The good news was his backpack had cushioned the fall. He would make a full recovery.
The bad news was that it would take about a year.
Unlike most wounds which could be healed incredibly well and quickly with the use of strong healing Quirks, his spine had landed awkwardly on his bag and had done some nerve damage to him. Thanks to their advanced technology, he wasn't at risk of being permanently paralyzed or anything like that. He just needed a longer period of time to recover.
Izuku sighed as he was wheeled out of the hospital. A whole year. It was such a large setback that he was at a loss for words. All his plans to hide away in Takoba crafting, cleaning, and training had gone totally out the window exactly like he himself had.
That was only the first of it. His future plans being in shambles was the least prevalent issue laboring him, as the problems with Bakugou he tried keeping in obscurity had become known to all, literally blowing up in his face far more severely than their first conflict.
It went well above their parents being contacted. Not only the entire school board, but the police and detectives were getting involved in this one. A crime had been committed, after all.
There were so many people Izuku had to talk with, and it didn't help that classmates were trying to contact him so they could get the gossip firsthand straight from the horse's mouth. Other students contacting him before UA and trying to get his personal info had been a first. So many phone numbers he couldn't recognize hitting up his phone. Not one to forgo his diligence despite injury, he felt obligated to answer the calls.
It was for the best his mother stepped in and took his phone away before he could say much.
An inkling of hope dwelled within Izuku that Tsukauchi would be one of the people to show up and speak with him. Maybe then, he could form a direct line of communication with All Might and finally contact him earlier. Of course, there was no such luck in that.
This world was really starting to hate him.
Typical bad luck aside, Izuku did everything he could so that the ordeal wouldn't go to court. There were numerous reasons, of course, with the setback and headache being his own primary one. That and he didn't have any real spite towards Bakugou. This might've been the first time the boy had went so far as to kill him, but it really didn't bother him much.
He was used to the boy's emotional outbursts that often went too far. While it was no excuse for Bakugou to do what he did, Izuku remained as mature and considerate as he could. He knew more than anyone that Bakugou could truly be a phenomenal hero given the time and growth, and he didn't want to take that away from him. Regardless of his own thoughts on the matter, others had been surprisingly furious.
For once in his life, people were on his side.
Apparently, Bakugou had been a big nuisance towards other people for a long time. Izuku knew the explosive boy had always been a problem, but it seemed his defeat years ago had made him vindictive in a way that he actively prowled around for victims. Instead of a green-haired punching bag at his disposal, he victimized plenty of other weaker kids in secret, all who'd come out against the boy after the incident. His popularity wasn't very genuine after all, coming back to bite him heinously.
That upset Izuku a lot to find that out. He hated that Bakugou was getting away with stuff like that under his nose. If the school hadn't ordered him to separate himself and put him in a frame of mindset to avoid the blonde, he could've jumped in to stop that. At least then, maybe Bakugou's fury could have been quelled earlier and wouldn't have boiled over enough for this to happen.
That's why Izuku felt partially responsible. Bakugou might have been the one to snap, but his decisions and negligence had indirectly led to that. And with so many people now against the boy, he felt that he could be the only one to try having his back.
People were finally on his side, and it was only when he didn't want them to.
Downplaying their conflict only did so much. His mother Inko was furious, and even Bakugou's parents were horrified by what happened. They couldn't believe what their son had done. Forget minor scuffles or their own past where Izuku had beaten him up. None of that mattered when the boy used his deadly Quirk in such an outrageous way - blowing up a chunk of the school bathroom to harm a Quirkless person.
It was such an easy win. All he had to do was cry and state exactly what happened. He wouldn't even have to lie, and this would all be over. It would satisfy so many people, finally putting the bully in his place.
But the battle wasn't worth it. Too much effort, and too much time, for too little to gain. Bakugou might never go on to be a hero, and he may never see him again.
He just couldn't do that to him. Vengeance wasn't in his nature.
Speaking of Bakugou... he was fine.
After Izuku had jumped out of the window after him, he'd made sure to take the hit of the landing. He could tell Bakugou's hands were in no condition to catch himself, which he also knew he didn't yet possess that strength in the first place.
The ordeal sort of reminded him of the time back in Kamino, where he had told Kirishima to be the one to call out to Bakugou in his place. He'd done that solely to avoid a situation like this, where Bakugou would refuse his hand.
No Kirishima in his corner this time.
The blonde had only sustained minor injuries, the worse mainly being in his strained hands. With Izuku's damaging fall and burned hand, it only served as more fuel against the boy.
Having stating his plea for the boy to the officers and detective who interviewed him at the hospital, Izuku could only hope this could play out as well as they could in a situation like this. He wasn't sure what else to make of it, mainly lamenting his failures and oversights.
Nothing could ever go right. Every avenue he trailed down had an abysmal end.
He was nicer and more helpful to everyone in school; they avoid him more than ever. He stays away from Bakugou so they wouldn't have as much strife like the first time; their issues are far worse than they ever had been.
Things had to change and soon. This couldn't keep happening. It wouldn't. His efforts weren't going to waste.
He would keep trying. No matter how things went, or how many times fate knocked him down, he would keep getting back up. That's why he was here.
Refusing to forget the lessons his past had taught him, Izuku repeated an old mantra instilled into him by an old friend no longer around. Words he identified with, and would continue identifying with forever.
Deku does not mean useless. Deku means you can do it.
No matter what happened, he could still do it.