, but I’m not.”
The woman opens her mouth to respond when a shout from the door interrupts her. It’s a man with some kind of knife quirk. His hands are literally knives.
“Make one move and it’s game over. All I want is the money.”
The woman behind the register tries to slowly reach her hand for the phone. The hand is mostly out of sight, so it seems okay. But the knife quirk guy notices.
And he lunges for her.
But Kirishima won’t be too slow this time. He hardens his arms and jumps between her and the knife-man. The knives hit his hardened skin and bounce off.
The other man’s eyes widen, “Oh fuck it’s you.” And he sprints away.
Kirishima runs after him, but he gets outside the door and the man is gone.
Kirishima heads back inside, “Are you okay?”
The woman is trembling, but she nods.
Kirishima places the money for the toothbrush on the counter and starts to walk away.
“Thank you.”
That makes him freeze in his tracks.
“You saved me. Thank you.”
Kirishima turns around and says warmly, “You’re welcome.”
When he gets back to the apartment, he sits on his sofa and starts to cry.
He genuinely can’t tell if they’re happy tears or sad tears.
He’s happy. Of course he’s happy. He got to save someone. He proved he was more than a villain.
Even if Kirishima thinks it’s very strange that someone would attack a convenience store a few blocks away from a huge hero agency. The one where Ground Zero works.
But the woman at the store was honest in her thanks.
But it also just reminded him of the life he left behind. Of everything he needs to do. And that a supervillain was most likely running around in his body.
Kirishima had been pushing himself into his training for the last week, and all his emotions start pouring out into his tears.
Kirishima doesn’t know how long he’s been crying for when there’s a knock on the door. There’s really only three people it could be. He opens the door.
“Shitty Hair, I heard about—fuck. Are you crying?”
“Did I pass your test?” Kirishima wipes his tears.
“I—it wasn’t—I mean, fuck. Yeah, you did. Did you know the whole time?”
“I figured it out afterwards.”
“And is that why you’re crying…?”
Kirishima laughs, “Don’t worry, it’s not. I just, I miss home.”
“Oh.” Bakugou shuffles on his feet, “We’ve been looking but, we can’t find the way he did it. Or the way to get you back.”
“It’s okay. I know you’re doing your best.”
“Want to train with me today?” Bakugou asks.
Kirishima smiles wide, “I’d love to.”
2 weeks later, Kirishima has been training a lot with Bakugou, Tokoyami, and Shouji. If the situation wasn’t so messed up, Kirishima would have been confident in calling them his friends.
He’s gotten to know Bakugou pretty well during their training sessions. He knows that Bakugou likes spicy food. That he likes hiking.
But there’s a few things he hasn’t heard yet. One thing in particular that he really needs to know about.
After a training session, as they reach Kirishima’s apartment, Kirishima asks Bakugou to come inside. The two of them sit on the sofa and there’s a tense silence. Bakugou can tell something is up with Kirishima.
Kirishima breaks it, “Bakugou. Can I ask you something?”
“Depends.”
“You don’t have to answer. I just… what did Blood Riot do—to you specifically?”
Bakugou sighs deeply, something that even Kirishima could feel in his bones, but he doesn’t answer, looking at the floor with hollow eyes.
“Sorry, you really don’t have to say anything.”
Bakugou raises his hand to cut off Kirishima, “when I was younger, I had a rocky relationship with my parents. My mom specifically. It… wasn’t great.” His voice was dry, empty.
“We fought a lot. But—she was still my mom, you know.”
Kirishima nods, silently absorbing the story Bakugou was telling.
“My dad was quieter. He really didn’t like it when my mom and I argued, but he never got around to stopping it either.”
“My relationship with them was rough. But that’s life. I grew distant, didn’t visit much. I kept busy with hero work.”
“I didn’t really keep in touch, but one day I got a phone call from my dad. It had been a while, and I picked up. But my dad wasn’t the one who answered.”
“It was Blood Riot.”
Kirishima’s blood turns to ice. He knows. But he doesn’t interrupt Bakugou’s story.
“He taunted me. Said that he had someone there who wanted to talk to me. He puts on the phone on speaker and I can hear—” Bakugou’s voice breaks for the first time since Kirishima has known him. “I can hear my parents.”
“They—”
Kirishima puts a gentle hand on Bakugou’s shoulder, “You don’t have to.”
Bakugou shakes his head, “Before—They told me they loved me. And then the line cut.”
Kirishima’s eyes and throat sting. Holy fuck.
