Chapter Text
Izuku had been dreading this day ever since he had been accepted to UA. He had made it to the hero course, his dream. He had passed their horribly biased entrance exam. He survived the USJ Incident, came out on top, and helped save All Might, the first person who had ever told him that he could be a hero. He came in eighth place in the Sports Festival, only going down to Todoroki to help him break his self-imposed chains. And yet, somehow, he had managed to hide this one secret from them.
He was Quirkless. He had overheard multiple theories about his quirk, (mostly from Todoroki), and most seemed to be of the opinion that he had an intelligence or analysis quirk. Bakugo was always quiet during these discussions and left the area as soon as he could. But due to one thoughtless classmate who recognized him from the Sports Festival, there was now a viral video telling the world he was quirkless. It had started circulating on Friday, but he was sure that all of his classmates had seen it by now. He had left the stadium oblivious and hadn’t run into anyone that had recognized him over the weekend. This would be the first day of UA with his friends aware of his quirk status. Due to his stress, he was standing in front of the classroom door an hour early.
With a deep breath and a moment to square his shoulders, he pushed open the door. And immediately saw the black ink, still shiny with wetness, on his desk, and the red and black flowers scattered on the floor. Spider lilies were expected, but he had only seen red tiger lilies in pictures before, same with the little black flowers. Izuku felt his heart stop and his breath fall silent as he approached his seat. He could read what had been written on his desk now, things like worthless, broken, loser, useless, helpless, and DEKU . Izuku reached out a single finger, and swiped it across his desk. It came back wet, stained black. Good, Izuku thought and let a smile devoid of its normal sunshine spread across his face. They won’t know what hit them .
~~~~~~~~~~~
Bakugo slung his tie around his neck before heading down the stairs to the kitchen before popping a bagel in the toaster. He let out a huff and slouched against the counter top behind him as he waited for his breakfast. Today the stupid nerd would be back , he thought to himself. Wonder how he’ll deal with everyone knowing . He reached out and shoved the bagel in his mouth and walked off towards UA, he had too much on his mind to take the train, guess we’ll see .
Bakugo paused as neared the classroom. There was something that was just barely in his threshold of hearing. He cocked his head and slowly realized it was coming from the classroom. As he walked closer, he could tell that it was someone humming. Bakugo stopped just outside the door and leaned against the wall, listening hard. This sounds almost like a… dirge? Yeah, it was definitely a dirge, just faster and far more peppy then anyone had any right to sing a death song, Bakugo thought. Deciding he was done waiting outside, he pushed himself off the wall and opened the door.
He froze in place at the sight of Deku humming under his breath, sitting on his blazer, which he had laid over his desk. He was wiping his forefingers over the surface of his desk, and then trailing them across his arms, leaving black markings from shoulder to wrist. Wait , Bakugo thought, he still has his undershirt on… oh. He cut the sleeves off , he realized in a shock as he saw them in the trash bin. His eyes darted back to Deku, still humming and smiling and painting black patterns on his arms ( is that a skull ), and swinging his legs as if he were a child. In other words, he looked like something straight out of a horror story. Nope , Bakugo thought, and quietly stepped out of the room and silently closed the door behind him. He slumped to the floor as the sound of a childish giggle coming from the room behind him sent shivers down his spine.
Bakugo couldn’t seem to stop memories from last year bubbling up from the depths of his mind. Whoever infuriated the nerd , he thought, I’m gonna kill ‘em .
~~~~~~~~~~~
The day after the nerd saved him from that sludge monstrosity, who he could have easily handled on his own, started off normally. Once he walked into the classroom, the extras swarmed him with questions until he drove them off with a shout and an explosion or two. As he plopped down in his seat, he spotted a vase with spider lilies and a newspaper clipping on the nerd’s desk. Oh yeah, there had been an attack on a quirkless support center yesterday, 22 quirkless died before the heroes stopped the villain. He huffed and slumped in his seat. After all, this wasn't anything he hadn’t seen before.
The room fell silent a moment later and he shifted his gaze to the door to see all the extras fall silent as the nerd walked in, all eyes in the room tracking him to his desk waiting for his reaction. Deku stopped at his desk and skimmed the paper after he picked it up. Eyes trailing from the flowers to Taida-sensei half asleep at his desk. “Taida-sensei,” the nerd said, “I’m going to borrow the blackboard for a moment”. With that, the nerd walked up to the front of the room.
