Chapter Text
Bakugou Katsuki, aged 5, acquired his quirk while playing in the park with Midoriya Izuku, aged 4, a week after his 5th birthday. It was Katsuki's turn to play the villain; he had his leg on a big rock, laughing loudly and trying to sound intimidating to Izuku.
"Behold, I am the Great... wait, what should my villain name be?" Katsuki asked Izuku, knowing he'd come up with one quickly.
"Hmm... how about 'The Great Villain: Recluse'? It sounds like someone who's strong and doesn't get caught by heroes." Izuku responded quickly, with a reason why he picked the name as well. Katsuki responded to the name with a nod, cleared his throat, and continued to play just like before the sudden question.
"I am The Great Villain: Recluse, and I am here to destroy everything in my way to be the greatest villain there is! And nothing will stop me! Not even the likes of you heroes!" The two of them continued to play heroes and villains while their mothers chatted at the park benches.
"You know, Inko, I don't understand how they have so much energy. Hell, I wish I had that much energy; I'd be able to clean my entire house in a day without much effort!" Mitsuki, Katsuki's mother, spoke with vigor as she complained to Inko, Izuku's mother, about how her days have gone. Minutes passed like seconds as the mothers spoke, until they heard a loud explosion. Mitsuki was all too familiar with the noise since Masaru, her husband and the father of Katsuki, has the quirk acid sweat, which allows him to secrete acidic sweat with combustive properties from the palms of his hands; however, he cannot forcibly secrete it, and it comes out like normal sweat. If he rubs his hands together, then he can create explosions. Knowing this, Mitsuki stood up quicker than she ever had as she ran to her child, immediately knowing he had gotten his quirk but unsure if he or Izuku was safe from the aftermath.
"Katsuki! Hey! What happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Mitsuki was frantic, trying to see if Katsuki was hurt. Both of the boys were on the ground seemingly uninjured, until you looked at their ears, and Katsuki's hands and arms. Both of their ears were bleeding from the loud blast and the explosion. Katsuki's hand and forearms were bleeding with small, deep cuts like they had been hit with shrapnel. Inko was right behind Mitsuki when she ran to the boys, while she was checking Izuku, Mitsuki was taking off her light purple jacket and ripping it in two by using a tiny hole she accidentally made earlier that morning. Inko didn't notice any bleeding on Izuku other than his ears, and that he looked a little disoriented. She picked Izuku up and went and grabbed both hers and Mitsuki's bags. Mitsuki, on the other hand, was trying to settle Katsuki, who had started to cry as the pain of the cuts and slight burns on his hands started to grow worse, and the adrenaline was running short just as quickly.
Mitsuki picked up Katsuki, and with Inko right behind her, they ran two blocks to the nearest hospital. Thank god they both decided to go to the park closest to the hospital, just in case something happened, not that they believed anything major would happen till today, that is. When they reached the hospital, the children were taken aback immediately. Mitsuki stayed back so she could call Masaru to tell him what happened. Inko went with the kids to keep them calm. Katsuki had the worst of the injuries since he was the one who created the explosion, and he had burns on his hands and small, deep cuts all over his arms, and had damaged his hearing in both of his ears, not enough for hearing aids but enough to keep an eye on as to make sure they don't get worse. Izuku had his left ear, the one closest to Katsuki at the time, damaged, taking the brunt of the damage, as Katsuki's hands were near his ear, causing him to lose most of the hearing in that ear and needing to wear a hearing aid for the rest of his life.
Once Mitsuki went back to the room the boys shared, since they didn't want to leave each other, Masaru was with her, causing Katsuki to stand up and run to Masaru and hug him, tears welling in his eyes like he was going to cry again. Masaru picked Katsuki up and rocked him side to side to calm him. He spoke softly as he calmed Katsuki, calling his nickname that played off his name, and he ended up asking how this happened.
