Chapitre 39: Chapter 39: An Overdue Talk
Bakugo was seething.
When he first woke up in the infirmary, he was confused.
That kid, that forty-foot, three-headed kid, had called himself a Midoriya. And said that Deku was his father.
There were so many reasons that that didn't make sense it boggled his mind. The chief among those reasons being, who the actual hell would want to make kids with Deku!
Of course, there was the possibility that Deku adopted a kid, but how and why would Deku do that?! Why would aunty Inko let him do that?!
In the end, he decided that just thinking about it wouldn't get him anywhere and that he needed to confront Izuku himself.
But that ended up getting him nowhere too! Suddenly the terrified shaking loser that he used to be able to make piss himself with a flare, had the nerve to tell him to wait! Without even so much as a stutter!
It only made his confusion about the situation even worse! It was like Deku had become a completely different person with a completely different life in the many months since he last saw him.
And before he could get any answers, that rat principal sent him away!
So all he could do while he was waiting in the infirmary, was seethe in anger and wonder how the fuck this happened.
Fortunately for him, he wouldn't have to wait much longer.
The doors to the infirmary opened and in walked Aizawa, who immediately made his way over to the short-tempered blond.
"Midoriya's ready to talk to you. He's in one of the teacher's lounges waiting for you." Aizawa informed him.
"I would have liked for him to stay here for a while longer, but I'll go get his crutches." Recovery Girl said.
"I don't need any fu-Ah!" Bakugo was bonked on the head by Recovery Girl's cane.
"Quite." Recovery Girl said before going to get the crutches.
A few minutes later.
Bakugo, now using his crutches, was following behind Aizawa as he leads him to the teacher's lounge where Izuku was located.
"I hope you realize how fortunate you are that Midoriya is even entertaining you after all you did to him," Aizawa told him. "He doesn't owe you anything."
"Why the hell do you care!?" Bakugo snapped. He had been on thin ice since he got to U.A. and so he'd been trying not to shout at the teachers, but he honestly couldn't hold it in anymore. "Since when did any of you assholes care about shitty Deku!? All my fucking life you teachers told me that I was fucking unstoppable and kissed the ground I walked on and that Deku was lower than dirt, then I come to U.A., the place that's supposed to be for the best of the best, and now Deku's somehow calling the fucking shots and I'm being treated like shit!"
"...I guess this really must be that confusing for you. The world suddenly must seem like it flipped upside down. Tell me Bakugo, did you bother finding out what happened to your old schools, teachers, classmates, and principals?" Aizawa asked, the confusion on Bakugo's face telling him that he didn't. "The schools were shut down, and the staff were all given jail sentences ranging from 12 years on the lower end to 34 years on the higher end, and the classmates that were confirmed were giving varying punishments depending on the severity of their actions, with some things being put on their records that would make finding a good school, a very difficult task. Out of everyone though, you got off the luckiest, by Midoriya's request."
Bakugo's eyes widened slightly with a bit of shock.
"Do you know why we cracked down so hard on those schools and the people in them?" Aizawa asked. "Because quirk discrimination is a plague, that we've been trying to kill for ages. It has no place in modern-day society or any society for that matter. Schools and Teachers that display these values, are to be treated with no sympathy because they do this."
Aizawa gestured to Bakugo, showing that Bakugo was the "this" he was referring to.
"Bakugo by all means you are not at all the worst kind of person on the planet, not even close," Aizawa told him, once again shocking Bakugo. "You don't sexually harass female students, you don't cheat on exams or test, you assist your classmates during the exercises, and heck, even when you were assaulting Midoriya, as horrible as that was, you took care to never let the injuries you caused him to become debilitating or lethal, and with your quirk that would require so effort on your part."
"Of course I didn't want the fucking nerd dead!" Bakugo said as if he was insulted by Aizawa's statement.
"You could have been a much more...heroic person than you are now. Maybe even the top student. The problem was that you were raised in a toxic environment." Aizawa told him. "You lived in your own little world in which everyone told you were a king, and where quirkless people like Izuku were nothing and deserved to be discriminated against. But now that that world is gone, you're left in the real world struggling to figure out which way's up and which way's down."
