MHA: Ground Zero

ONE WEEK EARLIER

"Why, the fuck, did you not use your fucking quirk, Bakugo Katsuki?!???!"

Everything was as it should be…

for the most part.

Izu and Auntie weren't here with them so that would have to be fixed, but that would come in time.

Now, how did he deal with a pissed off Kyo while feeding Eri breakfast. While being laid in a hospital bed for the little incident after he'd asked the small child to to through a physical from the old lady.

He had not appreciated her screaming for him, nor had he appreciated the hobo in the room with glowing red eyes. His quirk refused to work but his fists had flown fast enough to knock the bastard into the wall.

Unfortunately, the hobo had him tied up in a scarf of all things, and left him laying on the floor for the next ten minutes to calm down.

While staring at him with red eyes and sucking on some kind of jelly pouch. Not his best moment.

Hmm…

Alright, fuck it.

Time to go see the principal.

"-Are you listening to me, Katsuki?!"

Her voice was a low hiss, trying and mostly succeeding in avoiding the little unicorn's attention while she slowly ate her small apple slices one by one.

It's like she thought someone was gonna take it from her.

Silly girl, no one fucked with his family and walked away. Like that lizard bitch from when he was 8 who tried to kidnap Izu. Bastard didn't like having a hole blown through his shoulder and knee, and Katsuki knew for a fact that no one at UA would either.

Although, the hobo was starting to get on his nerves; just walking beside them, in a neon fucking yellow sleeping bag, sucking on a jelly pack, and looking at them with the deadest eyes he'd ever seen.

Who the fuck does that? Especially after almost getting his jaw broken last night.

… Did this fucker need some eye drops or something?…

"Didn't have a choice."

His answer seemed to enrage the punk girl even more, her jaw worked as a vein nearly popped on her temple.

Blue… wasn't her color. At least not when it's taking over her entire face. He liked the red that rose from her collar and covered her cheeks when they all woke up that morning in the infirmary more.

Recovery Girl had been there to smack him when he got out of bed to tidy up after Kyo had thrown herself from the bed and grabbed a set of clothes someone had left on the nightstand.

He'd just stuck with some white shorts and a black tank, rather than the full school uniform Kyo wore now.

It looked right on her, after how hard she and Izu worked, even if it was a bit before school started.

"How exactly, did you not have a choice?" Oh she'd looped back to being fake calm again, great she was bottling up her emotions again.

That wouldn't do.

"Assholes wanted Eri, and I can't come to UA with you if I'm locked up for vigilante work."

Vigilantism as defined by the law, was the act of using your quirk without a license to perform hero work. Couldn't be a vigilante if you don't use your quirk.

His parents were having a riot behind the two as they walked towards the principal's office, with his mother carrying Recovery Girl on her shoulders for simplicity's sake. His mother was cackling, with his father settling for being happy and proud, and the nurse was staring him down and muttering something about 'another one'.

He'd leave that battle for another time, he could feel it in his bones; that was one tough granny.

He'd need to train a good bit more to meet that thing face to face and survive.

"How is this better?!" Her words contradicted the small, if slightly unsure, real smile when the small girl turned in his arms to look up at her with big red eyes that reminded her far too much of three kids sitting alone in a park.

"The girl's safe, I'm safe, you're here. Everything's coming up good so far." God, his mother sounded like a hyena, they made prescriptions for that kind of thing, or at least he thinks they did because that couldn't be healthy. "Now we just need to keep the ball rolling and deal with it."

"That's not why I'm upset, and you know it."

"Then why are you upset?"

"Because you promised me you wouldn't do that to yourself anymore!"

Oh.

"Kyo…"

"You promised me you wouldn't push yourself too hard anymore. You promised that you wouldn't destroy your body anymore."

"There wasn't any other choice." There really hadn't been. Little girl vs three grown, experienced, killers.

He wouldn't have let the dice roll any other way than giving those three fucks a beat down for making the small unicorn cry.

"…I know."

"Then why?…"

"It hurt, when I saw you."

…

"You were standing there, one broken hand clenched hard enough that I knew you were hurting yourself again. Trying to hold yourself back enough." To not kill three grown men on tv, yeah she was right. She stopped to grab him by his shirt, careful to avoid tripping the distracted girl clutching his pant leg to stare him in the eye.

"It hurt because you were fighting alone. Again."

How the hell was he supposed to answer that?

" I know you Katsuki, don't ever forget that."

How could he, she had seen him at his worst(best) and was still here. If anything she knew him better than he knew himself at this point.

"You don't get to walk away, not after everything."

Like he could go anywhere, she owned half of him.

"Clear."

XXXXXX

After finally making it to the principal's office, the first thing he saw was the small form of UA's founder, Nezu.

A small marsupial like white mammal with black beady eyes and a white dress shirt.

He hadn't blinked since Katsuki had sat down in front of his desk.

That had been five minutes ago.

