….
On the other hand–
Inko stepped forward, placing herself firmly on her son. "You said what you wanted to say. Now we're leaving, and that's the end of it."
"No more hero school, Izuku."
"Is it... is it because I jumped in rashly? But see?" Izuku took an eager half-step forward. "I don't have a scratch on my body, Mom! I am completely safe! I know I made you worry so much, and I shouldn't have run off without permission, but–"
This wasn't the timid, self-sacrificing Izuku of the past who shattered his own bones on a whim.
Yet, standing under the crushing, desperate glare of his mother, all that newfound strength completely evaporated.
Against villains and tough circumstances, he could always stand his ground, but against his mother's love, he had no way around being harsh.
"That's what scares me, Izuku!" Inko's voice finally broke, tears spilling down her cheeks as she struggled to keep herself composed.
"Ever since you started school, I have been hearing about one terrible thing after another. It started with the USJ attack, and then there was the attack in the shopping district. I was terrified when I found out that my son had been targeted by some villain group. And these last three days..."
She swallowed hard, her voice becoming quieter as the fear she had been carrying finally broke through. "These last three days have been heartbreaking. I was almost afraid to turn on the television because I didn't know what I was going to hear next. Every time I saw the news, I was waiting for someone to tell me that something had happened to you."
"Mom please, I..."
She stepped closer, her anger giving way to a trembling plea.
"Fortunately, the heroes brought you back safely, but what happens next time, Izuku? I can't stand the thought of one day having someone tell me that my little boy isn't coming home."
She lowered her head. "I know you want to help people, and being a hero means a lot to you, but you're my son before you're anything else. I can't keep watching you put your life on the line like this."
Inko finally looked up at him, tears filling her eyes.
"So please... stop. Just come home, Izuku. You don't have to do this anymore…
"We are withdrawing from the U.A., Izuku. That's the end of it."
Izuku stood frozen as he looked down at his mother's weeping frame.
From the bed, Toshinori Yagi, slowly shifted his weight.
"All Might, wait, what are you doing?!" Izuku moved to help. "You can't move yet!"
"Midoriya I need to do this..."
Toshinori wheezed, weakly batting the boy's hands away as he ignored the blinding pain, gritted his teeth, and, with a pained groan, slid completely off the bed and dropped onto his knees.
He planted both hands flat against the floor, bowing his head until his forehead nearly brushed the tiles before Inko Midoriya.
"All Might!"
Izuku cried, dropping down beside him. "Please, get back on the bed! Mom, tell him to stop! He's going to tear his stitches!"
"Stand back." Toshinori rasped, his voice trembling with sheer physical strain and unbearable guilt. "This is not for you to carry."
He slowly lifted his sunken, hollow gaze toward Inko, his eyes shining with unspeakable sorrow.
"You are entirely right, Miss Midoriya-san.
"Everything you're saying is the absolute truth. I... I was the one who saw his heart and failed to protect it. When he ran toward danger, desperately trying to save that boy, Tenko... I didn't stop him."
"I allowed his blinding ideals to push him directly into the line of fire, forgetting that before he is a hero... he is a child. Your child. A pillar's duty is to keep the next generation out of harm's way, yet I allowed my own weakness to drag him into the abyss. If you wish to pull him from U.A., you have every right. The fault lies entirely with me."
"It's not your fault!" Izuku pleaded. "I was the one who ran! All Might didn't force me to do anything, Mom! Don't blame him for my own choices!"
Inko stared down at the towering legend reduced to a bowed, bleeding husk on the floor, her breath hitching in choked disbelief.
BAM!
The door of Room 308 swung open, crashing against the rubber doorstop.
"Get your hands off me, you old hags!!"
Katsuki Bakugo stumbled into the room, his face twisted in fury, with both of his parents clinging desperately to him.
Mitsuki had one arm hooked around his neck while repeatedly hammering a fist down onto his spiky blond hair, while Masaru clung tightly to his son's waist from behind.
The Bakugo family had only come to the medical wing for a formal purpose.
Mitsuki and Masaru had insisted on personally thanking All Might, and Dabi if he was around, for dragging their reckless son out of the League's clutches alive.
But having arrived outside Room 308 a minute earlier, they had caught the tension through the half-open door and realized they were intruding on an intimate talk.
They had tried to wait it out in silence.
But hearing Inko pull the plug on Izuku's entire life had caused Katsuki's fuse to detonate completely.
"Katsuki, stop this right now!" Mitsuki barked, landing another heavy fist on his head. "It isn't our place to step into their family business! Shut your damn mouth and get back in the hall!"
"Shut up, you old bat! I heard everything through that damn door!" Katsuki roared back, thrashing like a cornered beast.