Bakugo didn't know how to feel about that. He wanted to deny it. Say that Aizawa didn't know what he was talking about. He didn't want to admit that maybe he really was wrong. But he wasn't an idiot.
He saw the way the people around him looked at him. Teachers, staff, and especially students. It was like there was something wrong with him like he was a disease or something. And even some of the students at his previous schools and his own parents gave him those looks in the past. He'd never giving it much thought other than just labeling them as losers and moving on.
But he sure didn't feel like a winner now.
"People are telling you things that are contrary to what you've grown up believing, and as such you're resisting. Which is why we're being so harsh." Aizawa continued. "It's not because we necessarily hate you, it's because we need to get through your extremely thick skull that it's not ok for heroes to think that they can hurt innocent people."
Bakugo grits his teeth but doesn't respond.
The rest of the short walk to the lounge was silent.
After a few minutes, they reached a door with the woods, "teachers lounge" written on it.
Aizawa turned to Bakugo and gave the teen a stern look. "Midoriya is inside. Before you go in, there are things you need to know."
"Tch. Just spit it out." Bakugo growled. He just wanted to talk to Izuku already.
"First I'll be waiting outside, meaning I'll hear you if you shout of any threats or use your quirk. Both of those things will be met with disciplinary actions." Aizawa explained.
Bakugo gave a light growl, he knew he was going to have to try real hard to restrain himself.
"Second, it probably wouldn't take much on Midoriya's part to get you expelled." Aizawa continued.
That made Bakugo freeze up for a moment, as shock and a bit of fear coursed through him, at the thought of Izuku being able to get him expelled from U.A., his dream school.
"The only reason you were allowed into this school in the first place is because the Midoriya's didn't take legal action against you. And I have a feeling that there is more to what you did to him than what we know of. Depending on what it is, that by itself could get you expelled. And if Midoriya wanted to take legal action against you, then you'd definitely be expelled." Aizawa explained. "So I'd suggest you watch yourself while you're speaking to him. Your future depends on it."
And with that, Aizawa moved aside, making way for Bakugo to enter.
Bakugo hesitated for a moment but quickly buried any fear that may have been lurking within him and his face settled into his standard scowl.
And so he entered.
The teacher's lounge was nothing special. Just a few chairs, some stuff for making tea and coffee, and two couches that faced each other with a glass table in between.
Izuku was there, sitting on one of the couches, doing paperwork seemingly, with a cup of coffee beside him.
When Bakugo entered, Izuku looked up, and their eyes met.
"...Deku," Bakugo growled
Izuku didn't respond at first, at least not verbally. Instead, he took a deep breath and then took a long sip of his coffee.
Once he put the coffee down, he looked back up at Bakugo and said. "My name is Midoriya."
Again, Bakugo was taken aback. Izuku hadn't asked him to stop calling him Deku since before even middle school. And even then he'd always asked him to call him Izuku, not Midoriya.
If Bakugo didn't feel like he was talking to a completely different person before, he definitely thought that now.
This wasn't the Izuku Midoriya he'd known, and he might actually have to watch his step.
The shock Bakugo was feeling must have shown on his face because Izuku picked up on it and decided to explain himself.
"It's really not good for either of us if I let you keep calling me useless," Izuku told him. "And as much as I hate to say it, I can't really call us friends right now. So to you, for now. It's Midoriya."
Bakugo didn't respond. He didn't really know how to respond. His pride wouldn't let him capitulate and do what Izuku said, but he was too smart to just ignore him. So he just kept his mouth shut.
After a bit of silence, Izuku spoke again. "We're going to be here for a while so...you'd probably want to take a seat."
"Tch." Bakugo did just that, sitting down on the couch opposite to Izuku, and continued to silently glare at him.
He looked down for a moment at the papers Izuku was fiddling with before. It was definitely paperwork, and there were some pictures of people on them.
