Chapter Text
Katsuki Bakugou was pronounced dead in the war; however, he was one of the over thousands of casualties in the supposed last attack from the heroes. All For One was forced to regress into a three-year-old and incarcerated, serving 57,430,082-year sentence. Shigaraki survived—even though he barely did—and escaped. Other villains participating in the attack were mostly arrested. The heroes managed to minimize the damage although catastrophic still.
Izuku has not been doing well, no, he is the worst amongst all of the class. Losing Bakugou, his closest friend, and All Might, his mentor and surrogate father, all in one day not an hour apart left him such unfathomable pain. Failed to save. Failing to hope.
Two days ago, a flash drive was sent to 2-A dormitory.
To 1-A students. That’s what is written on it. The flash drive was thoroughly checked, so it’s safe to say that they won’t get in any trouble if they decide to open it.
They all agreed to open it. So, the whole class—almost anyways—assembles in the common room, some settles on the couch, some on the carpet. Kaminari connects the flash drive to his laptop, which its screen displays on the dorm’s television. Inside the drive’s folder contains countless videos. He clicks on the first file, the first one that’s added in the folder.
Texts displayed on the black screen.
‘In memory of Katsuki’
Everybody tense up, no matter how hard they try to hide it, they know each other. Although everyone sees, no one mentions it, as if it’s an unspoken rule between them. A name they all know too well.
Tears welled up in Izuku’s eyes.
Uraraka suggests, “Let’s turn off the lights…” They agreed with her idea as they know that it isn’t to focus on the screen, but rather to conceal their tears. She knows none of them would make it by the end of the video, because she is starting to break down from just reading the texts.
‘The intention of these videos is to clarify and satisfy my own needs and a friend’s who did not make it to the end of the story.’
“What is this?” his voice thick and low.
‘Rest assured. These memories are taken with the owner’s consent: Katsuki Bakugou. And it was his idea to entrust the information with all of you… In his words, “Let those idiots do whatever the fuck with it.”’
Todoroki breaks the silence, “That does sound like him.”
Everyone else loses some tension even if just a bit. Except for some of them. Izuku was… different per se, ever since he came back from the hospital. He couldn’t imagine a life without Kacchan, but now he’s forever gone. As if a part of him died with Kacchan… or Kacchan was a part of him.
Kirishima was devastated, to say the least. He hasn’t been as talkative or approachable like usual—closed off. Mina mentioned that he behaved similarly to this in their middle school years. Kirishima managed to form a genuine friendship with Kacchan and was the first of them that Kacchan trusted to have his back. Izuku must admit that he was kind of jealous of how quickly they became friends. Back then, before their little rescue mission at Kamino, he proved that he would do anything to take him back. That, he did. Kacchan was his strength… And Kirishima is losing it.
Kaminari doesn’t take his death very well. Kouda and Iida hear his cries almost every night, since his dorm is between them. The guilt is eating him alive, from trusting too much in Kacchan’s strength, from being so near to him but couldn’t do anything to save him.
The black fades into a bright light.
—
Katsuki was blessed with a powerful quirk, a flashy one too. Everyone around him wouldn’t let him forget about that fact.
He remembered the first time his quirk manifested. It was a day before his third birthday. The sky up above was clear, without a white cotton painted on the baby blue. He was in the middle of coloring a blank paper for his graduation decoration from nursery when suddenly he heard a pop. His orange crayon scattered and its pieces melted into the paper, some on the table. Another series of popping in his hands.
His nursery teacher came over to him. “Wow, Katsuki-chan, is that your quirk?” She stared at little flashes in the boy’s hands. Another teacher chimed in, “They look pretty much like fire crackers, don't they? No doubt they’ll be super strong one day.” Other kids were singing his praises of being “awesome” and “cool.”
The teachers were talking to each other, but he couldn’t care less right at the moment, as he was being caught up in such gleefulness. He couldn’t wait to tell his parents about this.