“I called the agency and ran to the house. I got there as fast as humanly possible.”
“And when I got there. There was a box at the front door. Labeled for me. And in it…”
“In that fucking box was—” Bakugou can’t seem to make it past that point.
But Kirishima doesn’t press. “I’m so sorry Bakugou.”
“They weren’t perfect. But that doesn’t mean I fucking wanted them to—they were still my parents.” Bakugou doesn’t start crying, but he buries his head in his hands.
Kirishima wants to burn this body. He hates being in this skin. "I wish I could do something. I'm just so fucking sorry."
Bakugou lifts his head and looks at Kirishima with red eyes, “What did I say about taking responsibility, Shitty Hair.”
“I don’t—”
“Only do it when it’s actually your fault.”
After that day, Kirishima starts to see Bakugou more often than just their weekly training sessions. Sometimes Bakugou would come over and they’d go out for dinner. Other times he’d just pop in randomly.
Kirishima had been surprised by how much he and Bakugou had in common, how well they got along. Maybe under different circumstances… Kirishima never let himself follow that train of thought all the way down the line. It was fruitless.
About 5 months after Kirishima had arrived, Bakugou arrives for training in his hero outfit. It’s the first time he’s ever done that. Before, if he had things to do, Bakugou would just call or text in advance, and they’d reschedule.
“Hey, Bakugou! Why are you in your hero clothes?”
“It’s time. You’re ready.”
“I’m ready?”
Bakugou nods, “You’re ready to be a hero.”
The thought hits Kirishima like a tidal wave crashing into him, dragging him to sea and leaving him to drown. The whole time, he’d known he was training for this.
But the future had always seemed so far. Felt so unreachable.
But now it was here.
And he definitely wasn’t ready.
“Actually, I don’t know if it’s time just yet. I think I need more training,” Kirishima tries to close the door in Bakugou’s face—which is rude and unmanly, totally not like himself. But he panics.
Bakugou catches the door with the flat of his hand and pushes it open with his hand, making Kirishima stumble back a little.
“If I say you’re ready, then you are. Stop being a chicken.”
“People will hate me. They deserve to, but it means no one will accept me,” Kirishima steps back into his apartment as Bakugou pushes his way in.
“What happened to the guy who swore he’d change all their minds?”
Bakugou was right. Kirishima knows this, but he’s just intimidated by it coming at his face.
Kirishima steels himself, taking a breath, “Right! What’s the first step?”
Turns out, Kirishima had to get an outfit. And gear. And worst of all—a name.
It felt like everything he touched was tainted by Blood Riot. Especially his name.
So Kirishima decides to deal with that last. Maybe never. Who knows.
As the other details start to come together, though, Kirishima gets excited. He doesn’t have to go through this exam that people normally have to go through; Bakugou got him out of it. Something about extremely unusual circumstances. Whatever it is, Kirishima isn’t complaining.
Tokoyami and Shouji help Kirishima along the way too. They assure him that he’s proven himself to them over and over, and he can do the same for everyone else.
One week later, Kirishima is fully set. Bakugou arranged a press conference for the announcement.
Except he still doesn’t have a name.
And now he has to talk to the press. Really for the first time since he’s been here.
He’s excited. And he might throw up. His nerves have him bouncing on the tips of his toes, filled to the brim with energy. A hand presses down on his shoulder, calming him down.
Kirishima turns to see Bakugou looking at him through the mask of his hero costume.
“Don’t worry, Kirishima. You’ve got this.” Bakugou urges Kirishima through the curtain, right in front of a microphone and hundreds of eyes. Which should make him run for the hills.
But all he can think about is that Bakugou called Kirishima by his real name for the first time.
Like he’d finally earned his name back.
The crowd is nearly silent; only a few chatters and the clicking of cameras can be heard. Kirishima has their undivided attention.
“I know you all probably know this already, but… My name is Kirishima Eijirou. Except not the same Kirishima Eijirou you all knew as Blood Riot. It seems impossible, or at least it did to me. This whole world seems impossible to me.”
“But that doesn’t matter. The details aren’t really what’s important. What matters is that the body I’m in has done a lot of horrible things to everyone. Unforgivable things. And—” Kirishima pauses. He closes his eyes, trying to calm his racing heart.
“It isn’t much. I don’t have much here, in this universe. But I have my actions. Starting from today, I will do everything in my power to make up for the things that Blood Riot has done. I’m not saying you have to trust me right away—or ever, but I’d like to ask for a chance.”
“If it’s okay, I’d like a chance to show that I’m different from him. A chance to be a hero.”