"You show some respect!" Mitsuki yelled, tightening her hold. "Inko has every right to worry about her boy! After what happened to you, how can you even think about shouting at her?!"
"Put your hand off me right this instant, you old geezers!" Bakugo snarled, veins bulging along his neck as he shoved his elbows back. "I don't give a damn whose business it is! I need to talk right now!"
Masaru, panting for breath, looked into the room with embarrassment. "I-I am so terribly sorry, Midoriya-san, All Might-san, we didn't mean to–"
Masaru's voice trailed off, and he looked down at the sheer desperation in his son's trembling shoulders.
The boy who had been bound, gagged, and dragged through an inferno, yet was now clawing his way forward not with arrogance, but with conviction.
Slowly, Masaru let go of Katsuki's waist.
He reached out, his hand unusually steady, and dropped it heavily onto his wife's shoulder.
"Mitsuki." Masaru said quietly. "Stop."
Mitsuki froze, her fist hovering mid-strike above Katsuki's skull. She stared at her husband in genuine, wide-eyed shock.
Throughout their entire marriage, Masaru had never once raised his voice at her, talked over her, or dared to challenge her authority when she was disciplining their son.
"Masaru?" she whispered, stunned. "What are you doing? We should drag him out–"
"...I think we should give Katsuki a chance to talk." Masaru murmured softly. "Since he's already here, and he's been holding all of this, just let him say it."
Mitsuki's lips parted, looking from her husband's gaze down to her son.
She saw the pride, the guilt, and the fire burning in Katsuki's stance. Slowly, the fight drained out of her.
"Fine." Mitsuki stepped. "Say your piece, you brat. But if you insult Inko, I will bury you right here."
"Damn right." Bakugo spat out, roughly yanking his rumpled shirt straight. "You actually spoke up for once, old man."
He stopped two paces before Inko, Toshinori still bowed, and Izuku standing frozen.
For half a second, the room braced for an explosion.
Instead, Katsuki took a breath, bent at the waist, and snapped into a deep bow, his head dropping low.
"I am Katsuki Bakugo." he shouted, his voice cracking off the room. "Your son's childhood frien…"
He choked on the syllable, and his throat constricted, his teeth grinding together so hard the jaw muscle jumped beneath his skin.
The word felt like swallowing lead.
He forced his head up, his crimson eyes locking dead onto Inko's tear-stained face, and forced the word through his teeth again.
"Friend. A friend."
He repeated it twice, as if the repetition could burn away the disgrace of the past ten years.
"I bullied your son when we were kids for being Quirkless." Katsuki continued. "I beat him up. Not just him, either. I beat up anyone and everyone who pissed me off, even over the smallest things. I was a complete, arrogant piece of shit."
Behind him at the doorway, Mitsuki's hand tightened against Masaru's arm.
Her knuckles turned pale, but she stayed completely silent, watching her son lay his sins bare.
Katsuki's fists trembled at his sides.
For an excruciating second, the memories surged back into his mind.
The burnt notebooks, the sneering lackeys, the scorched desks, the intoxicating delusion that he was a chosen god while the boy beside him was mere dirt.
Looking at himself through the lens of everything that had happened, he hadn't looked like a hero at all.
He had looked like an absolute, vile piece of garbage.
A villain in the making.
Moisture welled along the rims of his eyes, burning hot and furious.
"And the worst of it... I told him to jump off a roof and die." Katsuki choked out, a raw, humiliating tremor tearing through his voice. "An aspiring hero whose only crime was wanting to become like All Might."
Izuku gasped, his breath hitching in his throat. "Kacchan, you don't have to–"
"Shut up, Deku!" Katsuki barked, his voice cracking as tears finally escaped his eyes. "Just shut up for once and let me finish! After everything between us... when that sludge villain had me trapped and I couldn't even bring myself to call you a friend, you still ran straight at me with nothing but your bare hands. You didn't even have a Quirk, and you still came running! Helping some random person is one thing, but throwing yourself into danger for the guy who spent years making your life miserable just because he existed? What the hell was that?!"
He wiped violently at his eyes with the back of his forearm, sniffing hard, his glare blazing through the tears.
"What he did yesterday wasn't any different. The scale just got bigger, and it's going to happen again. It will probably happen tomorrow, and the day after that, and every damn day in the future."
Katsuki let out a harsh, self-deprecating bark of a laugh.
"Damn it... I probably shouldn't have said that to a mother who's scared out of her mind. But I can't take it back now. It was the truth, whether she wanted to hear it or not."
He stood straight, his chest heaving, his gaze shifting from Inko to the nerd beside her.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
Author Note:
Visit Patreon to instantly access +1 chapter for free, available for Free Members as well. For additional content please do support me and gain access to +12 more chapters.
-->[email protected]/WrightBrothers