MHA: Ground Zero

His body was pressed against something that didn't feel solid.

Like water in a plastic bag.

But he also knew exactly who he was leaning against.

He'd known her since they were toddlers, Bakugo would be concerned if he couldn't feel her presence on his back.

And something way less solid was leaning on his chest.

Only half as formed as Izu behind him, Kyo was almost formless before him.

He only recognized her general hair style from the blob of darkness resting against him.

His own body was fully formed, as it had been since the day he was born into this void, so he was the only one 'awake' right now.

Well, the only living one anyways.

Bakugo looked up into the eyes of a man who could pass as his older brother, seated in a circle of old broken thrones.

To his left was a golden throne just as old as the rest, the only difference being the giant orb of yellow light on it's seat.

"Welcome back kid."

It was the woman. His red eyes tore away from his ancestor and finally took in familiar features. The slant of the eyebrows and the way her cheekbones were hidden by a layer of baby fat that never left. Her natural hairstyle and the shape of her eyes.

And relaxed.

He didn't have to be on guard right now.

"You did good." Her smile was just as large as thr zombie, and a hundred times more real.

There was no fear to hide. No rage to bury. Just determination and joy.

He could respect that.

And then one of the other assholes had to open their mouths.

"Why did you kill them?" It was the weak one. The foundation. "You want to be a hero right?"

Green eyes too empty and unlike his Izu's stared back at him, questioning and concerned.

"Who the fuck asked you, defect?" He reached out and gathered Kyo closer, and stretched back into the shadowed form of Izu seated on her own throne and closed his eyes.

Those pieces of shit had been threats. Threats to his Eri and himself. They even had the nerve to kidnap his parents and Auntie.

They were dead the moment they laid their filthy fucking hands on his family.

He didn't owe any of them an explanation.

"Kid." Bakugo's eyes popped back open to meet the stare of the bald asshole. It was a quiet war, the older man looking for something in the young blonde's eyes and not finding it.

Eventually the ghost just deflated back into his chair, leaving the void in blessed silence once more. Bakugo cradled Kyo close once more, keeping his eyes closed and reveling in the freedom of movement being in the void offered him.

"You don't care." It was scarface again. Seems the man was already bored of the silence.

He was sitting right in front of Bakugo, with the woman next to the explosive teenager.

"What do I call you?" He was asking these two their names, not the rest of these illusions. These two were connected to him and Izu, and were all the more stable for it.

"Call me Sin." The man smiled calmly as he introduced himself to his descendant. He was at peace, Bakugo realized with a pang of jealousy. The only resemblance to peace he had ever experienced was the calm that came with having his family all in one room with him.

"Ooh! Call me Nana!" The woman, Nana, was eager enough for introductions for all three of them. "How'd it go?! Tell me!"

Way too much energy for how tired Bakugo felt but he would do his best.

They already knew how it went, he'd let them trail Izu's chain back to the source and allowed them to take a backseat. But he knew she just wanted an excuse to talk to him, so he'd try his best for once not to be a complete asshole.

And so Bakugo spent his first night in the void, not being completely isolated.

XXXXXXXXX

Bakugo woke up cradling Eri into his chest. He could hear his family's light breathing all around him. Peeking in the dark room, only illuminated by the last rays of moonlight revealed them.

His mother was softly snoring as usual, still exhausted from the poor attempt at kidnapping. His father snoozed quietly on the cot beside her.

Auntie was on the explosive teenager's other side, curled into her pillow, the bruise covering half of her forehead mostly gone by now.

He picked the little unicorn up off his chest and slowly wrapped her in the blanket. She stirred softly, looking around with dull red eyes. She looked up at him, rubbing one dreary eye.

"Go back to sleep." He gently laid her back down and tucked her back in. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Hm." She was out like a light in a heartbeat.

Kids, huh?

Standing up yielded no protest out of the norm whenever his body wasn't exhausted so that was a good sign. His elbow didn't twist in the wrong way when he moved and his spine didn't feel like someone had nuked it.