The crowd breaks their relative quiet and bursts into questions. But Kirishima can’t hear any of them. The blood is rushing in his ears. He did it.
Bakugou comes to stand beside him, giving him a half-smile. Which, to Kirishima, is better than the biggest grin on anyone else.
“Alright fuckers, calm down. He can only take one question at a time.” Somehow, Bakugou commands the audience with such ease. He points to a reporter at the front.
“How long have you been planning this?”
“I’ve been training with Ground Zero for a while now, so I guess since that started.” Kirishima points to another reporter, hoping his answer was good enough.
“How exactly do you intend on making up for Blood Riot’s atrocities?”
“I don’t have anything exact. But I’ll try to save as many lives as I can. Use the powers I have for good,” Kirishima nods resolutely.
Bakugou leans towards the mic, “Just to be real fucking clear, he doesn’t have to do any of this shit. He’s his own person, he didn’t do anything wrong. The fact that he’s trying to do any of this at all—that means he’s already a hero.”
Kirishima thinks his heart might burst. That’s not just the nicest thing Bakugou has ever said about him, it’s the best thing anyone has said about him. He just wants to throw his arms around Bakugou and squeeze him into a hug.
But they’re both professionals. So he won’t.
He’s not even sure Bakugou would be comfortable with that much contact yet. So he won’t.
Bakugou gestures for another question.
“If you’re going to be a hero, what will your hero name be?”
Kirishima freezes and looks at Bakugou, who just tilts his head towards the crowd, “This one’s all you.”
Kirishima doesn’t want to deny the past. But he wants to move forward. And he wants to be himself. More than anything.
“You can call me… Red Riot.”
The crowd starts yelling things, but he isn’t listening.
He turns to Bakugou, hoping for his approval.
Bakugou faces Kirishima and—And he’s smiling for real. A big wide smile. Directed straight at Kirishima.
Kirishima feels his heart melt. He can’t deny it now.
Fuck.
He’s in love with Bakugou.
Kirishima isn’t sure what he’d expected from the public when he announced his decision to be a hero. A lot of people don’t trust him. Which he understands. But quite a few people were… supporting him?
Which he really hadn’t expected.
It’s nice.
Being a hero also means a lot more paperwork than he’d expected. Bakugou helps him with the paperwork, but it’s confusing. All he’s done so far is stop a few minor crimes. One mugging. There was a jewel heist that was fairly interesting.
And it’s good! He likes helping people. He’ll take the little victories.
One of the not-so-good things of putting himself in the limelight as a hero are the rumors. He sees at least one new article a week about how he’d secretly committing crime on the side.
He really hates those because they always drag Bakugou’s name through the mud. Calling Ground Zero an idiot for letting a known criminal out.
But as the weeks go by, people start to come around. Sort of.
He still doesn’t know if he’s doing enough to make up for everything. He wants to make more of a statement to the people that Blood Riot had hurt. Even if he really does not want to do another press conference.
Instead he asks Bakugou to set up a room with recording equipment and a list of Blood Riot’s victims and their families.
It’s a very long list. And Kirishima records a very long video. Apologizing to each person individually. The agency posts the video.
Kirishima starts to get to work on more high profile cases with Bakugou. Tokoyami and Shouji team up with them every once in a while. And the public opinion starts to turn. Which is really exciting!
Then one day, Bakugou knocks on his door. It’s a Saturday, which normally means Bakugou sleeps in until noon. But it’s 7 in the morning.
“What’s up?”
Bakugou looks uncharacteristically uncertain, “The police called me. Since long before you ever showed up, they’ve been looking for Blood Riot’s base. His home.”
Kirishima nods, letting Bakugou continue.
“They found it. And they’re letting us tag along to see if we can find anything that’ll help you.”
“Help me?”
“Help you find what brought you here. How to get you… home.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s good. It’s great!”
After getting dressed, Kirishima follows Bakugou to a small building that would have seemed pretty inconspicuous if not for the police cars swarming around it.
Tokoyami and Shouji are waiting outside the building for them. Kirishima feels oddly nervous. This could be it. He could finally go home.
So why was there a pit at the bottom of his stomach?
The police have already started to look around inside. But it seems weirdly…
Normal.
Nothing looks out of the ordinary.
There are no drawings in blood on the walls. No pictures of trophies.
Just a blanket on the sofa. And everything is so neat.
A police officer approaches Bakugou, “Ground Zero, we have swept the premises and haven’t found anything, but we thought we would let you heroes try.”
