Age: 15 (10 months before the U.A. exam)
The sound of the pencil snapping was the only thing heard in the classroom.
I looked at the two pieces of wood in my hand. I had squeezed too hard. Again.
"Tch."
I threw the remains in the trash. My leg bounced under the desk with a frantic, involuntary rhythm. I had been like this for two weeks. Two weeks since the Sludge Villain did not appear. Two weeks of insomnia, checking hero forums at three in the morning, looking for a sign of All Might that never came.
The wall clock marked every second as if it were a countdown to a bomb.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
I looked to my left. Izuku was taking notes, as always. His profile was calm, focused.
That calmness infuriated me.
How could he be so calm? He had no Quirk. He didn't have One For All. And there were ten months left before he was thrown into an arena with giant robots designed to crush bones.
He trusted the "plan." He trusted me. But I didn't have a plan anymore. The script had been erased, and he was walking toward a cliff smiling.
The bell rang.
"Kacchan, going to the dojo?" Izuku asked, packing his things with a smile. "Today is takedown practice."
I looked at him. My eyes felt dry and gritty.
"No," I said, standing up abruptly. "Today we go to the home gym. I need to see your raw strength numbers."
"But we checked them on Monday..."
"We'll check them again."
I walked out of the classroom without waiting for him.
5:00 PM. Private Gym (Garage).
The atmosphere in the garage was toxic. There was no music. No jokes from Toga (who sat in a corner, unusually quiet, feeling the static electricity between us).
"Again!" I barked.
Izuku was on the leg press. He had 140 kilos loaded. His legs were shaking. His face was red from the effort.
"One... two..." he counted, pushing the weight with a grunt of pain.
He finished the set and dropped the safety latch with a metallic clank. He lay there, panting, gasping for air.
I looked at my stopwatch.
"Slow," I said. My voice was cold, devoid of emotion. "You took three seconds longer to recover than last week."
Izuku wiped the sweat off, looking at me with confusion.
"Kacchan, you increased the weight by 10%. It's normal to be slower."
"Villains don't care about your load percentage," I spat. "If a Nomu... if a strength villain steps on you, he's not going to wait for you to catch your breath."
Izuku sat up, drinking water. He looked at me, and for the first time in years, I saw a flash of pain in his eyes. Not physical. Emotional.
"I'm trying, Kacchan. I'm giving my 100%."
"Your 100% isn't enough."
The phrase hung in the air. It was cruel. It was unnecessary. But my fear was speaking for me. I saw the future: I saw Izuku crushed under rubble at the USJ, I saw Muscular breaking him at the camp. Without One For All, my best friend was a walking corpse.
Izuku stood up slowly. He set down the water bottle.
"Is that what you think?" he asked. His voice was calm, but trembling slightly. "After eleven years of training? You think I'm worthless?"
"I didn't say you're worthless. I said you lack power." I crossed my arms, defensive. "I'm being realistic, Deku. Ten months left. You don't have a Quirk. Your biological ceiling is there. If we don't find a way to break it..."
"I am breaking it!" Izuku shouted suddenly.
It was the first time he raised his voice at me in this life.
"I break my bones training! I study until I pass out! I do everything you tell me!" He took a step toward me, eyes shining with unshed tears. "But lately... lately you look at me like I'm already dead. Like I'm a lost cause."
"Because I don't want you to die, idiot!" I shouted back, explosions sparking in my palms from stress. "You don't know what's coming! You have no idea how dangerous the real world is!"
"Then teach me! Don't treat me like I'm useless!"
"I can't teach you to have a Quirk!" The scream tore at my throat.
There was absolute silence. Toga stopped swinging her legs.
Izuku took a step back, as if I had physically hit him. The brutal truth, spoken without a filter, hurt more than any explosion.
He looked at me. There was no anger in his face. There was disappointment. A deep, silent disappointment.
"I thought..." Izuku swallowed. "I thought you, of all people, believed one could be a hero without a Quirk. That that was what we were proving."
"I..." I started to speak, to try to explain my panic about All Might and destiny, but the words got stuck.
"I guess I was wrong," Izuku said.
He picked up his backpack from the floor. He didn't look at me. He started walking toward the garage exit.
"Deku, wait. We haven't finished the session."
"I have," he said, without stopping. "I'm going for a run. Alone. I need to think."
He left the garage. The side door closed softly, without slamming.
I stood there, amidst my machines and weights, feeling like the most miserable being on the planet.
Toga got off her bench. She walked over to me and kicked me in the shin. Not very hard, but enough to hurt.
"Ow. Why...?"
"You're an idiot, Katsuki-kun," she said. She wasn't smiling. Her yellow eyes judged me. "He knows he's weak. The mirror tells him every day. He doesn't need you to tell him too. He needs his leader to tell him there's a chance."
"I'm just trying to keep him alive," I muttered, slumping onto the bench.
"You're pushing him away," Toga said, looking at the door where Izuku had left. "And he admires you so much that every time you tell him he's not enough, you break his heart a little."
She sighed and grabbed her own backpack.
"I'm going to follow him. Not so he sees me. Just to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid while he's sad. You... stay here and fix your bad mood. You smell like rotten lemons."
Toga ran out after him.
I was left alone in the garage. The silence was deafening.
I looked at the punching bag. It was still.
"Shit," I whispered to the empty air.
She was right. Both were right. My fear of the future had turned me into the same toxic Bakugou I was trying to run away from, only with better intentions. I had lost faith in Izuku because the "script" failed.
But Izuku didn't need a script. He needed a friend.
And now, he was out there, alone, sad, and thinking I didn't believe in him. Just as the sun began to set and the city shadows lengthened.
A pang of anxiety shot through my stomach.
If something happens to him now...
But my pride, stupid and heavy, kept me glued to the bench. He needs to cool off, I thought. Toga is with him. He'll be fine.