wassupppppp

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There was still an entire day ahead of me before U.A. resumed classes. I knew I'd end up back at the HPSC somehow... but for now, I decided to pretend that wasn't the case. I found that old slip of paper from Recovery Girl hanging out in my pant pocket and sent everyone on the list a quick message letting them know it was me. They were probably still busy celebrating with family, so I went to an outdoor gym at the park while I waited for responses.

The bar clanked as I set it back in place. I huffed, mopping my face with a sleeve. Just then, I saw my phone light up with messages.

Mina
Omg you finally texted me!
hows ur day off??
idk ab u but i slept in SO LATE. i even had time to do my whole self-care routine. im so refreshed!
my mom took me to get my nails done! wanna see?

Without even waiting for a response, she sent a picture of her nails, glossy and at least a centimetre longer than when I saw them last, mottled to match her hero costume. Acrylics, right? Who knows – not me, that's for sure.

Mina
Aren't they pretty!??

Akiharu
Very :)
You know the chances they'll last through class is small, right?

Mina
i'll be careful!! plus, look at midnight's latest instagram post! she's rocking those stilettos!

She sent me a photo of Midnight's hand. Apparently "stiletto" was referring to the hero's skewer nails. Those could totally take someone's eyes out. They were definitely way too long to be within hero regulations...

Mina
right, u got any plans for our last day off?

Akiharu
Coffee. Really expensive coffee. I feel like I've earned it and that's all I have time for.

Mina
Hell ya you have! I have a great place in Musutafu for it, too! lemmie grab u the address. u gotta get the iced latte with x2 espresso and caramel drizzle. trust, i am a fancy coffee CONOSUER
conesuer
connessuer??
???

Akiharu
Connoisseur

Mina
CLOSE ENOUGH

She sent me the address and her usual order and I returned to finish up my gym set. I blessed the lord for a nearby public bath and spent a little bit of time soaking. By the time I left the bath there were a few new messages – Among them was something pretty well expected.

Bakugo
Where the fuck did you get my number

Akiharu
Recovery Girl

Bakugo
AND WHY THE FUCK DID SHE GIVE IT TO YOU

Akiharu
Hell if I know, she gave me a whole list and you were on it

Bakugo
AS IF I CARE
DELETE IT AND LEAVE ME ALONE

Akiharu
No lol

Ignoring the stream of curses filling my notification bar, I pushed my phone into my pocket and set off. The coffee place was back in Musutafu, which was an hour or so by train from Headquarters, on the other side of Sekoto Peak. Almost everyone at U.A. had come from all over Japan – including Mina and myself. Bakugo and Midoriya were the only ones born and raised in the hero-centric city.

Humming, I typed on my phone

Akiharu
Hey
U know this coffee shop?

Bakugo
None of your fucking business

I rolled my eyes

Akiharu
Guess I'll ask Midoriya
It's sad he knows your hometown better than you, cant say I'm surprised tho

Bakugo
FUCK YOU I AM THE KING OF MY HOMETOWN
I know the place because I'm not fucking stupid. But nobody fucking sane gets coffee from a coffee place, if you can't make it yourself then you're fucking hopeless.

Akiharu
You go to a coffee place to not drink coffee?
then what do you get

Bakugo
whatever doesnt taste fucking shitty

Akiharu
what isn't shitty

Bakugo
Figure it out yourself, asshole!

"Good fucking grief," I muttered.

Akiharu
Im otw there now
so please tell me, oh great Bakugo, what the hell you're getting from a coffee shop that isn't coffee?

Bakugo
Don't patronize me, bitch!

...

They have a Masala Chai blend on their menu. It's spicy. You probably couldn't handle it because you're weak as fucking hell, fucking shitty tie loser

Akiharu
k

Bakugo
DON'T YOU FUCKING "K" ME

Akiharu
k

It was well past noon by the time I made it to the coffee shop. While I was in line, I dialled up Recovery Girl's office. The old nurse answered before it rang a second time.

"Yes, you've reached Recovery Girl at U.A. If you're injured and off-campus, please call an ambulance. I'm overworked you idiot children."