Tokoyami has already begun to look around with the help of Dark Shadow. Shouji has several eyes and ears peeled. If there was anything to find, Kirishima was sure that they would be able to find it.
Bakugou gestures to Kirishima, “Let’s find a way to get you home.”
“Yeah. Let’s do it.”
They look for hours. Kirishima upends every couch cushion, every paper.
And nothing. They find nothing. Nothing to show how Blood Riot switched minds. Not. A. Thing.
So eventually, they decide that it’s fruitless. That he hadn’t left any clues there. He either destroyed all evidence or kept it elsewhere.
Shouji puts one hand on Kirishima’s shoulder, “We’ll figure something out. Don’t worry Kirishima, you won’t be trapped here forever.”
Tokoyami and Dark Shadow nod, “Indeed. Your circumstances are not eternal.”
Kirishima smiles at them, “Thanks guys, I appreciate everything. Sorry to waste your time.”
“It’s never a waste of time to help a friend,” Shouji says.
The four of them eat lunch together before Tokoyami and Shouji have to go back to do more work. Kirishima and Bakugou both have the day off, so they say good-bye to the other two.
Bakugou and Kirishima walk together back to Kirishima’s door, discussing plans for dinner and the following day.
“You know,” Kirishima says, “You don’t have to walk me to my place every time. I know you want to go back to sleep for a while. You could have just gone straight home.”
Bakugou snorts, “You never realized, huh.”
That makes Kirishima frown in confusion, “Realized what?”
“Well. I wanted to keep an eye on you for a while.”
“So…?”
“So. I made sure you were near me.”
Kirishima still doesn’t get it.
“I live in the apartment right above yours, idiot,” Bakugou flicks Kirishima’s forehead, “I can’t believe you never noticed.”
Kirishima starts to laugh, “Oh my god, I’m so dumb.”
“That’s the thing,” Bakugou shakes his head, “You’re not dumb. You’re just selectively observant. You don’t always see the obvious things right in front of your face.”
Kirishima gives Bakugou a wide grin, “Thanks.”
“Don’t let it get to your head. Now I have to sleep, I’ll see you later,” Bakugou turns to walk up the stairs.
“Bye, neighbor!” Kirishima hears Bakugou laugh in the stairwell.
Kirishima can’t stop the fond smile that stays on his face as he closes his door.
Kirishima lays on his bed staring at the ceiling. A small chuckle escapes him as he thinks about how Bakugou is literally right above him.
But his happiness cuts off abruptly as he realizes what happened today. They didn’t find him a way home. He’d be here for the foreseeable future.
And that wasn’t the worst part.
The worst part was that part of him was happy.
Because despite the seriously fucked up nature of everything that happened to him here. Despite everything.
It was like a fairy tale. A dream.
He had powers. He got to save people. People saw him—he was important. He meant something in this world.
And here, there was Bakugou.
Even if Kirishima would never try anything with Bakugou for so many different reasons. Because that would be completely messed up. Because Bakugou would probably never be comfortable with that. Or want that.
What kind of fucking awful person was he? To have any part of himself want to stay in this world.
A world without his moms. A world without his friends. All the people he left behind. And the way he left them.
At the end of the day, when Kirishima tries to go to sleep, he can’t sleep at all. Feeling himself be divided between two worlds.
Months pass as Kirishima lives in a cycle.
He saves people and he’s a hero. He spends time with Bakugou. He’s as close to content as possible.
Then he remembers. He remembers that this isn’t his world. And it’ll never be his world. And Bakugou would never be his Bakugou. And he feels so guilty.
But then he gets caught up in being a hero. In Bakugou. And he forgets everything else when he looks into Bakugou’s eyes. Or hears Bakugou’s laugh.
And he can’t live with himself for enjoying anything when Blood Riot is running around in his body. Instead of in this world and in prison where he belongs.
One day, Kirishima looks at the calendar and realizes that it’s mother’s day.
He eats breakfast with Bakugou and then asks for the day to himself. Bakugou understands. Of course, he does.
And Kirishima decides to do something that might be stupid. Definitely a waste of time and energy.
He goes to Blood Riot’s house.
Maybe it’s the guilt that drives him there. Whatever it is brings Kirishima to the front door.
There’s still police tape all around the front, but Kirishima ducks under it and goes inside.
Somehow, it feels different. There’s a buzz of energy underneath it all.
Once he closes the door, he hears something whirring. And a—a click? Kirishima steps further into the house and sees a whole new room that absolutely was not there before.