"Alright, now. I did promise you an explanation." Izuku said, regaining Bakugo's attention. "But we have to establish something first. I am not the same person I was when you last saw me."
"No shit." Bakugo spat.
"I have kids now so I've...had to look at things differently." Bakugo had just taken notice of something...Izuku's tone, the way he spoke was all very...tired. As if he hadn't slept for days. And his face reflected that tiredness. "That includes you. You see, I can't just let you walk over me like I used to or keep praising you when you really don't deserve it. And I can't let you continue to stay how you are."
Bakugo felt his anger spike, and he let out a growl. "What the fuck do you-"
"They don't know about the suicide baiting." Izuku interrupted him.
Bakugo felt like he got hit with a bucket of cold water, as he realized what Izuku just said, and what that implied.
"If I told them this, your future would be over," Izuku said, his tone was dead serious. "I have no intention of EVER letting that out. But. I need to know your improving. That you won't stay the same, violent, angry, seemingly psychopathic person you've shown me you can be. I've always wanted you to be a hero, but I can't afford to just roll over and let you do as you please and just hope you'll get better. Bakugo, if you do anything out of line, there will be consequences. And if you lose it, and attack me, then I'm telling them about what you said, and I'll be done with you, for good."
Bakugo was shell-shocked. The situation he was in was now clear to him. Izuku had all the power, and he couldn't do anything about it.
It was so, so bizarre, that he honestly couldn't feel anything but shock for a bit.
Eventually, though, his anger rose. Spiking harder than he had felt it go in a long, long time. Anger at Deku thinking he was above him. Anger at Deku actually having power over him. Anger at the nonsensical world that gave Deku that power. And anger at himself for not being able to do anything about it.
His hands started heating up, smoking as his quirk started reacting to his emotions.
He wanted so badly to use his quirk. To shout and scream, and put Deku back in his place.
But if he did that, then everything he worked for would be for not. And his dream would be dead.
After a few minutes, Bakugo managed to reign in his anger a bit, and his hands stopped smoking.
Once Izuku was sure Bakugo had fully gotten himself under control, he gave his former friend a small smile. "Good. I needed to see that your dream was still more important to you than your pride."
"Just tell me what the hell happened to you." Bakugo at this point honestly wanted to leave more than he wanted to hear about what the hell caused this change in Izuku, but he knew he would regret that once he got his emotions more under control later. And he also didn't want to risk just storming out on Izuku.
"Alright, we don't have all the time in the world and it is a long story so I should really start now I guess." Izuku took another sip of his coffee and prepared himself. "Alright, so...do you remember how I was when you last saw me at school?"
"Yeah, you looked-" Bakugo wanted to say fucking pathetic, but he decided against it. "Miserable. More than usual."
"Well...there's a reason for that. You see, funny story...you weren't the first one to get attacked by the sludge villain." Izuku revealed, now looking a bit more sheepish. "I was."
"...What?" Bakugo didn't know where this was going, but he had a feeling it was gonna piss him off.
"I was attacked by the sludge villain before you, while I was walking home from school," Izuku repeated. "And I was saved...by All Might."
"Wait! If All Might already took down the fucking villain before he even got to me then how the hell did he get away!?" Bakugo knew that escaping All Might was practically impossible, so he really didn't see how that same villain could have also attacked him.
"Well...All Might captured the villain by putting him in bottles...and then putting them in his pockets...and I...I wanted to ask All Might a question but he was kinda already about to jump away, and so I...held onto his legs which caused the bottles to slip out mid-jump...and so the villain got out." Izuku looked away from Bakugo as he explained this, too embarrassed and ashamed to look him in the eye while he said this.
"You what!?" Bakugo shouted at him. His palms were smoking again, and he very nearly let off an explosion."You mean, I almost died because your stupid ass wanted to ask All Might a question!?"
Izuku gave Bakugo a stern look, reminding him of where he stood. "Be careful Bakugo."
Honestly, Izuku would have been more than fine about Bakugo shouting at him for that. He was sure he deserved it. But he couldn't allow Bakugo to get too out of line.
