"People change,
and forget to tell each other."
-Lillian Hellman
His hand laid limply on his shoulder, still sparkling with electricity, as his voice - soft, solemn, and quiet - reached out with a hint of urgency. Only Bakugo's ears could hear it. It was like it was embedded with a magical spell, preventing others from listening with sheer will.
"No matter what happens, you can't let them know that we know each other. I'll find some way to get you out of this, but for now..."
Electricity spread like a wildfire, further cementing him in place. Let alone an arm, he couldn't move his body at all now.
"...Sorry."
Deku stepped away from him, face indifferent as he fell to the floor, limbs twitching and spasming erratically. Bakugo felt his anger burn, but he shoved it aside ruthlessly. There were too many questions that needed to be answered. How could he get out of here? What were these idiotic harassers - they were villains, his survival instinct whispered. He shoved it aside. He would just win. - planning on doing to him? Most importantly...
Why did Izuku not want to let these phonies know that they knew each other?
"Deku, why did you get close to him? A simple lightning bolt should be enough... Right?"
'...Looks like Shigaraki is back to normal, trying to poke holes in everything I say or do. Unfortunately, you're going to have to do better than that if you want to trip me up. I'll have to spill a weakness of mine, however... Shigaraki, you truly are like an annoying fly. Constantly slipping out of my grasp, to the point where I have to resort to overboard methods to squash you.'
Deku lightly smiled, a gesture that was somehow even more horrific than his indifferent stare.
"It's slightly embarrassing, but my control likes to slip after long periods of use outside my body. I was simply taking extra precautions to ensure I didn't accidentally roast our... friend here into crisps. Enough talk about me; you should tell our little friend why he's here, no?"
(Bakugo felt several veins rise in his forehead, the moment he heard himself being called 'little friend'.)
Shigaraki nodded, irritated at not being able to get a rise out of Deku, but aware of his priorities. He wasn't expecting anything to come out of it anyway. He had long been forced to come to terms with the fact that Deku was a slimy, slippery eel that was incredibly hard to pin down. He walked up to the paralyzed prisoner, blankly realizing that it wasn't the best idea to restrain a potential new recruit. Many people had high pride, or at least, quite a lot of villains did. Generally, it wasn't the best idea to leave them crumpled on the floor if he wished to willingly recruit them. Which he did, in this case. Of course, this wasn't your normal situation.
Common sense stated that it wasn't best to set your former enemy free, but Shigaraki Tomura didn't do common sense.
That was for noobs and weak players.
"Deku, release Bakugo here from your lightning. We're here to recruit him, not to hold him captive."
(They wanted to recruit him?! What the hell, just what drugs were they on... He needed to get Izuku out of this place, and quickly.)
'...He wants me to... What? I mean, this will make it easier for Bakugo to escape, but... Really?'
"...Uh, sure, why not? It's not on me if he escapes though."
"Just do it."
"Yes, yes, I'll do it immediately."
He ignored the hostile look from Shigaraki with the ease of practice, before ordering the lightning to leave Bakugo's body.
"You should feel a bit numb for a while, but it shouldn't be a major impediment. The floor is yours, Shigaraki."
Bakugo was irritated, to say the least. The dumbass in front of him was going on and on about how they have been 'restricted' or have suffered because of heroes and rules and all that crap. The occasional extra would chime out from the back saying that they weren't an uncivilized mob or something like that. It was all a load of crap. They just had some bad, unfortunate circumstances and wanted to take it out on everybody else.
It made him sick.
...Did Izuku go into this knowing that? No, it was probably... just because of him.
No matter how much he had changed, he wasn't the type to harass people just for the hell of it.
If that was the case, his reaction when he saw him didn't make any sense. There was no hint of bitterness or hatred or anger. It wasn't like he needed to hide it, so why? Besides telling him to be quiet about their 'relationship' (he still didn't know why), his actions looked like he wanted to save him. It didn't make any sense. Izuku Midoriya had changed again, without him noticing, without any obvious reason. He thought he knew what he was like now, but...
There were so many unknowns. Why did it look like he has a grudge the white-haired, chapstick needing, villain? Why did... Wait.
Did they not know what his real identity was?
That was the only thing that Bakugo could think of, that could explain all of this. From an outside perspective, Bakugo Katsuki was... admittedly not all that special when looking through Izuku Midoriya's past. He was simply a childhood bully that had made his life hell, nothing more, nothing less. Although he didn't understand why these villains wanted to recruit him, if Izuku really wanted to do something to him, his influence should be more than enough. But he was doing nothing instead, even warning him not to say a word... Those were not the actions of someone who had a grudge to settle.
But that was the catch; Izuku did have a grudge.
If he was just suppressing himself... Not wanting that villain to figure out his real identity... (He realized that he had never heard Izuku's real name leave the mouths of any of the bastards here. Just... Deku. That accursed nickname that he had given him in childhood. He felt sick.)
It made sense.
Anger boiled beneath his skin. (It was anger at himself, anger at the person who dared to hope it would be okay again just like that.) He channeled that anger through his newly mobile limbs and flung an explosion in the face of the villain in front of him. Instinctively, he spouted a few words out that he really didn't care enough about to mean. They were true, but he had other things on his mind. His, at times praiseworthy and other times loathsome, sense of pride prevented him from saying what he truly felt. (It was a pity too; this misunderstanding would persist for a long time coming.)
"Basically, you're mean, 'We wanna harass people, so please join us', right? Sorry, but I wanna win like All Might. That will never change."
His red eyes darkened in color, like a pool of blood drying out.
"I'll become a hero and beat up bastards like you."
AN: It's shorter than usual, but I honestly just wanted to be done with this chapter, so... Haha. Poor Bakugo, with his (hopefully logical) misunderstanding. Please hit those hearts and comment before you go! Peace out~
Thanks for the update as always! Is Deku wearing a mask/costume while he's a villain?
Ye shall see next chaptero~
(Things are going to go super fast from the next chapter onward. I'm pretty excited~)
Thanks for the great chapter as always! One thing I must say is that though Bakugou was indeed a f*cking asshole and I absolutely hate him, the things he did in their childhood was mainly to scare Deku away from the Hero profession. He knew how harsh, bad and humiliating it would be for Deku if he became a Hero while being quirkless, just... His way of making his friend avoid that was extremely sh*t.
Indeed. I don't plan on him dying or anything (there will be larger a-holes to fry later on. That's when more killing will take place), but they definitely won't be friends. He'll also have to face the consequences of his actions.
(To put it simply, he has this idealistic, unrealistic, and decidedly not human view of Deku, and although he doesn't realize it yet, he doesn't like him. Nor does Deku. That's just how life works sometimes; despite going through crazy extremes for another person, they can still hate each other. That's how it's going to wrap up, in the end.)
Sometimes, you just have to move on and accept that a person hurt you deeply. But you move on.
Honestly it doesn't matter. He said "wanna win like All Might" so the league,but especially shigaraki, will not like that at all.
Everything’s fine so long as Dekus identity doesn’t get out to the villains though it seems surprising so few people know who he is so far
Well, it's not a matter of not being able to find out, but (the people that have the ability to find out) don't care. Shigaraki has power, but not information. The police care, but they haven't seen his face, so no dice. Kurogiri's just a sweetheart and doesn't pry into things.
(What's scary is when those people are given a reason to care, then everything goes to hell. But that's spoilers, so... )
Thx for the chap