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' Bakugou Katsuki '
...
He didn't really think about what he did next. Honestly, in his half-conscious state, he barely even remembered what he did. All he knew for sure was that the effort to lace his fingers together before setting off the biggest explosion he could manage was a battle won on sheer adrenaline.
He roared in pain as much as the sludge villain as the impact crashed through him, but the wind pressure of the condensed blast had the effect he'd been hoping for. His assailant's amorphous body was blown off of his arms, freeing him enough to reach back and fire off the sloppiest, most frantic explosion he'd ever created.
But it worked.
The shriek of pain that resulted from his attack would have had Katsuki clapping his hands over his ears under any other circumstances. But just then, as the villain peeled off of him, clutching his eyes, all the boy could do was collapse, coughing and retching and dragging in one shuddering gasp after another until the world stopped spinning and he could finally breathe through the fires in his lungs.
Izuku.
Groggy and dazed though he was, Katsuki fought past the leaden weight in his limbs to lift himself a little bit more upright, his eyes desperately searching the alley for another sign of-
"Bakugou!"
"What do you think you're doing, kid?!"
"I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT YOU LITTLE- AGH!"
Katsuki flinched as he felt someone grab his arm, hauling him to his feet before he was half-carried, half-dragged towards the safety of the main road.
Weakened though he was, he found himself resisting them, his head craning back to stare over his shoulder, eyes still frantically seeking to pierce the flame-shrouded darkness past the villain as they pulled their hands away from reddened eyes.
Whether it was a shade born or blood or burns, he didn't want to think about.
"Come on dude, work with me. I have to get you out of here!" a voice grumbled next to his ear. Katsuki finally tore his eyes away from whence he'd come, instead peering unsteadily up into a pair of bright red eyes, almost hidden by a fringe of over-long, black hair.
"K-Kirishima?" he groaned weakly. "What are you…" His friend barely spared him a glance before redoubling his pace, practically sprinting by the time they reached the barrier the heroes had created to keep the civilians back. Katsuki vaguely heard a few shouts of, "that was far too reckless!" and "what the heck were you thinking?" but he didn't have the mental awareness to discern who was yelling at who.
"Wait…" he mumbled, still dazed.
"What about…?"
"Give him here!"
Katsuki blinked a little more of the bleariness from his eyes as someone in a paramedic's uniform rushed forward, pulling him away from Kirishima. He shook his head slightly, still trying to turn back towards the alley where the pro heroes were starting to move in now that they weren't dealing with a hostage situation. "Wait!" he croaked again, a little bit more insistently, shoving weakly against the paramedic's hands. "Wait, there's someone else!"
"Just calm down, young man. You're just a little disoriented. Take a seat here while we check you for any injuries."
"But he was there; I saw him!"
"Bakugou, buddy, just calm down," Kirishima interrupted shakily, gripping Katuski's shoulder as involuntary explosions popped across his hands.
"No, Kirishima, I saw him! I saw Izuku!"
His friend froze. Kirishima didn't know everything about what had happened, didn't fully understand the reasons behind his guilt and trauma, but his eyes still softened. "Buddy… I know you were worried, and this probably brought back some really bad memories for you, but there wasn't anyone else down there. I promise everyone's fine."
"High levels of stress can cause a person to develop an… overactive imagination."
"I wasn't-!"
A cheer cut him off, dragging his eyes back towards the alley. The heroes were victorious, it would seem. Good.
Katsuki shoved his way past Kirishima, ignoring the alarmed exclamations of the paramedic. "Hey man, wait up!" his friend yelped, chasing after him as he wove and pushed through the crowd. With the danger gone and the heroes flexing in the spotlight, hardly anyone cast him so much as a second glance as Katsuki ducked back into the alley, closely followed by his overbearingly concerned friend.
"Dude, Bakugou, this is insane; it might still be dangerous!" Kirishima cried frantically. Katsuki felt him draw another breath to voice another plea for reason, but he was brusquely ignored in favor of-
"Oof!" his friend grunted in surprise when he smacked straight into Katsuki's broad back. "What the heck, man? You… You okay?"
Katsuki shakily stepped forward, bending over to gather a dirty, slightly scuffed notebook from the ground, the front marked with familiar handwriting. "I… I have to go," he mumbled, almost in a daze. "I have to get home."
"Um… Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital, dude?"
"Meet you at the arcade another time."
"Dude, wait! Bakugou!"
Katsuki didn't answer. He didn't even glance back as he started running, racing faster and faster until he was heading towards home at a dead sprint. His breaths were coming in ragged gasps by the time he reached a familiar stairwell, which he took two at a time.
Gulping air like water, he threw the door open without knocking, barely conscious of the startled squeak from the other side of the room.
"K-Katsuki! Oh my goodness, I just saw the news; are you okay?! Does your mother know you're okay? Katsuki, sweetie, please answer me!" a familiar voice fret anxiously while soft hands fluttered close to his cheeks. Unable to speak, he thrust his find towards her.
"Wh-What's this?" Inko-obasan managed, accepting the object.
"F-Found it," Katsuki gasped back, leaning heavily against the doorframe as he sucked in air. "In… In the alley. I found it."
"Katsuki, what-?" Abruptly, she froze, just as he had done, as her eyes finally focused on the title. With trembling fingers, she reached out, slowly tracing the characters of the words Quirk Analysis No. 32.
"You remember, right?" he asked softly, his heart still pounding, but his lungs finally starting to overcome the burn of his race to get there. "When Izuku disappeared, he only had eleven."
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