"Grrrrrrrrr." Bakugo took another few moments to calm himself down before he leaned back in his chair.
After a bit more time passed, Izuku continued. "The question I wanted to ask All Might...I asked him if I could be a hero."
"And he said no." Bakugo knew the world was upside down, but he was pretty sure one thing was the same, Deku couldn't be a hero.
"He said no," Izuku confirmed with a saddened sigh. It still hurt to talk about even after all this time.
"So that's why you looked like someone got killed in front of you every time I saw you," Bakugo said, there was so much more that he wanted to say, but he bit his tongue and held it all in. For the sake of his own dream.
"Yeah. I fell into depression, things just...went grey." Izuku had a tough time describing his depressed period. It was all just a blur of sadness and despair, that he didn't often want to think about. "I just couldn't...deal with anything anymore, so I eventually just stopped bothering to go to school. I just stayed home and wallowed in my own despair...until Eri knocked on my door."
Izuku picked up his phone and showed the screen to Bakugo, where he saw a picture of Eri around a few weeks after he'd taken her in.
"That's that brat you saved from the Yakuza right?" Bakugo still couldn't believe what he just said. "I heard about that. What did you fucking adopt her too?"
"Yes," Izuku said, putting the phone away. "She was being chased by the head of the Yakuza, Kai Chisaki aka Overhaul, for reasons that I can't really tell you, but let's just say that if he caught her she would have been basically tortured in the worst way possible, and imprisoned."
"So he was a piece of shit." Bakugo summarized.
"Basically yeah, the worst kind of scum that you can imagine." Izuku gladly confirmed. "But he was powerful, both with his quirk and his influence. His quirk allowed him to take apart and put back together anything he wanted in any way he wanted on a molecular level. Meaning that he's capable of cleaning up crime scenes so thoroughly that law enforcement can't even find a trace of him. So the heroes and the police had a hard time finding evidence against him. I hid Eri and set my phone to record and hid that two, then I pretended to be asleep. So when he eventually left, I had evidence of him breaking in. Which the heroes used as a reason to search his base, which broke out into a full-out raid when they fought back. All Might was there during the raid, so they didn't really stand a chance."
"Tch. Looks like you actually can think once in a while." Bakugo would never have admitted this, not even to himself, but he probably would have handled that situation a lot worse. "Of course the only time you can save someone is by running away and hiding."
"Yeah...but I did end up saving her. Which brings me to the next part of the story, D.O.C. or as they were called at the time, O.P.C.C.C." Izuku hadn't said that name in a while.
"That's a stupid fucking name," Bakugo said immediately.
"That's why they changed it. Anyway, they were responsible for dealing with children who had dangerous quirks. Eri was one such child, so they gave me the option to adopt her." Izuku explained.
"Your fucking fifteen that's a terrible idea." Bakugo pointed out.
"Well...they didn't have many other options. Not many people want to adopt kids that might kill them." Izuku coughed, and quickly took another sip of his coffee. "I...I said yes, and so I took Eri under my care."
"Where was aunty Inko? Why the hell did she let you do something that stupid?!" Bakugo asked if there was one person he knew SHOULD care aboutIzuku it was Inko, so how could she allow this to happen?
"...Mom was really worried about me. She wasn't going to be around for a while, and I was so depressed before she left. I think she knew that if I had Eri around, I would be more active and less...sad." Izuku answered. "Although I don't think she could have imagined what would happen next."
"What did you run into another kid being used by a villain?" Bakugo asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, actually." Izuku smirked at Bakugo's shocked expression, the "are you shitting me" look was so evident on his face that it almost made him laugh. "Not too long after I got Eri, I went to a supermarket with her to buy some things, and a villain attacked using another child's quirk to turn everyone to stone. Her name is Kei."
Izuku showed him a picture of her while they were selling food at the food stand. "After shooting the villain with a tranquilizer dart-"
"Wait why the hell did you have a tranq gun?!" Bakugo asked him.
