Chapter Text
Ashido Mina loved her class, really, she did. Save for the one dude she had already forgotten about who had gotten expelled day one and Mineta, she thought her class was super fun! She sat in basically the front of the class so she got to see everyone leaving when she was still frantically trying to put things away because she had lost track of time, but she loved pretty much all of her class!
There were the girls, starting with her column, there was Uraraka and Tsu, so cute! Uraraka had almost died in the entrance exam, super scary, but she was here and it was fine. Also apparently she was bloodthirsty, but work, bitch! And Tsu? Insisting everyone called her by her nickname? So cute! So suave! Instant friends! Past that, skipping a column full of boys, there was Jirou, the super cool edgy music girl, woot! Then in the last row, the invisible mistress, Hagakure, and the Queen of Creation, Yaomomo!
The whole class was cool, even past the girls, though. Todoroki the Ice Prince was kinda cool, pun fully intended, Aoyama was her homie, and everyone else was cool too.
Then of course there were Kaminari, Sero, and of course Kiri from her old school, what a group, she knew they’d get up to so many shenanigans before their high school careers were done, and they all gravitated towards one firecracker: Bakugo Katsuki. Probably one of the strongest members of the class with his explosive personality, he claimed none of them were really his friends but he hadn’t kicked them away from the lunch table more than three times, so Mina was confident they were growing on him, like a malignant fungus or a mold.
Good friends, really.
But yeah, they were heading to the sports festival, getting to school early before the crowds did, and hey, maybe they’d fill that one random spot with a cool person! For now, she immediately gravitated towards the Bakusquad (patent pending, Bakugo didn’t know yet but that was for the best, she liked living) outside the stadium.
Then she noticed a younger kid hanging around biting his lip and looking for someone.
“Hey, cutie,” she chirped, “you lost? It’s a little early for the festival.”
He turned bright green eyes to her and she cooed internally, feeling the rest of the squad come up behind her to talk to the kid. Yaomomo and Iida were also making their way over to the clearly not a UA student, but she wanted to deal with this herself.
“Oh, I know,” he squeaked out, “I just wanted to wish someone luck before you all left, since no one is allowed in the student sections, not even family, not that that would let me in anyway, we’re not actually related, but…”
He trailed off to mumble and she couldn’t understand the words but she grinned.
“Maybe we know them? Who are you looking for?”
“Fuck off, he’s not here for you,” Bakugo barked out from behind her, pushing through them, and she watched the greenie light up before he pouted.
“Kacchan, they’re your classmates, don’t be mean!”
Mina swallowed a laugh and slowly turned to the blond.
“Kacchan?!”
Bakugo immediately popped off a few explosions and spun on her, but she quickly backed up, pulling Kaminari in front of her to act as a human shield. He whined and she ignored it.
“Woah woah woah” she chuckled, “I don’t want any trouble, Kacchan, I just wanna know why greenie gets to call you a cutsie nickname and we’ve never heard about it before now?”
“This is exactly fucking why,” he roared, “no one gets to fucking call me that except Zuku!”
“Aw, come on Bakubro,” Kiri grinned, “I think it’s cute!”
“Fuck off, Shitty Hair!”
Zuku (a nickname, probably) lit up and immediately turned to Kiri. “Oh! You’re the one with the hardening quirk! That’s really cool!”
Kiri blinked and slowly smiled bashfully, scratching the back of his head. “Ah, he talks about us?”
“No I fucking don’t, Zuku shut the fuck up.”
Zuku squinted at the rest of them before snapping his fingers with a grin. “Raccoon Eyes is you,” he pointed to Mina, “Pikachu is you, with the lightning in your hair, and that means Soy Sauce Face is tape boy! Kacchan, you didn’t tell me they were your friends!”
The four of them immediately turned to the glowering boy with beaming faces (read: shit eating grins).
“Aw, Blasty,” Mina cooed, “we’re your friends?”
“Shut the fuck up, I tolerate you at best, Zuku why are you here?”
Zuku beamed. “To wish you luck! This is a big day for you, so many heroes will see how cool you are!”
Bakugo scoffed and rolled his eyes but Mina could see the glimmer of pride and satisfaction in his eyes.
“I don’t need fucking luck,” he grinned, “I’m gonna win it all, just you watch. Heroes will be clamoring all over me by the end of this. Save your luck for the other extras.”
Zuku giggled. “I dunno, Kacchan, there’s all of class 1-B, the general studies kids, and the support kids. At least one of them will give you a run for your money, I bet.”
“You calling me weak? Hah?!”
Zuku bit his lip to keep from laughing more, but Mina could see his grin. “I dunno, Kacchan… anything can happen…”
Bakugo scoffed and shoved the boy lightly before tugging the shorter boy in and giving him a noogie.
“Alright, get outta here, nerd,” he said fondly, “Auntie and the hag will be waiting for your check in. Can’t believe you actually bought yourself a fucking ticket for this.”
Zuku pulled himself away and pouted. “Of course I did! It’s your first sports festival, I didn’t want to miss it!”
He waved and wished them all luck, hoping that “Kacchan’s friends” did well, and Mina immediately rounded on the boy who was still looking rather soft for the usual abrasive attitude he sported.
“So who was that?!”
