That Which was Lost (2)

It was fate of some kind. Destiny at work. Someone from the heavens above must have been weaving their threads, intersecting and mingling. Her uncle, despite being a cold-headed realist believed that such a thing as fate existed. That the future was something set in stone.

Kurumi Aizawa disagreed. Though she had yet to prove him wrong. But when the teams were called and she found herself paired with Izuku and facing off against none other than Katsuki Bakugo, she really had to give the idea the benefit of the doubt: that some higher power had a hand in all of this.

"…Kacchan is strong." Izuku was saying.

"His quirk is powerful." Kurumi agreed.

"Not just his quirk… His goal, his confidence…and physical strength…" Izuku trailed off, opening and closing his fist as if remembering the intensity of the flames that burned within his irises.

"Don't be intimidated. I mean you've got me by your side," Kurumi puffed out her chest proudly.

"Kurumi, about that…" Izuku said tentatively, "I was wondering about your quirk-

-Is it a quirk that allows you to read people's thoughts?"

Kurumi blinked before cocking her head, "What gave you the idea?"

"W-well, I mean. You seemed to know how Mr. Aizawa was going to move before he even did when you fought him yesterday. Your reaction speed was beyond normal and I was guessing, maybe your quirk allows you to see what the opponent is thinking…or something?" Izuku spoke his thoughts uncertainly.

He'd always been curious. As someone who had grown up without a quirk, he'd been interested in the quirks other people around him had twice as much. It was envy. It was jealousy.

There was nothing he could do to fill the hollow feeling in his chest whenever the people around him demonstrated their quirks. But there was somebody, a girl, who never once used her quirk as everyone else did. She had a quirk. Her heterochromic traits were telling enough.

But Izuku had never seen her use her quirk before.

He didn't even know what it was. Sh'd divert the topic whenever Izuku asked and he hadn't seen her use it once. Izuku didn't know if she was simply not using it in front of him, but Katsuki Bakugo hadn't a clue either. That had irritated the ash blonde and Izuku had been pushed to the ground for it, but it had been well worth the risk.

After that, Izuku had never inquired the girl about her quirk ever again. And for once, he simply decided to revel in that. The feeling of not being alone. The feeling of not being the odd one out of the group. And he wasn't the ugly duckling anymore. Just a normal boy. With her. With Kurumi Aizawa.

Kurumi Aizawa had been his one and only ally in a world where everybody were blessed with super powers.

But now, with One for All flowing through his veins, Izuku Midoriya grasped the courage to ask her about it again.

He had had thought of several possibilities, but honestly-

"-maybe your quirk allows you to see what the opponent is thinking-"

-was the most plausible that he could think of.

Something changed in her expression the moment those words left Izuku's lips. He couldn't quite put a finger on it, but if he had to describe it, it was something akin to relief.

"That's right," Kurumi nodded, raising both her hands in the air in defeat, "You got me."

Izuku furrowed his brows. Somehow her confirmation didn't satisfy him. If he had to say, it almost sounded half-hearted.

"With a quirk like mine," Kurumi was saying, "It doesn't matter who I'm up against. Bakugo's quirk is powerful, but if he can't lay a hand on me, he's no good."

"Were you using it all this time ever since we were kids?"

"Uhhh.. You saw it yesterday, haven't you? My right eye glows when I use it. Have you ever seen it glow when I was around you?"

Izuku nodded in relief. That's right. That was true. He'd never ever seen it glow except…

"Once." Izuku blurted out as the memory struck him.

It wasn't a past he wanted to dredge up. That farewell two years ago had been what had haunted him during his middle school days. Izuku involuntarily winced and Kurumi scratched her neck again as if only now recognizing her blunder.

The last time he'd seen her before she was gone for two whole years.

That eerie glow in her eye that had split through the darkness of the night.

And words he could not fully comprehend that she had hurled his way...

"Ah. Right."

"So you were reading my mind that night." Izuku mumbled.

Kurumi's eye narrowed and she bit her thin lips. Her shoulders bunched as she beat the cement ground with her toe incessantly in deep rumination.

"I…I don't remember," Kurumi muttered at last.

"You don't?" Izuku couldn't hide the accusatory tone in his voice all too well.

"No! I meant," Kurumi frantically shook his hands in front of her, "I meant I don't really recall what you were thinking that night!"

"How could you forget that?" Izuku's eyebrows twitched, "You were so angry at me then. I didn't really understand what had you so mad, but if that was because you saw what I was thinking, then…!"

"I'm sorry," Kurumi muttered, "I really, really…don't know."

And that was a lie.

Izuku knew by the way her eye couldn't quite meet his. It stayed stubbornly at a certain point above his eyes and she tapped at her thighs to a rhythm that was disjointed and unsteady.

They say old habits die hard.

And Kurumi Aizawa was the worst liar Izuku had ever met. (Though Izuku had little to no clue that he was a worse liar than she.)

"Whenever you are ready, young Aizawa and young Midoriya! Let the round commence!" All Might's voice boomed through a microphone, disrupting their conversation and jambling Izuku's thoughts before he could continue them.

With a shake of his head, he adjusted his mask. Emerald eyes met coal black and the two nodded before they entered the building.

Katsuki Bakugo only ever knew one path. If something blocked the path he had chosen, then he would simply remove all that stood in his way by force. He was stubborn, but he had the strength to back up that personality.

He never compromised. Why should he? He only ever had one way of doing things and if he decided upon a direction, then that was the direction forward. There was no turning back, no turning left or right or an easy way out.

After all, he was special. He was gifted. He was strong. He had been chosen. Therefore, he wasn't the one that had to compromise. It was the people around them.

But one day, Katsuki Bakugo looked behind him and found a green haired boy running after him. He tripped and fell, rolled in the dirt. He was utterly, unbearably slow.

Katsuki Bakugo didn't like that. This was his road. His path. And he strove forward, paving the way with strength and confidence, and all the while, Katsuki Bakugo never stopped, never wandered, never paused and his pace was as strong as it had ever been…

But he could not lose sight of the boy behind him.

He was a quirkless boy with nothing to himself. He was weak. He was shy. He was a cry-baby. He was unworthy and Bakugo could not bear to see the sight of someone of his calibre stepping upon the very pavement of the road Bakugo himself had chosen to walk.

But Bakugo could not shake him free.

He could never lose sight of him fully.

For while the green haired boy tripped and fell, rolled in the dirt, he would always stand back up again. Bakugo had never fallen. He wouldn't know.

So he couldn't understand.

That boy, who had tasted bitter defeat more times than he could count, would not lose sight of Bakugo's back.

And that was when fear struck him. Though the distance between them was wide and far, what would happen when Bakugo fell? Would he be able to stand back up as well as that boy did?

Would it be possible for the boy to outrun him while Bakugo was fallen? His strides were long and wide, and free of hesitance, but he could not shake the terrifying feeling of uncertainty that came with the presence that continued to follow behind him.

This was his path. His life.

Bakugo had decided that way.

Forward.

It was all he had and all he knew.

So this isn't your place to be.

Izuku Midoriya.

Explosion raked across the wall as Bakugo swung his right fist. An infernal blaze bathed all before him. When the smoke cleared and the heat cooled, Izuku Midoriya stared back at him with half his mask torn asunder.

That's right. Those were the eyes Bakugo hated so much. They were not looking down. They were not cowed. They were alive.

StoP loOkIng At mE liKe tHAt.

"Deku…" Bakugo spat. "Just because he gave it to you, just because by some fluke of nature, All Might lent you his power, don't think for a second you have a chance against me!"

His right hand surged forth once more. It was a habit ingrained into his mind, one that Bakugo wasn't aware of and one he paid dearly for.

Izuku caught it by the elbow before the arm completed the swing and Bakugo felt the ground leave his feet. The world flipped for an instance before his back hit the cold hard floor and pain erupted along his spine.

But the pain was secondary to the humiliation that exploded from the pit of his stomach.

"You piece of shit!"

His palms lit ablaze and Bakugo propelled himself off the floor and straight for Izuku.

"You forgot about me, stupid."

"Not even once."

Kurumi's scarf lashed out from Bakugo's blind side. But he ducked under it at the last minute, but that gave Izuku the time to twist out of harm's way.

A momentary pause occurred as Bakugo eyed the two side by side. Kurumi still had her eye-patch on and Bakugo scoffed.

"You should have used your quirk the moment I showed up, you idiot!" Bakugo scoffed.

Kurumi bit her lips, but she made no move to remove it. Bakugo had an epiphany then.

"I was wondering why you were wearing an eyepatch all this time, but you…" Red eyes flickered with malice and the grin on Bakugo's face grew more wicked, "You're uncomfortable…No, you're afraid to use your quirk, aren't you?"

Kurumi's finger twitched and Izuku's fingers curled tighter into fists.

"That's it, isn't it! What's wrong?! Eyepatch!" Bakugo flexed his fingers, heat curling off of them, "Say something! Why aren't you using it now? You'll never beat me without using your full power, Eyepatch!"

"Bakugo…" The scarf around her neck twisted and coiled, uncertainty laced in every movement. There was no hostility, the kind of supsense before a battle that Izuku was so clearly exuding beside her at the moment.

"Don't underestimate me, Aizawa." Bakugo hissed.

"There's no point in beating you if you aren't giving it your all-"

"-That's right. Just like Deku. That's how it should be-"

"-I'll show you that some distances can never be closed-"

"-I'll show you the difference in our powers."

"It's not going to go like it used to, Kacchan!" Izuku said.

The grin on Bakugo's face twisted with genuine thrill and unadulterated hunger.

YoU wiSH.