Chapter Text
Katsuki Bakugou wants to become the greatest hero of all time, to be the one who can surpass All Might himself, Japan's number 1 hero, and widely recognized worldwide as the symbol of peace.
The blond boy had admired the man above all else since childhood; All Might was the strongest hero in the world, all the villains feared him, none dared to leave their hole if he was nearby, and anyone who dared to face him ended up defeated with a powerful punch from his fists.
“All Might always wins”
That was Katsuki's idea of humanity, and All Might always wins because he has the strongest power of all, logical, right? In this superhuman society, it was clear that those with the most powerful Quirks were the ones who truly made the rules of the game.
Ever since Katsuki's Quirk, 'Explosion', was revealed to him at the age of 4, everyone started talking about it. People immediately realized it was a Quirk with a lot of potential, and it was with their comments and praise that he began to think about the possibility of surpassing his idol.
'Explosion' was just what he needed to become a hero, but not just another run-of-the-mill hero like the ones that proliferated as nameless third-rate helpers, no, he had to be the next number 1, so he couldn't show weakness in any way, he had to live up to all the expectations that were placed on him.
In his head there was only one true and unchangeable reality: if he wasn't the best, then he was a loser.
If only Katsuki knew that there was more to being a hero than just being a strong guy.
---
*Musutafu City, Japan.
A strange, crimson-red fly hovered over the residential area of the city. The small creature seemed to be searching for something, completely ignoring the garbage truck leaving the school it was heading towards. It flew until it reached the window of one of the classrooms at Aldera High School; inside, a class of 20 students was having their daily lesson.
The teacher at the front held a stack of papers in his hands, waving them up and down. “I don’t think I need to bother with this. I know everyone wrote ‘to be a hero’ on their future career form.”
The class erupted in shouts and laughter, followed by a display of the students' peculiarities.
“Please don’t lump me in with this whole bunch of idiots, teacher,” said a blond teenager with a mocking expression in a noticeably arrogant tone.
"Anyone who calls you an idiot is an idiot!!"
“Yeah! Who do you think you are?!”
Some of the students shouted furiously, but the blond teenager just smiled arrogantly.
"Haha! Please, everyone knows perfectly well who here has a real chance of being a professional hero."
The other students continue to complain about their classmate's attitude, but Katsuki just closes his eyes, crosses his arms, and ignores all the whining.
“Oh, what do we have here, I see there’s someone else who wants to go to UA and it’s… Midoriya?…”, the teacher is surprised by the revelation and looks directly at the seat where the green-haired boy was sitting.
The whole class falls silent, and they slowly turn to look at their green-haired classmate; the comments are not long in coming.
“This has to be a joke”
"Did you really write that, Deku?"
"Don't you know you need a gift for that?"
Izuku tries to hide as best he can in his seat, but at that moment Katsuki gets up and turns around with an angry expression, grabs Deku by the collar of his shirt and pulls him violently.
"Deku! What do you think you're doing, trying to qualify for UA?! Don't you know that a good-for-nothing like you doesn't have the slightest chance of getting in?!"
The teacher tries to restore order with a monotonous tone in his voice, "Hey, everyone calm down, go back to your seats, Bakugou you'll also get detention if you don't calm down, did you hear me?"
Katsuki frowns without breaking eye contact with his frightened classmate, "I'll see you at the school exit, Deku," the blond boy lets go of Izuku and returns to his seat.
The crimson fly focuses its compound vision on the blond boy and looks at him with interest.
---
*Later that day.
Katsuki was walking back home with two other classmates.
"What a shitty day, I can't stand being here anymore, just a little longer and I'll go to UA, that way I won't have to put up with that idiot Deku anymore."
“Hey man, don’t you think you went a little too far telling him to kill himself?” said Extra 1.
“Yes, what would happen if he really took it seriously?” said Extra 2.
Katsuki responds with frustration, "He won't, he's too cowardly for that, let him do what he wants, I really don't care, just don't get in my way."
As the three teenagers continue talking, none of them realize that something is stalking them.
A kind of grotesque green slime slithers down the alley parallel to the teenagers, “I was able to escape All Might by sheer luck that he got distracted by that broccoli-headed kid, now…”
The slime moves to the exit of the alley and manages to see the boys, "I need a hostage quickly to protect me..."
And from above, the little fly from before also follows the trio of teenagers, perching on a trash can and watching Katsuki.
*That blond boy… his aura seems to be the most suitable; the ritual requires a soul that can synchronize with mine, he could…*
Katsuki walks right past the trash can where that fly is, a chill runs through his body and makes the boy immediately turn to look at the trash can as he feels a penetrating gaze on him.
“But what…?”, Katsuki at first doesn’t understand what that feeling was, but he looks down and sees the fly staring directly at him, which, in fact, causes him a strange discomfort.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you? Did you see something?” one of the boys asks.
Katsuki just grunts in response and keeps walking, “…Nothing”
The fly follows him with its eyes, *Yes, he's the right one… his soul will do*
At that moment, the mud villain takes advantage of the young people's distraction to jump on them, managing to capture Katsuki, and with a quick movement he envelops him in his mud mass to escape with him.
Katsuki can only feel the disgusting substance seeping into his body. The sensation is horrible and all-encompassing; its rotten, sewer-like smell assaults his nostrils, making him taste something like rotten eggs on his tongue. The sludge villain tells him not to fight or he'll kill him, but Katsuki does the opposite. He struggles as hard as he can to try and break free. The noise attracts the attention of those nearby. His classmates shout for help, and within minutes, both the police and the heroes who were already after the villain arrive on the scene, surrounding him immediately.