"Hey, Kitty Kat... can you tell me how this happened?" Masaru asked, knowing he'd most likely not get an answer. Instead, he was answered with Katsuki burying his head into Masaru's shoulder. Masaru just sighed and accepted Katsuki wasn't going to answer him. Izuku sat on the bed, getting used to the difference in sound in his left ear and his right.
"Um... we were playing heroes and villains... when Kacchan and I finished playing, he started clapping and then... all of a sudden an explosion happened..." Izuku spoke softly and quietly, taking a break in between words to sniffle. Masaru concluded in that moment when Izuku mentioned that Katsuki had clapped, that the explosion had happened. Could it have been his quirk that Katsuki had picked up on, but that wouldn't make fully sense. Katsuki was rubbing his eyes right now. Masaru can't do that, he'd create sparks because of the sweat on his hands colliding with friction. There had to be another element that played a factor. Maybe he got Mitsuki's quirk, where she can choose to secrete nitroglycerin from her body. So if that was the case, then he accidentally secreted nitroglycerin sweat that ended up sparking when he clapped his hands, creating an explosion. Masaru ended up proposing the idea out loud to Mitsuki, since they would have to go to a specialist to get his quirk and details checked later, then it wouldn't hurt to theorize his quirk for a few minutes.
"Could it be possible that Kat, with the combination of both of our quirks, had secret nitroglycerin sweat and when he hit his hands together, caused a spark which turned into an explosion?" The two women stared in shock that Masaru could even begin to think of the possibilities of how Katsuki's quirk had come out and in such a short time, with only knowing he had clapped, and the explosion happened.
"I sure hope Katsuki gets your smarts, hun..." Mitsuki placed a hand on Masaru's empty right shoulder, accepting the fact that her husband was leagues ahead of her in smarts. She often wondered why he never applied himself in school, instead, he went around picking fights and skipping class to smoke on the roof. What a 180 he did when Mitsuki got pregnant... but that story is for another time. A couple of minutes passed before the doctor came in with the release forms and to make sure that the bandages were on properly, and to give them a slip for antibiotics at the pharmacy.
"Well it seems everything is good to go, all I need for you is make sure Katsuki here doesn't use his quirk while he heals and for you to take him to a specialist to get his quirk registered, sadly this hospital isn't compatible to provide that for you but if you ask up front at the desk they'll give you the address to the specialist near nearest to here. And here is the note for the antibiotics for the cuts, and please make sure the stitches don't snap or fall out, we wouldn't want him in any more pain. And for Izuku, he'll need to go to an audiologist to see how to get a hearing aid and to determine if he needs surgery to fix his hearing." The doctor explained calmly and efficiently to the two families, handing both the moms the release form for them to leave. After the moms filled out the forms and handed them to the doctor, they gathered the bags they brought and left the room and almost forgetting to ask for the address of the specialists they needed to meet with. They walked to the fork in the road where their homes separated and stood there making plans for the next playdate before finally going their separate ways and heading home after the eventful day they had.
The kids had daycare the next day, Monday, but both families decided it would be a good day to let the kids rest and plan when they'd go see the doctors and specialists, which for Katsuki he would go so the quirk specialist Tuesday, Inko would have the same idea and take Izuku to the audiologist Tuesday as well to get it out the way. So the next time, the kids who rarely wanted to be separated, to the point where Mitsuki and Masaru offered for Inko to move in with them, so the boys would stop whining and crying about separating, it would be Wednesday, and they would have to be careful playing because of their injuries.
Wednesday was a tiring day, Katsuki couldn't play heroes and villains since he couldn't horseplay and get hurt, so he stuck to being inside drawing or getting read a book or comic by one of the teachers. The teachers were told to keep an eye on both of them because of the accident that happened on Sunday. Izuku was especially tired, he had just got his new hearing aid to try it out and he kept getting headaches or it'd be too loud and it would make his ear ring and even at one point the kids were being to loud and his ear started ringing but he didn't want to bother the teacher so he just sat there silently crying covering his ear. Katsuki noticed and moved closer, hugging him and calming him down, and ended up removing his hearing aid instead of just leaving it there like Izuku had. By the time Izuku started to calm down, one of the teachers noticed Katsuki close to Izuku and walked over to see what was happening, which Katsuki explained in a pissy tone, knowing the teacher should have taken note of Izuku crying instead of just Katsuki hugging him, since they hug all the time. Other than Izuku's ears hurting and Katsuki watching over him, feeling slightly guilty for causing Izuku to go through all the pain he was experiencing, it was either boring or annoying getting asked the same questions over and over again.