Granny did good work.

He dropped to the ground, and began doing pushups. Keeping his body parallel to the ground without his feet touching it. He kept his legs and torso straight as he balanced on his palms.

Up. Down. One.

Up. Down. Two.

Up. Down. Three.

Up. Down. Four.

…

Half an hour later and he was barely working up a sweat. Bakugo threw his legs out, keeping careful balance on his palms until his body was held straight up and still by his core muscles.

He held himself there for a couple of heartbeats, before starting once more.

"What are you doing, kid?" The hobo's voice rang out softly in the dark end of the morning's quiet.

A grunt was all Bakugo spared him. His body needed his absolute focus to stop the random muscle twitches that would have sent him sprawling.

The man sighed before falling against the wall in front of Bakugo, slowly sliding down to sit in front of the blonde.

It was quiet for a time. The young man's small huffs under the older man's almost dead eyes were all the noise in the cool dusk air.

The sun was only now starting to lighten the sky, something that urged Bakugo to stop his exercising.

The girls would be here soon. He should get a shower, and a new change of clothes.

His eyes flitted between Eri and his family, trying to weigh the consequences he would face if he wasn't there when they woke up.

Auntie's disappointed face was legendary.

His parents, scratch that his mother, would make something up just to fuck with him.

Aizawa sighed. He didn't get paid enough to deal with his kids' issues.

"I'll keep an eye on them until you get back."

Red eyes met black as the blonde considered the man.

A huff was all he let out before making his way out.

XXXXXXXXX

What a problem child.

Aizawa watched the brat who decided picking a fight with the fucking yakuza on his first unofficial day of hero school.

Aizawa ignored the small voice in the back of his head that said there were no more yakuza. He'd do his own investigation nust to make sure the blonde had gotten them all.

Nezu had managed to pull all of their data, once he'd traced the Bakugo's tracker.

It had been… haunting, to understand exactly what they had put Eri through. And he was so relieved that she'd been found that day by the one kid in Japan who was capable of saving her.

If only that kid wasn't a complete sociopath.

He was a normal kid all things considered. Good grades. Good social awareness. Helpful when he wanted to be.

His teachers had nothing bad to say about the boy. They also didn't have much to say about him in the first place considering the fact that Bakugo didn't even talk to most of them.

The boy didn't speak to his peers. He never talked to his teachers outside of turning in his work. He didn't join any type of club.

He never once interacted with anyone fitting under the title of stranger.

And seeing how Bakugo acted once his family was safely in U.A.? There was no denying the light in his eyes that was utterly absent when he was away from any of them.

He just didn't care about anyone outside of his little family.

Nezu had dug up a rather interesting video of a kidnapping attempt some years back, and shown U.A. 's faculty just last night. The perpetrator had been an adult male with a lizard type quirk that affected his whole body. He was just barely visible on the old park cameras, pouring on the speed to catch his 'prey'.

The first 'victim' had been a blonde boy. That was also the first mistake.

The second and third victims had been a little verdette girl and a purple haired girl.

That was the man's last mistake.

The video had switched to a slightly higher quality from a back door security camera of a nearby restaurant.

It was like watching a full grown man kick around a toddler the moment the blonde boy had caught up.

And then the boy had made a mistake. His only mistake.

He turned his back to an enemy, and paid the price.

A claw through someone's stomach, no matter how close to their sides are, is almost always a fatal wound.

The boy turned around and blew the would-be kidnapper's arm off and left him in a pile of his own blood.

Fun.

How the hell was he supposed to make a hero out of a remorseless killer?

"Hmm?"

And there was the little unicorn, rising with the first sun rays to peek through the blinds.

She was precious, Aizawa would admit. Innocent by the strength of her heart rather than the designs of youth.

She would grow beyond her tragedy in a family that would burn the world down to see her smile.

And he would have to make a HERO, not just a hero, for people to look up to out of her primary guardian so he didn't end up erasing society.