How had they all missed this? Why was it appearing now?
The room was just as organized as the rest of the house, but this was something different. This was Blood Riot’s planning room.
It had charts and schematics and notes—and holy shit.
If Blood Riot hadn’t wanted to instill fear in everyone’s hearts, if he didn’t want to be a terror to society with his name and face. Kirishima doesn’t think he would have ever been caught.
Kirishima studies everything for a while in horror and disgust. Until he reads one set of notes next to something that looks like a small button.
The notes talk about manipulating someone for their quirk. Kirishima remembers the victim from the list of people Blood Riot had killed.
And this was how Blood Riot switched with Kirishima. Kirishima scans the details and he’s shocked at how thorough the plan was. Every detail was calculated for. A precaution in the case of being captured.
A backup device. Getting it into the prison. How to activate it subtly.
All you had to do was ingest the device and it would activate. Blood Riot could have easily put it into his food one day and then—
Fuck. Shit.
With this staring him in the face, Kirishima knew what he had to do. He couldn’t allow himself the selfishness of staying here anymore.
He makes a plan of his own.
Kirishima goes to the prison where he had first woken up and does two things.
First, he gets a pair of quirk-canceling handcuffs. Second, he goes to the guard he had first interacted with when he’d gotten here. The first person to see him as a person—other than Bakugou.
He asks the guard to give Ground Zero a note the next day. The guard looks a little puzzled, but he agrees.
Next, Kirishima goes to a warehouse where he recalls the thieves had planned the jewel heist. One of his original victories as a hero.
It makes sense that it should be where he has his last stand.
He starts to put the handcuffs on—it’s hard because his vision starts to blur with tears—when there’s a loud boom in the corner of the warehouse.
An explosion.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” The shout echoes in the empty warehouse.
Bakugou storms up to Kirishima looking just as angry as the first day Kirishima ever met him, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m—I have to go. I found out how he did it. I think I got in because I was alone and now I have to—”
Bakugou looks angry, and he looks frustrated, “You—,” Bakugou stops in the middle of whatever he was going to say. His voice drops to something small, which cuts Kirishima to his core, “You were going to leave without saying good-bye?”
Kirishima’s tears flow freely now, “I left you a note. I—”
“A note? After everything. You left me a note?”
“I couldn’t—Bakugou, I couldn’t do it. I have to do this, but I couldn’t—”
“You don’t have the decency to face me? I have to find out that you’re breaking into a crime scene. Then I have to follow you to prison. And then here?” Bakugou’s anger seems to drain out of him as he speaks.
Kirishima has grown so much since being here, but he doesn’t know if he’s strong enough to do this.
His throat starts to close up, “You have to know, I—.” Kirishima looks down at his hands. He snaps the handcuffs close.
Then he takes a step towards Bakugou, closing the distance between them. He raises his hands and lets them hover near Bakugou’s face.
“You have to let me say this. Just once.”
Bakugou’s eyes look red.
“Thank you for everything. For showing me that I’m stronger than I think I am. For teaching me about taking responsibility the right way. For being the light that took me out of the darkest place I’ve ever been in. For trusting me when I didn’t trust myself. You changed my life.”
“For showing me that I can be a hero.”
Bakugou is crying for the first time that Kirishima has ever seen. Bakugou takes Kirishima’s hands from the air and presses them onto his cheeks. Then he puts his forehead on Kirishima’s, “This isn’t fucking fair. Everyone always leaves me.”
Kirishima’s heart breaks even more than he ever knew was possible.
“I wish that I could ask you to stay,” Bakugou whispers.
“I wish that I could say yes.”
“What’s the point of being a hero, of all the fame and glory and shit if I just end up miserable and alone at the end of it all anyway?”
Kirishima closes his eyes and gives himself a few more seconds of being there. Just being there with Bakugou. “I’m sorry.”
“Bakugou, you know I—,” but Kirishima can’t seem to finish the sentence.
He feels Bakugou nod gently, “Yeah, I do. And I—me too.”
It’s too much.
Kirishima takes his hands from Bakugou’s face and then takes a few steps back.
“I’m really going to miss you so much, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Bakugou balls his hands into fists, “There has to be something. I’ll find a way.”
Kirishima gives Bakugou one last, sad smile, “You’re the smartest, most amazing person I’ve ever known. But you don’t have to. You’ve already given me enough love for a hundred lifetimes.”
Then Kirishima takes the small device, and swallows it, before he can lose his resolve. He closes his eyes.
And when he opens his eyes again.
He’s on his couch at home.