"It's Akiharu," I greeted.

"Good grief. Whose face is broken this time?"

"No one's... Yet. I was just wondering... I know this is a weird ask, but..." I told her my plan, and the old nurse snorted.

"Sure. I'll send it to you now. Don't regret it."

I laughed wryly. "I'm sure I will."

I thanked her and hung up just in time to tell the barista my order. Then, with two piping hot drinks, I made my way to the address Recovery Girl had just sent.

The house was gorgeous; a complex, sleek-designed modern home three stories tall. The front garden was perfectly manicured and the walkway was spic and span. Cringing and regretting my life decisions already, I sent Bakugo a quick text and walked to the front door. If no one answered, I'd just go back home and enjoy the extra drink. Yeah. That's probably the best possible outcome that could happen here.

I knocked and immediately there was a bit of shouting, muffled through the door, before it was pulled open. In the doorway stood a tall but slight man with cropped dark hair and glasses framing his tired eyes. He reminded me of a kicked puppy, with bowed shoulders and dark, pleading eyes. "Y–yes...?"

Was this really the right place? "Um, I'm..."

"Well, who is it?" A woman filled the rest of the door and she was 100% conformation I had gotten the address right. Her hair was short, blonde, and spiked, and her eyes were coloured a deep crimson. A harsh expression furrowed her youthful face, lips pressed into a thin line. "Oh, I know you!" Her expression cleared, and she instantly looked even younger. How old was she, twenty? Bakugo had a sister this whole time? Here I thought he had extreme only-child vibes. "You're Katsuki's classmate!" she chirped. "What was it... Akiharu, right?"

"Yes, uh... I was in the neighbourhood, so I brought Bakugo a drink."

"Oh, is that from the place down the road? How kind of you!" She turned her head inside and took in a deep breath. "Katsuki!" she screamed, rattling the windows. I felt my eye give an involuntary twitch. Something warm dripped from my ears. Blood? "Come great your friend, damn it!"

I cringed. This was turning into a much bigger spectacle than I intended. I should've just left the tea on the doorstep and ran away.

"Right, I'm Mistuki Bakugo!" greeted Bakugo's sister, while the unkempt man retreated inside. She grinned at me, and I felt my stomach flop. Is she a model or something? "It's very nice to meet you. Your performance in the festival was amazing! I was glad to see there were others capable of standing up to my kid's ego..."

Huh? I blinked. Run that by me again? The phrase echoed across my empty mind.

"My kid's ego... ego...ego..."

Mitsuki cupped her cheek, tilting her head. "Since, you know, he's such a fucking brat. But he's so good at everything people have a hard time standing up to him..."

"My kid... My kid..."

"You're his mom!?" the exclamation was torn from my mouth before I could think to smother it. "Wha – You don't– But you're so young!"

Mistuki blinked. Then she propped her hands on her hips and laughed uproariously. "I like you! It's just my Quirk, hon," she winked. "It keeps my skin smooth."

I could feel my mind crumbling into dust. "Wh– Um–" I cleared my throat, feeling my ears and neck flush red with embarrassment. "Yeah. I – I can see that." If Bakugo doesn't get down here right now, I'm killing him and then myself.

Stomping rumbled like thunder through the home as Bakugo stormed down the stairs. "If it's that fucking Deku, just send him home! I won't talk!"

"Mind your manners, Katsuki!" Mitsuki, the mother, spat. She turned back to me and heaved a long sigh. "Honestly, I don't know where we went wrong in raising him," she tittered.

"Stop gossiping! Who's at the damn door!" Bakugo yanked open the front door and stopped in his tracks. "What the FUCK are you doing at my house!?"

I raised the tea. "I brought a peace offering. In apology for, uh..." I glanced to his mother. "Smashing your nose in?"

Mistuki looked between him and I. "Smashed...?"

Bakugo didn't look happy about it, but snatched the tea anyways. "You didn't smash in shit!" he spat.

"Really? Recovery Girl said it was a hassle to heal."

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Watch your language, Katsuki!" Mitsuki roared. "Now stop being a lame pussy bitch and invite him in!"