“You all want to be heroes, right?” he asked, before continuing without waiting for an answer, “Well since you were so kind as to share some statistics with me, I thought I’d repay the favor. He wrote the number 5% on the board. “This is the number of heroes that retire due to old age”. He wrote 34% on the board. “This is the percentage of heroes that retire due to injuries that prevent them from being physically or mentally being able to complete their job,” he continued. “Did you know that the first three years after you become a hero are often called ‘The Trial’ or ‘Gauntlet’ by those who retire? They are considered some of the hardest years for heroes, and once you make it past them, agencies will be far more likely to send you offers or get requested for larger missions or raids. Unfortunately,” Deku paused and let a smile of mock sympathy show as he did. “43% of heroes who didn’t graduate from UA don’t make it that far. UA’s statistics are more along the line of 19% dropping out or dying before they complete the gauntlet.”
Deku turned back to the board, likely to continue his lecture when there was a whimper from the back of the class. Bakugo turned to the class and well, he had to give the nerd credit. Not that he doesn’t hate the nerd for acting like he has any right to stand there and act like there’s anything he could teach him , but this lesson has been far more relevant and accurate than anything that came out of Taida-sensei’s mouth. And, he smirked, the nerd had done what he set out to do, using nothing but the truth. The extras were shaking in their seats, some sweating, some on the verge of tears, and some with their phones out, obviously trying to prove him wrong, only to nearly faint on the spot when they found nothing but support for Deku's lesson.
“Oh,” the nerd said before turning to face them once more, his voice dripping with concern, sweet as poisoned honey, “Do you not want me to continue?”
“Midoriya,” Taida-sensei said. He had been looking more and more uncomfortable as time passed. “This has been quite enough. If you continue I’ll have to send you to the principal's office.”
“Yeah!” one of the extra’s called out in a wavering voice. “Sensei, send him to the principal, he’s been harassing us!”
Taida-sensei sighed as he considered the extra’s words and there was a clamoring of support from the other extras calling out to have him leave, suspended, or expelled. “Midoriya, please head to the principal's office if you don’t stop now.”
Deku turned his burning gaze to the teacher. “Now sensei,” the nerd practically purred, “why would I do that?” Taida-sensei gave the nerd a lazy glare even as he shrunk back from the fire that burned in Deku’s eyes. He opened his mouth but Deku cut him off. “After all,” he said. “We wouldn’t want our esteemed principal to know that you had supported blatant suicide baiting, now would we?” the nerd asked as he pulled a small slip of paper from his pocket.
Bakugo felt his eyes widen as he and the teacher noticed what the nerd had in his hand. The receipt for the vase that had been put on his desk. Now that he thought about it, Bakugo could remember seeing a scrap of paper on the floor as he walked in. He glanced at the floor, and sure enough, the slip was no longer there. He felt a wicked grin cross his face as he watched the poor excuse for a teacher squirm.
“W-well,” Taida-sensei stuttered, “It would be your word against mine,” he said, his words growing more sure as he spoke. “No one would believe you.”
The nerd smiled at the teacher, and cocked his head. But the smile was wrong. It was too wide, too sharp, all bloody blades and pointed fangs. “That might be true,” he hummed. “If I didn’t have a recording of you publicly confessing and,” at this point the nerd let his smile grow even wider, and a pressure rolled through the air around him. Bakugo felt like he was facing some terrible enemy, and his mind flashed to the sludge he had faced just the day before and felt the sweat drip down his spine. “Who said I would only be going to the principal? I’m certain after a word from a friend of mine the police would be very interested in this little video.”
Taida-sensei visibly gulped, and Bakugo could see the sheen of sweat break out across his balding forehead. “V-very well,” he stuttered out. “Midoriya, please return to y-your seat.”
Deku simply cocked his head as he slipped the damning piece of paper into his pocket. “But of course, Taida-sensei,” he said pleasantly, as if he didn’t just blackmail the man. And with that, the nerd practically skipped back to his seat.
For the rest of the day rumors followed the nerd, like smoke after a fire. Whenever someone tried to confront him or bully him, he would just stand there, tilt his head, and smile that terrifying smile. The two times that someone was idiotic enough to attempt to attack him without trying to talk to him first, Bakugo witnessed him pull that suffocating aura out of nowhere and would smile, raising a single finger to his lips. Bakugo swore from that day on he would stay the heck out of the nerd’s way. He did not want to antagonize someone who threw bloodlust around like confetti, wielded a smile like a blade, most likely had enough information to blackmail everyone in the school and apparently had no problem doing so. Yes, he would leave the stupid nerd well enough alone.