"You can't change
what you refuse to confront."
-Unknown
Time pasted by like a blur; Deku had been thrown off his game. He examined each and every word, conversation, and misleading phrase he had ever uttered, but it didn't make sense. He had made it a point not to interact with the explosive blond throughout his time at UA. He hadn't spoken to him at all, much less blown his cover.
And yet, he still had suspicions. It didn't make sense.
'Maybe I'm going about this in the wrong way. It's true that he could be on to me, but it could also be related to Urakaka. He was pretty destroyed when it happened. Perhaps, he had a psychotic break? I might have even let him kill me if it wasn't him, that is...'
He cleared his mind of the rather foolish line of thought. While it was amusing, the possibilities were rather slim. Bakugo Katuski wasn't that dumb. He appeared loud, brash, and in general, a no-good delinquent, but he had a fairly decent head on his shoulders. For Bakugo Katsuki knew and realized a fairly basic truth that none seemed to understand; Urakaka beat him. And with that understanding, he must have reached the next logical conclusion; there was no point in talking to him.
If it was related to Uraraka, which was starting to appear rather slim as well, then it could only be... asking for advice. What kind of training regimes she did, quirk training, and so on and so forth. If it was before, he would veminately deny that such a thing was possible, but Kacchan had changed. The thought seared with the bite of a bee's sting, and the emotions that he had slowly regained were stirring slightly with a touch of revulsion, but there was no denying the facts.
He was still a gigantic, huge asshole that held little to no regard for other people's feelings, but he had changed. Ever so slightly.
He seemed to have actual friends now, rather than the cronies and yes-man that hung around him before. He had always felt that Kacchan's 'friends' were the biggest jokes of all because they didn't interact with Bakugo because they liked him, no, all they cared about was his quirk. It was thanks to them, in part, that his ego grew to the size it sat at today.
It wasn't just the people surrounding him that had changed either. While he still insulted and berated people, his words lost the zip that had contained within them before. He didn't truly wish to offend them, but just responded out of habit. Or maybe it was the only way he knew how to interact with people. And then there was his willingness to acknowledge the fact that he had mistakes in the first place...
In any case, regardless of any emotions he had on the matter, the fact that change occurred was indisputable. Change had a love-hate relationship with Deku - a change meant he had new information, tactics, or plans for revenge, but he hated when it was people that changed. He had to analyze them all over again and build a new psyche profile of their person. If it was just that it would be somewhat bearable, but change was something recent. Something that lacked data and records.
Often times, the true extent of change a person has experienced only reveals itself too late in the game.
And if there was one thing that he hated, it was losing his control over the big picture.
The rest of the tournament passed by in a similar daze. Even the elimination bracket between all of the semi-finalists to decide third place did little to burrow him out of his thoughts. He absentmindedly punched a blue-haired kid - was his name Iida? - in the jaw, using the speedster's speed against him. None of his foes so far had the same degree of combat experience as he did, and without the literal ability to turn the entire arena into a glacier, they were all beaten fairly easily.
He knew, intellectually, that it was taboo to put less than 100% of his concentration into any given battle, but his mind couldn't help but be attracted to a far more interesting puzzle: Kacchan's current state of mind. And it was only when that puzzle landed right before his eyes that the haze started to dissipate. All of the other semi-finalists had been defeated between the two of them, leaving only the two individuals left.
'Allen Bowman' and Bakugo Katuki.
In his excitement for the upcoming information gathering, Deku did not notice a few disturbing signs.
Bakugo looked like he aged overnight; his posture was all slumped over and gloomy, his eyes were clouded over with darkness. He looked incredibly fragile as if he would break with a touch if you prodded in the right places. His fire was extinguished, only a few embers left. It was unknown if the wind would ignite it once more, or if time would rot away the small remanents of life.
Yet, Deku did not notice any of those signs, so what happened next made him incredibly surprised. It felt like his worldview cracked into small shards of its former glory at the sound Bakugo's vocal cords transmitted into spoken word. It was just that surprising.
"...I surrender."
'What... What... What the hell... D-Did someone inject drugs into my system while I was unaware? I-Is it an imposter?'
Ah, yes, he truly hated change.
It liked to catch him off guard in times like this.
Deku just stood there with a stupid look on his face as the slumped figure of Bakugo Katsuki dragged his feet and body off into the distance. It just truly didn't make sense to him. Why was his image of victory... surrendering? Why was it giving up? Why did it not even try? In the faint parts of his consciousness still working, he realized that one of Bakugo's friends was there. Kirishima? Kirishima.
"B-Bakugo... Was it because of those guys from before?"
He let out a disdainful grunt, returning to almost his actual self, but not quite.
"As if. I just know that I... can't win. So what's the damn point?"
Bakugo and his friend continued to talk, and it wasn't until they reached the edge of the sub-arena that he finally reacted. All of the astonishment, surprise, and disbelief simply turned into fuel for an incredibly powerful emotion: anger. It was pure and utter rage that laced itself into his bloodstream, pumped straight from a wrathful heart. He couldn't recall another moment that he had felt such anger towards another person, maybe only All for One could rank higher. His rage-fueled words echoed throughout the arena.
"...So you're just a coward, is that right?!"
It was like the words had physically hurt him as his whole body moved in a clumsily hidden lurch. But other than that he didn't have any reaction to the sharpened words for a long time. Just as Deku was about to give up on Kacchan, on his image of victory, Bakugo started to speak.
"... I couldn't win against Uraraka. You're stronger than her, hell you almost won against half-, against Todoroki," He looked up from the ground with desperate eyes. "So fucking tell me! How was I supposed to win against you? See, you can't tell me-"
It was almost like the entire area was submerged in the depths of Deku's disdain.
"You're right. You couldn't have beaten me," He ignored the outraged calls of Bakugo's friends and the heartbroken expression Bakugo was making. "Not with that damn attitude. Tell me, Bakugo, do you have the ability to predict the future? No? Then why do you think you can't beat me?!"
"Y-You almost won against fucking Todorok-"
He stared at him. He froze in place.
"Yeah, I 'almost' won. I lost. Do you know why I lost against him? Because Todoroki knew how my quirk worked. That wasn't the only variable, but that's pretty much the gist of it. That's why I didn't use it until I absolutely had to," Disdain flooded through his eyes once more. "I'm sure you watched, didn't you? Yet, you decided you couldn't beat me, and surrendered? How stupid are you?!"
He walked toward the exit of the arena, Bakugo still frozen in place as if Deku was Todoroki instead.
"Look, you just lost. That's it; everyone here lost. No-one's died because of you, no-one's died period, and you still have two more chances while you're at this school," He hovered near his head while whispering. "If you keep up this defeatist attitude of yours, it won't matter how many chances you have though."
Bakugo stood in place as Allen moved on, no longer interested. He was now in third place, so All for One shouldn't be too mad in the end-
He turned around rapidly at the sound of an explosion, only to see Bakugo with slight burns and scuff marks on his face. Despite his messy appearance, however, he looked much better than before the match. He was standing straight and confidently, almost arrogantly, with a glimmer in his eyes. He turned and made an announcement with a serious look.
"You really are a bastard... But, augh... thanks. I needed that. I-I was being stupid-"
The wrathful heart returned to its normal state. Allen indifferently waved his hand behind his back.
"Yeah, you were being stupid. Be thankful that yours is a temporary stupid, or I would have punched you in the face."
He walked away as Bakugo's little friend held him in place, likely in an attempt to prevent him from blowing Allen up.
'I'm glad that I didn't have to completely revise my observations, Kacchan. You are officially smart with a chance of stupid.'