Having taken control of the teenager's body, the villain forces Katsuki to use his Quirk. The explosions created by the blond boy prevent the heroes from approaching, and the sparks ignite a fire that slowly spreads throughout the neighborhood.
The police keep people away, and the heroes in the area don't know how to proceed, shouting that they can't do anything without the person with the right gift being present.
Oh my god, what a great irony of life, Katsuki the prodigy trapped by a petty criminal and a group of useless heroes doing everything but trying to save him, it seems that karma is a bitch and came back to bite his ass.
The teenager couldn't feel more humiliated, but as if the universe truly hated him and was trying to teach him a lesson, he sees a small green goblin running straight towards him.
This mysterious hero dodges police officers and other heroes and dives in to save him, landing on the muddy body and struggling to climb to his position to try and pull him out.
Katsuki's eyes widen in surprise, he is shocked when he can finally see that person, the green dwarf was Deku who with tears in his eyes and wearing a smile that tries to mask his own fear, tells him that he is here to save him.
Yes, the same crybaby Deku that Katsuki knows had done what the pseudo-heroes couldn't: take the bull by the horns and go to rescue him.
The blond boy's mind was flooded with feelings: anger at being humiliated by this villain. He was supposed to be the damned Katsuki Bakugou, the next number one, not a victim. But he also felt something—he didn't know how to put it into words—genuine concern for the boy.
What Izuku did was heroic, but he was still just an ordinary teenager; any wrong move and it would all end in tragedy.
While all this was happening, among the crowd a man with a skeletal and sickly appearance watched everything and was surprised that a child found the courage to run to help his companion, the same child with whom he had met earlier and who had told him that he could not be a hero because of his lack of a gift.
And now, here he stood doing nothing, making excuses, while the supposedly giftless child ridiculed him and everyone else.
"But what am I doing? I have to help too!" The skeleton man begins to increase in size and transform.
Izuku desperately tries to remove the mud without success, his fingers only sinking deeper into the disgusting substance as Katsuki continues to struggle to free himself.
“You damn kid!! Get out of here, or else…”, the villain pulls out a mud tentacle and fires it straight at Izuku, but before it hits, a strong gust of wind strikes them.
It is so strong that the air pressure tears the mud off Katsuki's body and he and Izuku fall to the ground. The villain is pushed several meters, clinging to anything he can to avoid being torn to pieces, just like before when he was captured inside a simple soda bottle.
It seems that everything will be alright, but one last detail is forgotten, the fire caused by Katsuki's explosions is still burning, All Might's powerful attack had destroyed the infrastructure of the street where they were standing, it was not uncommon for this kind of thing to happen in a confrontation between heroes and villains, but right under that street were several highly flammable gas pipes.
Now freed and with Izuku by his side, Katsuki can't think of anything better to do than yell at him, "Damn it, Deku! Who asked for your damn help in the first place?! Why wasn't it me?!"
Izuku also shouts back, "I know you didn't ask for my help, but you needed it and I don't know what happened to me! My body moved on its own... That's what a hero does, Kacchan!!"
Katsuki wanted to yell back at him, but Izuku was right, he was the only one who jumped in to save him, stupid or not, the green-haired boy really had a point in his favor.
However, there wasn't much time to overthink things; the villain recovered and glared at them with murderous rage. Katsuki thought quickly; he just had to pick up Izuku and use his hands to propel them both into the sky and escape.
But as the idea was forming, a deafening hiss caught Katsuki's attention. A gas pipe protruding from the pavement had caught fire. Katsuki focused on the smell in the air—natural gas that seemed to be coming from the laundromat nearby.
"This has to be a fucking joke..." the blond man thought, realizing that the whole disgusting street was a bomb.
The world seemed to slow down for the blond boy; the place they stood on would be torn apart in mere seconds. Katsuki considered all the possible options. If he used his Quirk to propel himself, he'd be fast enough to escape the explosion, but that would mean leaving Izuku behind to die. Not even he was heartless enough to let someone die.
Life takes unexpected turns. I spent years looking down on Izuku and treating him like a plague, going so far as to insult him by telling him to commit suicide, and now I simply couldn't turn my head and pretend not to see him.
Katsuki makes the decision instantly, runs and pushes Izuku with all his might, throwing him into an open sewer hole; it was deep enough that the explosion wouldn't reach him.
But those lost seconds were everything; by doing so, Katsuki has condemned himself. The flame that came out of the pipe finally ignites the gas in the environment and all hell breaks loose.
I was literally standing in the center of a thermobaric bomb; the gas in the air ignites, reacts with the oxygen, and the whole street turns into a fireball.
The pressure generated by the explosion is so strong that it tears the villain apart; the heat of the burning oxygen completely envelops Katsuki. He feels his body burning as it is hit by the heat wave. The jacket of his uniform vaporizes, and his skin burns as if it were melting, leaving his muscles exposed.
The shockwave of pressure hits directly into his internal organs; his lungs are squeezed until they almost explode, as is his stomach; the vacuum created by the rapid combustion of the gases takes the air out of his body and suffocates him.
Although Katsuki's body is naturally resistant to explosions, this only applies to the immediate shockwave outside his body; a thermobaric bomb uses overpressure to hit internal organs and creates a large amount of heat by literally setting the oxygen in the environment on fire.
The windows of shops, nearby houses and cars explode in showers of glass, leaving everyone nearby deaf.
Katsuki's body is violently thrown against a pile of rubble and his head hits the edge of a steel beam, which ends up breaking his skull. His body ends up lying on the ground with his vision becoming increasingly dark.
The small crimson fly had seen everything from a distance, it flies and ends up landing on Katsuki's chest, before he falls unconscious he only manages to hear a voice.
*That was a good hit, hehehe*