Joy.

And here comes the warhead now.

Fresh out the shower in a pair of white shorts and a dark shirt.

That outfit stirred something vaguely concerning in the back of his mind, but he brushed it off.

What are the odds of it mattering?

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Morning Eri." He kept his voice quiet so the drugged adults in the room could rest. She was there half draped in their blankets, still out of it from last night. Rubbing the sleep out of one eye and yawning like her life depended on it. "Do you want to help me make breakfast?"

She perked up like a puppy, all sunshine and hope. It was kind of disconcerting that she did all of those things without any kind of expression.

They'd work on it.

She would smile again.

He would keep that smile safe. Even if every villian from here to the end of his time had to die, he would see that smile again.

"Yes!" She stumbled out of bed, her long hair too tangled to do anything but blow out of her face. She was eager, wanting to spend time with him and learn new things as she had been since they met.

"Come on." Bakugo beckoned her forward. "You need a bath, precious."

"Hm…" She blindly grabbed his hand, still rubbing one of her eyes.

"Let's go find Izu and Kyo." He ignored Aizawa's stare, he could wait until after Bakugo got Eri settled.

The girls would make sure she was ready for the day.

XXXXXXXXX

Izuku was mad.

And no Kachan, her frown did not make her look like a chipmunk! She was seriously upset right now, stop petting her head!!!

"You left me behind!" She stomped her foot. No, she didn't care if she was acting like a five year old while washing Eri's gorgeous hair. Kyochan was doing most of the work anyways, Izumi was just rinsing. "You promised!"

"You weren't fast enough." She could feel the shrug in his words, taking absolutely none of the sting away from the truth.

Izumi pouted harder than ever as she sat on the small stool next to Kyo and Eri and focused on cleaning herself.

She poured the small bucket of water on herself a bit rougher than she probably should, and promptly regretted every decision that had led her to this moment.

"Ack!" It was cold! Freezing cold. She held her sides and waited for the steaming air to warm her back up.

"Pay attention!" Kyo snapped as she dragged poor Eri away from the splash zone. The sento was amazing, with large tubs and the air was always warm.

She had accidentally turned on the cold water while she gave Bakugo a piece of her mind. At least she hadn't scared the little girl with the sudden temperature drop. Eri zoned out when she took hot baths, and almost fell asleep a couple of times when Kyo had left her to her own devices.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't completely Kachan's fault.

She had been the one who Aizawa managed to catch.

Didn't mean she had to like it.

"I'm gonna get breakfast started." His voice rang through the door, Eri perking up from her little trance. "What do y'all want?"

"Katsudon!" She said instantly. And was promptly hit with a small jack to her spine.

EEEEEEEEE

That sound vibrated all throughout her body and left her numb for a second.

"Eep!" She jumped back and fell into the bath, where she settled at the floor for a moment until One For All burst from her, seeping into every fiber of her being at a low enough intensity for what she wanted to do.

SPLASH

She was above Kyo and Eri in an instant, ready for the Head Chop Of Revenge to punish her other best friend.

And then she saw the small bibrating jack where her foot would be in the next instant.

Her extremely sensitive and ticklish foot.

"Hahahahhahahahaha! Stop! Nooooo!" She was sent tumbling through the air as she laughed, the jack wrapped around both of her feet under the unimpressed eyes of Kyo.

Rolling her eyes as she finished taking care of Eri's hair, and setting into a proper braid for now. She stood up and carried the small girl over to the steaming bath, ignoring the laughing verdette tangled in her jacks.

"Anything you can make'll be good." Kyo set the small girl in her lap as they relaxed into the gentle heat before letting the other girl free.

Panting and holding her aching sides once more, Izu pouted at the ceiling, the only one not bullying her besides Eri right now.

Stupid best friends. Always ganging up on her.

She shivered in a sudden breeze and hopped right beside the other two girls and continued to whine about Bakugo leaving them behind yet again to the exasperated punk and oblivious little girl.