"That's a girl, you old hag!"

"Don't take that tone with me you disrespectful shit! It doesn't make a damn what her gender is, don't leave your friend on the doorstep!"

"She ain't my goddamn friend!"

"It's all good, Ms. Bakugo!" I interrupted. "I showed up out of the blue, and I have a long commute home. I really should get going."

Frowning, Mistuki cupped her cheek. "Oh, you're too sweet... I wish our Katsuki had turned out a bit more like you."

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I definitely should not have come.

Bakugo pushed back inside with a seething grumble. "You're all so fucking annoying."

I stepped back off the porch, grateful for the escape opportunity.

"You get back here you whiny brat!" Mitsuki shouted inside. I choked on my spit. "The least you can do is walk her to the station!"

"Fuck no!"

Unfortunately, Mitsuki had a lot of very useful threats, (namely 'I'll pull you out of U.A. if you don't') and soon a sneering Bakugo stepped off of the porch and followed after me in the direction of the train station.

"That's my bad. I meant to leave the tea and run."

Bakugo scoffed a few curses under his breath. "I should've known you were planning something."

"Well, I really am sorry for losing my shit yesterday. I left you in pretty bad condition."

Bakugo snapped his head around with a yell. "You only managed that 'cause you fucking jumped me!" He spun back around, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. "I said some stupid fucking shit – but I said it to provoke you, and it worked!"

"So you wanted to get your skull bashed in?"

"No! I was trying to get you to take me seriously, not go all fucking apeshit on my face."

"Maybe antagonizing people isn't the best way to get them to take you seriously..."

"You ended up facing me in the final," he bickered, "So it worked just fucking fine! Even if you threw it at the end like a loser!"

"I didn't throw it. You just caught me off-guard."

"Yeah, right!" he scowled. "You had a plan. I could smell it–"

"That's a weird way of putting that."

"–Then you just fucking crashed!"

I rubbed my jaw with a wry expression. The skin there was still tender. "You have a strong left hook."

"'Course I do!" he snapped. "So? What was all that bullshit about?"

I glanced at him. "What was what?"

"Half-assing matches, speaking weird, all of it! You stole my phone, went to leave, broke my nose, ran away, and then decided to come back for the final, only the way you used your Quirk was different and your eyes went all fucking crazy and then you just give up? It's like you lost your goddamn mind!"

Again, he noticed. What a pain in my ass.

I smirked. "Careful with the questions, Bakugo. Ask too many and I'll start thinking you care."

"You could die right now and I wouldn't bat an eye!" he retorted. "But we've got a long ass walk and I'm bored as hell. So tell me, or else I'll go around telling everyone what a big loser piece of shit you are."

I raised an eyebrow. "You're the last person anyone wants to hear accusing someone else of being a piece of shit," I muttered. Still, what was there to lose, at this point? I was certainly on the Chairwoman's shit list by now. They were probably looking for me as we speak. "It's a long story," I cautioned.

"Then it better not be boring, or I'll kill you."

I'd signed too many NDA's to go into any detail, but hell if anyone would believe anything he said about me, anyways. Whatever. I was sort-of too tired to give any more fucks. I sighed. "I'll put it simply, then. I'm not as cool as my friends think I am."

"Really?" he mocked. "Coulda fooled me."

"If you want me to talk then you're going to have to listen," I bit. I kicked at a pebble, sending it skittering down the sidewalk. "I'm not naturally gifted. I've been training to be a hero for a long, long time. I'm an amnesiac who can't remember the first seven years of my life. After that, instead of making friends or going to school, I trained. I can't tell you where outright, or how I got there, but instead of parents I have 'bosses.' At the Sports Festival, I found out they were hiding some pretty important stuff from me. And it was... fucking with my head."

Bakugo tucked his chin close to his shirt. "What about the freakout at USJ?"

"The what?"

"When you spazzed out and fainted!"

"Oh, that?" I only dimly recalled the incident, and couldn't picture what I had seen moments before passing out. "Uh, sometimes when I'm stressed out I see things."

He stared at me in disbelief.