He rolled his eyes and sneered. “My fucking brother. A year younger than me, our moms are friends so we grew up together. If any of you have something to say, you’ll say it to me.”
“I think he’s really cute,” Kaminari grinned, “way too nice to be related to you!”
“Were you even fucking listening,” Bakugo scowled, “our moms are friends, we’re not actually fucking related! He’s just… god, he’s just like my brother, I didn’t think I had to specify.”
Mina threw an arm around Kiri, leaning in with a smirk. “So you talk about us to your brother, huh?”
“Kiss my entire ass.”
“Can’t believe you were hiding such a sweetheart from us,” Sero crowed, “I’m so glad you didn’t rub off on him! But you could stand to learn a bit from him, though.”
Bakugo smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Ya know, Soy Sauce, if this hero thing doesn’t work out, you should consider death as a career choice, I’d be happy to help you out with that.”
“Come on, Blasty,” Mina groaned, “give us more! What’s his name, his life goals, his quirk?”
“None of your fucking business,” he barked, “lay off!”
“Think of it this way,” Sero reasoned, “give a little bit for us to think over and we’ll stop bugging you!”
“Wrong,” he grumbled, “give an inch and you’ll take a mile.”
Kaminari blinked. “Is that. Is that an idiom?”
“Pay more attention in class,” Mina chortled, “or we’ll both fail!”
“Ok,” Kiri hummed, “can we guess?”
Bakugo scoffed. “What is he, Rumpelstiltskin, how the fuck are you going to guess his name?”
Kiri laughed. “No, I meant like, his life goal and quirk or whatever. We can just guess random stuff about him and you can tell us if we’re right or wrong!”
“Yeah,” Mina cheered, “let us guess! Come on, please!”
Bakugo glared at them, but it didn’t have any heat and he rolled his eyes.
“Fine,” he barked, “you have until we get to the waiting room.”
And then he started to walk away!!!
So rude!
They scrambled after him and immediately got to guessing.
“Does he want to be a hero?”
“No shit,” Bakugo scoffed, “who doesn’t? He’ll be the best fucking hero of his year, no doubt.”
“Does he want to be a hero with you?”
“Oh my god,” he breathed out, pinching his nose, “y’all are asking the dumbest fucking questions. Is this your strategy? Annoy me into just telling you shit?”
Mina lit up. “No, but is it working?”
“Hurry up,” he snorted, “we’re close to the waiting room.”
“Argh! Ok, uh, is his quirk… an emitter?”
“No.”
“Transformation?”
“No.”
“Oh, it’s a mutation, then? Huh, I wouldn’t have guessed.”
He looked at them with an unreadable expression. “No.”
Mina paused and furrowed her brow. “But Bakugo, those are the only three quirk types.”
He nodded. “Zuku doesn’t have a quirk.”
There was silence and then he gave them a vicious grin. “And if any of you want to say shit about it, you go through me first. Got it?”
Kaminari scratched the back of his head. “He wants to be a hero even though he’s quirkless?”
Bakugo nodded. “He’ll have to work harder, but he’s smart as hell, he can do it. He can already kick your ass, probably. Maybe he’ll even beat me one day.”
He had a grin on his face that was eager for that future, and Mina tried to equate the tiny boy she had seen with someone who could defeat Bakugo.
As for being quirkless…
Well, he was a cutie, and if Bakugo, a top student, believed he could do it, Mina wasn’t going to say otherwise!
“Hey, hey,” she wheedled, “you’ll let us meet him again? He’s too cute to keep to yourself!”
“Fuck off,” he barked, “if he wants to talk to you that’s up to him, but if you make him fucking upset…”
He let the threat hang in the air and all four of them gave him grins and thumbs up.
Operation Befriend the Zuku was a go!
Iida Tenya, vice president of the class was very intrigued and mildly irritated by the blatant disregard of rules!
Except, well, the green haired boy hadn’t really broken any rules, because they had already been on public property and weren’t inside the student only area yet, so no rules had been broken!
He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, as well, that was unbecoming of a future hero, but the idea that anyone could call the most violent, volatile, and downright disrespectful member of their class a childish nickname and not be immediately and completely destroyed… it was simply unfathomable, except for the fact that it had actually happened, Tenya had been there for it.
Yaoyorozu had held him back from interfering, citing that Bakugo’s theoretical friend group had it handled, and he watched as they riled him up and calmed him down in equal measure before the boy (Zuku, it seemed, but that was likely a nickname) wished them all luck and left, waving at the rest of the class with a nice smile and suddenly Tenya felt like he could do anything.
This boy would be watching, apparently, so perhaps he would see the might of the rest of class 1-A as well!
Yes, Tenya would put on a good show for his family and this strange younger boy.
In the waiting room, Todoroki went up to Bakugo.
“I’m stronger than you, I think,” the boy was impassive, “so I will defeat you here.”
Bakugo snorted. “Ok, sure, in your dreams, Half n Half, but don’t think I won’t make you work for it. Give it your all or everyone will see how much stronger I am.” He looked around the class.
“That goes for everyone,” he growled, “give 100% or drop out. I don’t want to fight anyone who half asses this. Bring it or go home.”
Uraraka grinned. “Sure thing, Blasty Boy, I’m not planning on going home until this is over.”
The class gave a cheer of agreement and Tenya smiled to himself.
Yes, this would be a good show!