"Eri's quirk is...well I said before, it's dangerous and she basically had no control over it. If her quirk went off by accident or she couldn't turn it off during her training, then she could very easily kill someone by accident. So the only way to turn it off at that point is with...well...the tranq gun." Izuku hated talking about the tranq gun, he felt a lot better about it now than he did before, since Eri had better control over her quirk Izuku felt like he was less likely to use it. Which put him at ease a bit.
Bakugo also seemed to understand the necessity of it and stayed silent.
"So after I rescued her, I adopted her because she also fell under D.O.C.'s jurisdiction, and I really just didn't know how to say no to her and Eri." Izuku sighed. "It was also at that point that D.O.C. started to realize I had a weakness when it came to the kids and started being more...pushy. They only got more and more forceful with each kid I happened to find-"
"Wait, you telling me this shit happened again!?" Bakugo asked in disbelief. "How many fucking parents just dump their kids onto the streets?!"
"Way too many," Izuku answered, although in his eyes any amount of kids being abandoned on the street was way too many. "Anyway, after bumping into a few more kids D.O.C. fully realized that they could give all of the kids under their custody to me. And so I signed a contract that would put me in charge of a new organization, in charge of taking care of any O.P.C.'s, whose parents either couldn't keep them or no longer wanted to keep them. I would get a very generous amount of government funding, a large house capable of fitting that many children, and a lot of other benefits. But in return, I would have to do this for the rest of my life, and take in every single child taken by D.O.C. without the ability to refuse. I decided the course of my life when I signed that."
"...So let me get this straight. You through some freak coincidence, kepting finding abandoned kids with overpowered quirks, and the government saw an opportunity to dump all their unwanted brats on you because they knew you wouldn't fucking say now, and so you signed your life away so you're stuck babysitting until you fucking die." Bakugo summarized.
Izuku sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose to try and fight off a headache that was developing. "Not how I would put it. And don't call them unwanted brats. Ever."
There was a moment of silence between them, as Bakugo took a minute to fully take that in.
"You really did give up huh?" Bakugo had tried for years to get Izuku to give up on his dream, and he honestly thought that at this point only death would get Izuku to stop.
It turns out all it would take was All Might himself. That guy really could do anything.
But it just seemed that something was...wrong about it. Maybe in a vacuum, he would consider that to be a good thing, but now it was just...another thing that changed, adding to the feeling that his life before U.A. might have well been like Aizawa said, another world entirely.
"What else could I do? Trying to be a hero while quirkless would have been hard enough, but trying to be a quirkless hero while also raising five kids and giving them all the attention they needed? That would have been impossible. And unfair to them" Bakugo had never heard Izuku sound so...defeated. And that said a lot. It was like he really was watching a dream die in front of him.
And that caused a bolt of fear to course through him, as a pesky stray thought asked the question.
Could that be me?
Bakugo shook his head to try and rid himself of the thought. No! I could never be as pathetic as Deku.
However once again, another stray thought made him pause.
But what would you do, if he expelled you right now?
Bakugo refused to give that any thought.
"At least if I took this offer, I could still be useful. I could help these kids." Izuku continued. "So after reading the contract through and through, I signed. And so now I'm the official caretaker for all O.P.C. children given up by their parents. Which is why I moved by the way. Every now and then, D.O.C. will hand me new children to take care of from their facilities, like Kai."
Bakugo growled at the mention of the Kaiju boy, as he still was feeling the pain done to both his body and pride. "So, when's the part where you became buddy buddy with fucking All Might, ratted out the school, and became the head of some other fucking government branch or some shit!? And where the hell is Aunty Inko!"
"Well...to start with All Might, when I gave the evidence to the police they put me under witness protection, All Might was the first hero who volunteered to guard us, and after that, I kept running into him...I think he feels bad about telling me I can't be a hero. Although I don't really think he should." Izuku explained. "And as for Mom, well she used a lot of the money we acquired to start her own company, it's doing pretty well! Right now she's overseas working to try and raise it up even more."
So far that was the only thing Izuku had said that made Bakugo even the slightest bit happy. Well, at least she's doing fine. She deserves it for having to put up with Deku's worthless ass.