"Yep, that sounds terrible. Um, it's more like... A nightmare? But it happens when you're awake, and even though it makes no sense, you can't tell that you're dreaming. It feels real." With every word he seemed even more off-put. "Um, they're also probably distorted memories that I don't actually remember, and when I get that freaked out my Quirk can sometimes go haywire, and that's why I have emergency needles in my costume that put me to sleep."

Bakugo's jaw snapped shut. "You're more fucked up in the head than I thought."

"Ya think? Non fucked-up people typically don't go into blackout rages and break peoples faces."

He grinned devilishly. "I do that all the time."

"Have you considered that you might be fucked up?"

"I'm perfectly fucking normal!"

"Sorry," I repeated, "You're normal?"

His jaw hung slack. "No! I'm fucking phenomenal!"

I rolled my eyes. "Right."

We were about halfway to the train station now. I wasn't sure what I'd do once I got on. Would I go back to headquarters? I had to, right? There was nowhere else I could go...

A sudden tingle brushed across the back of my skull. My head moved involuntarily to my side.

There was a massive tree just off the sidewalk, a few paces into a dirt lot fenced off for construction. Its branches creaked and its bark had started to twist a deep, rotting grey. Though it was spring, the branches had yet to sprout many leaves. Before I knew it, I stood before it, resting my hand to the bark. It felt weak, as though it were sucking in its last breaths. It was as if... as if I could feel it – I'd heard somewhere that trees breathed much like humans, that they could sense and see and hear. Slowly, I felt something start to intermingle with my senses, tickling at my spine, like a gentle caress, intertwining.

There was a sudden, violent tug.

I yanked my hand away from the bark, pulling it close to myself. Nothing had moved or changed. Still, my hand strembled and my throat felt dry.

"Can you fucking focus?" Bakugo groaned. "I want to go back home already!"

"Sorry," I muttered, stepping back to the sidewalk.

"God, I can't believe what a freak you are..."

As we left the tree behind, I failed to see it had sprouted a few new green buds across its branches.

The train station was soon in sight. I turned to say goodbye to Bakugo when, with the crackle of the asphalt, the wheels of a car rolled up at his back, sliding to a stop. The sleek black vehicle popped open a door and I felt my skin crawl. My knees dropped involuntarily in a fighting stance. Bakugo swivelled to face the car just as the Chairwoman exited.

The Chairwoman's cold eyes slid from Bakugo to me. I swallowed drily. "Let's not cause a scene, Akiharu. Get in the car."

Bakugo's knees dropped like a cat on the prowl, and a single, tiny spark twisted between his fingers like static. "The fuck're you, old hag?"

I closed my eyes and sighed, resting a hand on his shoulder. This was his future we were talking about. "Thanks for walking me this far, Bakugo. It looks like I have a ride back home."

His nose was wrinkled as his blood-red eyes scanned over my face. His posture relaxed, but his face remained twisted with a sneer. I pushed past him and toward the Chairwoman. "You found me fast," I muttered.

"It's a good thing we have eyes everywhere," The Chairwoman said, stoically, holding open the car door.

I raised a hand in farewell right before the door slammed shut. The Chairwoman climbed into the driver's seat — There was no one else here. "That's a rare sight," I griped. "Got something to say you don't want anyone else hearing?"

Bakugo watched the car pull out onto the road before he stuffed his shoulders in his pockets and started back in the direction of his home. The Chairwoman's knuckles turned white on the steering wheel.

I'd crossed a line I'd never dared to touch before. What would happen next?

"This behaviour is quite unbecoming of you. You know you're supposed to ask permission to leave the facility."

My stomach gave an involuntary twist. I was tired of listening to everyone without question. Nothing made any sense.

"Why?"

Her icy glare met my eyes through the rearview mirror. "Excuse me?"

I slouched in the seat, crossing my arms over my chest. "It's not like I'm an active danger to anyone anymore. As long as I avoid stress. Which, now that I think of it, isn't being a hero the worst possible thing for me? I mean, it's nothing but high-stress and triggering situations. Wouldn't it be safer for everyone involved for me to just... not?"

The Chairwoman's eyes were steely. "That'd make all of our investments into you pointless."

"But you said!" I retorted. "One of your options was to live in a controlled facility until I was no longer a safety hazard, and I'm not!"

"And what of the people who lost their lives?"

"I'll find some other way to make it up to them! I'll do charity work, or–"

"Enough!" The Chairwoman snapped. My shoulders jumped and I felt myself curling inward, making myself smaller. Suddenly I was seven years old again, small, scared and alone, back when I knew nobody, not even myself. She pinched her grey brow between her forefinger and thumb. "You're upset, so you're thinking hastily. You're far too old for this kind of irrationality."

I felt a sickening realisation piece together in my mind at last. Being a hero really was the only option, wasn't it?

"This whole time, I was trying to convince myself I had some kind of conviction, some kind of autonomy." My throat tightened and my chest burned with anger. "You gave a kid a bunch of profiles, you suggested I read them to help with the guilt – that's fucking crazy! All this – all this, this hatred, this disgust, this fear– It came from you, not me. I was just a kid! What – What the hell were you thinking?"

"All Might is dying."

My stomach dropped. One, simple, matter-of-fact sentence. My voice came out a hollow whisper.

"What?"

Calmly, calculatedly, the Chairwoman turned the steering wheel. The car rolled to a stop at a red light. "Nine years ago, All Might won a terrible fight at the cost of his career. At the time of your disaster, he was in critical condition. The board was in upheaval. We had to find someone to replace the Symbol of Peace, and we had to find them, fast. Hawks was fifteen, but he didn't have the conviction we needed. It was then that you came into our care."

I covered my mouth, leaning over my seat. All Might was dying.

Dying.

Society would collapse.

Flashes of Shigaraki flitted through my mind, images of that monster —that Nomu — that only All Might could take. There was more. I knew there would be more. If All Might could no longer stand up to them...

"Fortunately, All Might pulled through," continued the Chairwoman, "but with each new day, the amount of time he can spend working steadily decreases. We had time to take the Program that created Hawks and improve the curriculum. It would be constant, intense work – something no child could handle without the strongest conviction.

"Who knows if you can truly hold a seven year-old accountable for an accident like that? I know I've never felt it was your fault. Either way, those people are dead, and any day now, society will need someone else to put on that pedestal.

"Everything I did was to ensure you would be able to withstand the gruelling training. Now that I've seen you in the Sports Festival, I know you are capable. The question now is whether you can set aside your personal grievances and become the hero we need you – everyone needs you — to be, for the sake of not just their happiness, but their safety. Their freedom."

I remained silent, but not by choice. Every word of argument had been sucked from my lungs. There was no time to feel relief that she had admitted it wasn't my fault.

All Might was dying.

"How long does he have?" I asked, barely in a whisper.

"Our estimated say a year, perhaps three, tops."

Three years.

The rest of the car ride was silent. It was late evening by the time I followed the Chairwoman toward the front doors. She tossed the keys to an agent, who hurried to park the company car. She gestured me to follow her, so I walked inside and into the elevator. We got off at the top floor.

"Will you tell me..." I spoke, quietly, "What it is you're still hiding? Where did I come from?"

The Chairwoman watched me, silently. "I've told you everything you need to know." She rested a hand on my shoulder, giving it a pitiful squeeze. "Distractions will only divert you from the path we need you to take. I'm counting on you... The whole world is.

"I'll excuse your disobedience today and allow you to return to U.A. However, should you betray us again..." Her chin lowered as she met my eyes with a cold intensity. "Let's just say I witnessed a few other promising individuals at the Festival whom could take your place."

She stepped into her office and shut the door behind her. I looked slowly out the windows to my side; to the bustling cityscape down below; the people flooding the streets at every hour of the day. So many people had already died at my hand. How many people would die, if there was no one to take All Might's place? I had so many more people I cared about now. Could I afford to leave them be? Could I live with myself, if I allowed this burden to lay upon someone else's shoulders?

I had three years to surpass All Might.

I had three years to become the Number One hero.

I turned and pressed the elevator button.

I had so much work to do.

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4088 words ~
guys i promise it gets silly soon...