It turned out he didn’t have to wait long, because after an hour or so his parents came to school and took him home. Oh how he was bouncing in the backseat. As soon as they entered the doorway, he tried his best to take off his shoes the fastest although his parents were much faster. Mom put down her purse on the couch and dad dropped all his weight next to it. “Mom! Dad! Look!” Childish excitement overflows. He forgot all about wearing slippers.
“Katsuki! Stop running around the house!” His mom scolded him as if it would really work on him right at the moment. His dad’s quiet “Come one, you” did work somehow.
Katsuki put his palms up and emitted flashing crackles, “Look! Look!”
“Jeez, kid. That’s kinda like yours, Masaru.” She said, patting her baby’s hair adoringly.
Katsuki tilted his head in confusion.
His dad began to rub his hands together and there it was: Explosion. “Mine needs friction, but it seems yours don’t need one.” Katsuki didn’t know half of what his dad was saying, though he knew a compliment when he heard one.
His eyes sparked up.
—
“Aww. He was so precious…” Sadness lingering in the way Hagakure speaks up.
“He’s so proud of his quirk,” Izuku finally finds his voice, “I remembered he showed it off to just about anyone passing by.” The sight of happiness in Kacchan’s eyes twists him in the guts like a knife wrapped around with another layer of barbed wire.
Eijirou tightens his lips, forming a thin line. Bakugou was proud, almost prideful, whenever he explained little tricks about his explosions. One time, in one of their quirk-sparring matches, he let out a genuine smile while he was demonstrating how he utilized his sweats to the greatest. The slight upcurl of his lips Eijirou wouldn’t be able to witness anymore.
—
“Tomorrow Inko’s gonna come over.” She turned to him, “You show off the heck out of them.” Katsuki excitedly nodded and thought, this is the best day of his life. She ruffled his hair once more then departed some time later.
She went behind the couch and leaned onto dad, both arms hung above his shoulders, whispering words to his ears. “Hisashi will be here.” Their expression shifted into something Katsuki couldn’t interpret for a moment then back to normal.
His birthday came so slow, he thought. The graduation ceremony was over within two hours, but he was sure it felt much longer. Time runs slower when you wish the clock to tick faster, dad would say. What tick? He didn’t even know how to read that stuff.
They met up with Izuku and his parents after the ceremony. Dad greeted them, “Hey, Inko. Hisashi, long time no see. How have you been?”
A man with curly black hair greeted back, “Y’know, little business here and there.” He knelt down to little boy’s eye level, there’re freckles laced on his face. “You must be Katsuki-kun, right? I’m Hisashi,” he reached out for a handshake, “Nice to meet you.”
He didn’t know what to say back or to do, so he simply replicated everything the man did. He reached back, “Nice to meet you?”
“Ah, silly me. Sorry, I forgot I’m not in America anymore.” The man gently let go of his hand.
His mom said back, “It’s alright. Katsuki, you can call him uncle Hisashi.” Katsuki echoed, “Uncle.”
The word resulted in a genuine smile on uncle Hisashi’s freckled face before he stood up to his original height, making it hard to see his expression. Damn. He’s tall.
“Let’s go to my place.” She said something about direction and stuff. Katsuki didn’t care much since his attention was all over Izuku. They talked and talked about All Might, the number one hero of their little hearts.
—
All Might, the hero Izuku couldn’t save, the hero who was torn into half in front of him. Gush of blood scattered across the navy sky, intestines still connected as the red-filled rain mourned his departure to the vestige world. Hope shattered the moment he felt his mentor’s presence inside him. His hope, his mentor, his father-figure.
Izuku realizes that he has forgotten everything about him, his father. His face is like a blur to him—knowing that he exists in this world, but at the same time, he doesn’t. Izuku doesn’t remember his voice or how he was towering over everyone, he only reminisces of all the times his mom has talked about his father—ghosts of smiles in her forest green eyes. He’s been gone for so long—as long as he could remember.
“Never knew Bakugou was such a fanboy.” Jirou’s voice cuts him out of his internal rambling. “You both look so cute together.”
“Oh yeah, he was.” He doesn’t know how much time has passed since he was lost in his head. On the screen, there’s a massive All Might-themed cake in the middle of them all. Their off-key birthday song was fundamentally different from the norms; it was longer and the tempo was shifted. Right, they added an All Might theme song to it.
—
“Let’s watch All Might: Rising Hero together.” Katsuki suggested, no, he invited—he was going to watch it nevertheless.
“Yeah! Mom, can you put that on for us?” Auntie Inko put the movie on for them enough time to know how to navigate through their TV.
It would take a while to go to the movie page, so he excused himself, “I’m going to the bathroom.” Izuku didn’t seem to acknowledge him as he was bouncing and practically running around the couch with Katsuki’s figurine in his hand. Yes. His All Might figurine—his birthday present. But he didn’t think much of it because both his parents and Izuku’s parents bought him the exact same editions.
The bathroom was near the end of the hallway, next to his parents’ office which was at the absolute end. When Katsuki finished his duty and was about to walk back, he heard yelling—most likely uncle Hisashi—he leaned in.
“That’s not it at all!”
“Then what is it? You know damn well what they do to kids with a powerful quirk, let alone Explosion. Both that crippled demon-whatever son of a bitch and the commission.”
“You should’ve known this before— You’ve always considered the potential risks before executing any action. Why is one time you made a foolish decision, it has to be this?” Katsuki recoiled backwards. Was that all he was for them, a “foolish decision?”
His dad spoke in a tone Katsuki didn’t know he could, “You’re one to say. Izuku, ever heard of that name?"
“I knew that his quirk wouldn’t be a problem. I made sure of it. Mine and Inko’s quirk don’t have any association that would fuse together and be a perfect example of the Quirk Doomsday theory like yours do.”
Katsuki couldn’t interpret whatever that might imply, but mom would most likely narrow her eyes to the statement. “You did a full background check on her?” Uncle Hisashi replied abruptly, “You didn’t?” She let out a defeated grunt that could only be translated into “Fair enough.”
—
Ashido rushes to the keyboard and presses pause, capturing everyone’s attention. “Hold on. They knew about All For One?” Asui cuts in, “Bakugou and Midoriya’s parents seem to know essential information about him enough to notify the heroes, why didn’t they?”
After a few seconds of contemplation, Yaoyorozu answers. “The Hero Public Safety Commission.” She clarifies, “They knew about the dark side of HSPC, as they mentioned about ‘the commission’ earlier… This might be ‘the information’ he wished us to acknowledge. Something he missed back then that we can use for our current situation.”
Of course Kacchan did this for a reason, but Izuku was so caught on the memory of their childhood happiness and overlooked the significance of the video. He must get his priority straight.
Sero points out, “So, can we not ignore the fact that there seems to be a group of civilians who are overly concerned about quirks combinations and talk like digging up someone’s past is a normal thing to do?” He stands up and turns to Izuku. “This might be a little awkward, but… Can you tell us more about your dad?”
Now their eyes are on Izuku. “I— I’m sorry, I can’t.” They look like they have thousands of questions running through their heads, some of them open their mouths but don’t dare to say anything, or don’t know what to say in general. His gaze lay on the carpet—couldn't face their curious eyes. Where should he start? What is he even going to say? He feels obligated to answer anyway, “He hasn’t been home much ever since I was a kid… To be honest, I can’t even remember his face.” Izuku feels as if the memories of his father are wiped clean. “All I know is he’s been working overseas.” He looks up to meet everyone’s gaze—some with a slight disappointment, some with pity. “That’s all I know.”
The silence only creates more tension. So, Izuku is grateful that Ashido presses play and lets the sound in the video fill in.
—
The rest of their conversation was a blur to him, because for him, it’s just an old man’s rambling. Katsuki walked back to the living room.
Izuku beamed up as the boy saw him, “Hurry up, Kacchan! Mom, can you play the movie for us?” Auntie Inko pressed on the remote, “Sure, honey.”
Both of them sat on the couch with replicated All Might figurines in their hands, eyes locked onto the screen, singing the theme song with terribly off-keyed childish high-pitched voices. The deaf would feel lucky that they couldn’t hear properly.