The fucking hobo had fallen asleep in the corner after following them inside, and his parents were still far too amused behind him. It was starting to become annoying.

Maybe it had something to do with the sleeping unicorn curled into his chest?

…

Nah.

"Hello there, Bakugo Katsuki, I am Nezu. Am I a mouse, a bear, or a rat?!"

Asshole put him on the spot, fuck.

"All of the above."

Nailed it.

"Correct!"

Fuck, he was being sarcastic.

"All that matters at this moment is that.."

Oh?

"I am the Principal!"

Nevermind, the rat was dying first.

His mother really needed to get that noise checked out, it couldn't be natural.

His father on the other hand was still smiling as he always did. It was the hobo who made it weird, it was only a second, but Katsuki swore to god he saw a drop of sympathy in those dead eyes.

"You've gone and gotten yourself into quite the situation, young man."

To business then.

"Yup." Human uses blunt force approach.

"You don't seem worried." Rat counters with the obvious.

"Whatever happens, happens. I just need to be ready to fuck some people up when it does." Human taunts using assurance.

"Not gonna say everything will be okay?" Rat fishes for weakness.

"It's never been okay for her, so I'll wait until she asks me to make it right." Human cuts fishing line with resolve.

"And what will you do when the time comes." Rat probes with responsibility.

"Probably go to jail." Human folds under overwhelming threat.

Winner! RAT GOD.

"Katsuki." Oh his mother finally stopped laughing, even the hobo had stopped his little nap to stare at him from his sleeping bag.

"Indeed, you shall! And for a not insignificant amount of time!"

Eh.

"Unless of course, you agree to these terms!"

The rat literally had a twenty three page document, Katsuki counted front to back, for his entire family to be employed to care for Eri. What the hell?

"You never asked her what her quirk is, did you?" The rat's smile was nearly manic for some reason.

"Didn't need to know."

The hobo was grinning, and it was terrifying.

"Quite right, my good student!" The hell? He hadn't gotten an acceptance letter yet.

"That is a mere formality at this point, you and I both know you have passed both the written and practical exams with flying colors!"

Ok the rat could read minds.

"Sad to say that I cannot! You humans are just so open about your feelings sometimes!"

… Humans?

Doesn't matter.

"What about her quirk now?" She had an albino unicorn, quite literally, what could her work possibly do to have this school willing to hire his parents to watch over the kid to keep her comfortable with him rather than go into the system?

"We had quite the scare last night, when Chiyo went to draw some blood. Little Eri became quite upset, sadly almost catatonic. In her state her quirk manifested itself and affected the small orange she was eating. Would you like to see it?" The small mammal was practically vibrating as the old lady grumbled and used her weird cane to march forward and toss a seed onto the desk.

Katsuki felt confusion.

And then his head snapped to the girl in his lap. His mouth betrayed him, forcing out something past his shock.

"Temporal quirk."

The rarest type of quirks. Even portal or warp quirks were more common. Only three had ever been documented according to Izu.

One was a little five year old girl who sped up her own time enough that she aged to her mid fifties back during the dawn of quirks.

The second belonged to a vigilante some twenty years ago who could slow down time for others he touched.

And the third just happened to belong to a villian who held the U.S. hostage during the debut of All Might.

What little videos remained of their battles across the states were absolutely terrifying to watch.

Shit.

"She possesses the ability to rewind the time of any organic object she comes into contact with. Quite the powerful quirk, wouldn't you say?"

Of course it was. That made it dangerous, even more so than his own ability to reduce a grown man to a cloud of smoke and blood at the age of four.

"What do you want?" This little game he'd allowed himself to play was over.

"I want many things."

"I want to raise the next generation of heroes as I have done since this academia's inception."

"I want this world to look towards the heroes I've helped produce with respect and admiration."

"I want the children I teach to reach their full potential."

"And right now, I wish for the safety of a little girl who reminds me of far too many unpleasant memories."

The room was silent. His parents and Kyo were staring silently and the hobo was no longer smiling. He'll chalk that last one up to a win.

The young man sighed, gently adjusting the little girl sleeping against him. His red eyes, usually apathetic, became hollow as he entered a staring contest with the small mammal.

Empty red met pitch black as the room froze. No one moved, no one breathed, and no one looked away from the confrontation.

"This won't end the way you think it will." The explosive teenager sighed as he leaned back into his chair. The world became normal, and the punk girl snapped her head down to stare at her shaking hands.

Her eyes made their way back to the young man and small mammal in time to go still at the utterly horrifying smile the small animal had on display.

"I was getting bored of being right anyway."

And so the documents were handed over to the lost parents and the small mammal and human shook hands.

The young man sighed as he stood up and made his way out after the hobo, sorry Aizawa, to where the principal had already moved Katsuki's things into a dorm room.

A deal with the devil had been made, and now it was just a matter of time until it blew up in all of their faces.

Thankfully, he could make his own explosions so he'd just have to be ready.

Ready to make things right.