"Also I never really ratted out the school." Izuku corrected. "After the heroes figured out I was quirkless and that I hadn't gone to school in a while, they got suspicious and started investigating. It didn't take them too long to figure out about the quirk discrimination."
Bakugo paused. That...makes sense. I still don't see why they should fucking care, but since they do for some goddamn reason, it makes sense they'd take one look at Deku's ass while he's out of school and see that something was up.
"Also I want to say, I am not the head of a government branch," Izuku said sternly. "You...could say that I am...unofficially in charge of the Quirk Removal Branch and I do decide who gets their quirks erased, but on paper, I'm not at all in charge of it."
"Wait the what branch!?" Bakugo wasn't sure he heard that correctly. He had to have misheard it because there was no way what he heard was true.
"The quirk removal branch. We wanted to keep it a secret for a while, but that was pretty pointless. Eventually, people were going to find out about others suddenly losing their quirks. The government hasn't announced the branch to the public yet but-" Izuku didn't get a chance to finish as Bakugo uninterrupted him.
"What the fuck do you mean, quirk removal!? Don't just brush past that! How the fuck are removing quirks!? And why the fuck are you in charge of it!" Bakugo was feeling a mix of confusion, anger, and fear. Because now he knew Izuku could do SO much worse than just expel him.
"Well, unfortunately, both the way in which quirks are removed and the reason I have so much influence are on a strictly need-to-know basis." Izuku made sure his tone conveyed that there was no room for argument. If the knowledge that Eri's blood was the key ingredient to making the quirk erasing formula, then countless people would come after her, and do the same thing Overhaul did. The poor girl would probably never be able to step outside again. "But you don't need to worry about your quirk being erased. Quirk erasure isn't a punishment, although the government is trying to convince me to say otherwise, but for now, the only people whose quirks we're interested in getting rid of, are people whose quirks simply cannot allow them to live normally around other people, without a significant chance of them accidentally killing them. Basically, quirks belonging to level 2 O.C.P's. People with quirks more dangerous than the level 1 O.C.P.'s you've seen like Kai."
That didn't make Bakugo much calmer. To him, he still saw it as his fate being at Izuku's mercy. Which was an uncomfortable thought to say the least.
"I think...that covers everything." Izuku gave a relieved sigh. "A lot has changed, it's almost unbelievable even for me. It's...very different from how I thought my life would be...Kacchan, I want to see you become a great hero. Not once during this talk did you lash out at me or attack me. You can improve. I know that. But...until then, I would like to stay away from each other. Right now you're not really a good influence for my kids...also they hate you. So for now it's best to go our separate ways."
"Tch...fine. The less I have to see you the better." Bakugo grumbled. "Can I get outta here now?! I'm fucking starving."
Izuku nodded, and Bakugo picked up his crutches, and walked over to the door, and left without looking back.
The green-haired father immediately sunk into his seat, as all the tension he'd been feeling melted away.
In truth, he had been more than a bit nervous about meeting with Bakugo. He didn't THINK that Bakugo would attack him. He was somewhat confident that his old friend was smart enough not to ruin his own future. But he also wouldn't have thought his old friend would have turned into such a bully. So there was a bit of doubt.
Still, he knew Bakugo would need to be dealt with. He knew that the explosive blonde was quite stubborn, and if he wanted to find him then he very well might. And the last thing Izuku wanted was Bakugo getting near his house, only to be met with his children and likely an army of Grimm. That would not end well for anyone.
However, his relief was short-lived, as suddenly he felt a strong pain in his chest!
"Gah!" Izuku clutched his chest in pain, but it didn't last long, as soon the pain vanished just as quickly as it came.
Izuku struggled for breath for a bit, sweat dripping down his face as he suddenly felt very hot.
After another few minutes, everything went back to normal and fell to the side, now completely laying down on the couch.
"I...should see a doctor," Izuku concluded. He felt so tired, and he could feel his eyes closing and he knew he couldn't stop them. "I'll...make an appointment...eventually."
And so everything went black.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone