Two days. Two days had passed since Bakugo woke up in this nightmare. Somehow, against all logic, he had gone back in time — more than a year, to be precise. It was ten months before the U.A. entrance exam, and only one day after the incident with the sludge villain, when All Might rescued him from having… his body possessed. Just remembering that moment already made his fists clench.
At first, he thought it could be a dream. But when he punched the wall hard, the pain that shot up through his fingers was far too real to be a dream.
That left him with few options, all equally disturbing: Either he had really died and was stuck in some bizarre limbo between life and death… or this was an illusion created by Shigaraki to mess with his head. Which meant he was still alive, trapped in that hellish battlefield.
'Or I really did go back in time, which makes no sense at all.' Bakugo ran a hand through his hair, messing it up even more as he walked through the busy city streets, where people laughed carefreely, walking without fear and living their lives peacefully.
There were also heroes everywhere. Some waving at children with eyes shining with admiration. Others helping the elderly cross the street. There were even those chasing half-baked thieves with a smile on their face. Everything was so… normal. So calm. So perfect. So wrong.
And all of this was almost driving Bakugo insane. 'These people… are dead in the future?' Who was still alive and who had already died? That woman carrying shopping bags — was she crushed during Gigantomachia's destruction across the country? That hero playing with a child — was he one of the first to be torn apart against the Nomus? Or was he a traitor? Just waiting for the order from the Meta Liberation Army to rebel.
Insane. What was happening to him was… simply insane.
***********
After a few more minutes of torturous walking, Bakugo finally arrived at his destination.
'Who was the idiot that turned this place into a dump?' he wondered, looking in disgust at the mountain of debris that covered Dagoba Beach. There was everything there — rusty refrigerators, broken sofas, moldy tires, even smashed appliances. It was a true graveyard of discarded objects, that would surely take dozens of people to clean up.
Which made it even more impressive that the nerd had done it all alone in ten months.
But it was funny, almost ironic, that this place was Izuku's starting point. 'From trash to the world's only hope, huh, Izuku?' Bakugo closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly before turning around and starting to walk away.
********
[4 months later]
BAM!— BOOM!
The sound of a refrigerator door colliding against a tree reverberated through the forest, followed by an explosion that made the ground shake. Metal shards and splinters of wood flew in all directions, while the air filled with smoke and dust.
Panting and with sweat running down his entire body, Bakugo slowly lowered his arms, analyzing what was left of the door and the tree now split in half. "Still too weak…." He evaluated the result, full of frustration and contempt for himself.
"You will never be more than a shadow following One For All."
"Still too weak!" With a quick movement, Bakugo spun on his heels and headed for the pile of debris he had collected from what Izuku had already removed from Dagoba Beach.
In the last four months, he had dedicated himself to relentless training, testing every limit of his body and quirk. His day practically revolved around waking up, going to school, picking up the heaviest debris at the beach and bringing them deep into the forest, where he began a series of exercises with his quirk. The goal of this was not only to regain as quickly as possible the strength he had in the future, but to surpass it. He needed to surpass himself. He had to be more.
BOOOMM!
Ever since Izuku awakened Blackwhip, Bakugo had known he was being left behind. And after the battle in Jaku, the distance between them grew even more, to the point where he could only watch as Izuku became something greater.
When he created Cluster, Bakugo believed, for a brief moment, that he could fight side by side with Izuku as equals. But the fight against Shigaraki destroyed that illusion. It was there that he realized—and the villain made sure to rub it in his face—that he was nothing.
BOOOMM!
Just a burden. Dead weight. A pawn in All For One's hands to be used to get to Izuku. His entire journey, all his training, reduced to this. He was not enough. Not to help Izuku, not to support the other heroes who fought by his side.
BOOOMM!
"Haah… haah… haah…" In a trance, Bakugo kept blowing up debris, not noticing time passing until his body gave in and he collapsed, panting on the ground, his arms trembling from exhaustion. 'Mirko, Edgeshot, Manual, Hado, Togata, Amajiki, Monoma… Aizawa and Best Jeanist.' Those who fought by his side managed to survive after he fell? Did Izuku arrive in time to save them?
And the others who trusted him? 'Kaminari, Yaoyorozu and everyone else who were maintaining the 'Coffin in the Sky.' 'Did they manage to escape? Did someone get hurt? Are they all alive?'
No matter how much he tried to push those thoughts away, they always came back stronger. Bakugo couldn't stop imagining that the world went on after his fall. That Izuku arrived and saw him bleeding on the ground, with his chest open.
'Knowing how that nerd is, he must have lost his mind and charged at Shigaraki without thinking of himself,' Bakugo thought with a bitter smile. 'Damn… I may have been the reason we lost… everyone may have died because of my incompetence—' Bakugo shook his head to drive that line of thought away and let out an irritated sigh. Being stuck on what might have happened wouldn't get him anywhere.
Forcing himself to get up, Bakugo ignored the exhaustion and the pain in his hands caused by the hours using his quirk. 'Focus only on what matters, Katsuki. I need to bring my body and quirk back to the level they were before I died — all within these ten months.'
*********
Did you like it? Then take a look at my other two stories: The Scourge Born of Air (Avatar: The Last Airbender) and Stranger Things: Worlds Collide.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or songs featured in this fic. Additionally, I do not claim ownership of any products or properties mentioned in this novel. This work is entirely fanfic.