When Katsuki and Izuku were walking home together, Katsuki was talking like he usually does until he suddenly stopped and realized that he never told Izuku, his best friend who looks up to him, his quirk. He felt a little disappointed in himself before he started excitedly telling Izuku about his newfound quirk.
"Oh my Quirk! So my quirk is called Explosion, I can create explosions from my sweat! It's like what Dad said Sunday! I have a mix of both my parents' quirks. My sweat that I can produce on command is made of nitro... nitroglyc...erin... nitroglycerin! Yeah, made up of nitroglycerin! Which is very umm, what'd the doctor say... oh flammy-ble! Which is why I create explosions! Well, that's what the doctor said." Katsuki spoke ecstatically, struggling to pronounce some words but still extremely advanced for a five-year-old.
"Wow! Kacchan, that's amazing! You're going to make a great hero!" Izuku was extremely happy as he talked. At one point, he started rambling and asking an enormous number of questions. Later on the next week, Izuku would show up at Katsuki's for a playdate that had to be moved inside because it started raining. He had a notebook written 将来の為のヒーロー分析 No.01 or 'Hero Analysis For The Future No.01'. The first page said that the book belonged to Midoriya Izuku. If found, bring it to __________ Japan, or call XXX-XXX-XXXX. The next page had Bakugou Katsuki written big at the top of the page. The entire playdate was spent putting Katsuki's information on the page and drawing illustrations of an explosion and a tiny drawing of Katsuki.
Years passed, Katsuki was 10 now, with Izuku trailing behind him, being 9, and shortly turning 10 soon. Izuku got his quirk later than others, but still got one. At 7, he found out his quirk was 'Fire Control'; he could breathe a green fire that he could manipulate, and he recently found out he could control other fires, not just his own. When he got his quirk, he knew before he even breathed fire, his hair turned a glowing greenish-blue, and soon after, he would cough, and a greenish-blue color came out with a lot of smoke, causing him to cough more until he finally coughed pure greenish-blue fire. He was in the middle of class, which he found extremely embarrassing, but out of nowhere, Katsuki jumped on Izuku and hugged him, happy he got his quirk, which caused Izuku to breathe out in panic, making him breathe out more fire. His desk had to be replaced by the end of the day because it was extremely charred. Izuku and Katsuki were just happy to be able to train together.
When they finally entered Middle school, they knew how to work as a duo, they had power moves, they could perform moves with their eyes closed, that's how much they trained, but Katsuki was hiding a big secret. A secret that could end his hero career before it even starts. He started getting burns on his hands and couldn't feel his hands even after days of not using his quirk. He wouldn't be able to use his quirk; his hearing was getting worse. It was bad enough that if someone was yelling, it'd sound like they were talking normally, if they talked normally, it would be a whisper, and if they whispered, he couldn't tell what they said. His eyes were worsening as well from the brightness of the explosions. To help with the pain and to lessen the scarring, he would put compression gloves and burn cream. He refused to show his hands and secretly bought the cream, over-the-counter pain medicine, and the compression gloves. For his eyes, he did go and get glasses to be able to do his schoolwork, he felt like he shouldn't get help, he felt like he deserved this pain for not being better, so he had to be better, so he could be the best.
Until his best wouldn't be achievable anymore. He was training one day with Izuku, everything was going well, except for the intense burning pain in his hands and the ringing of his ears, which was more painful than usual. Katsuki chalked it up to training harder than usual. Izuku ended up noticing the pain in Katsuki's face, how could he not, after all, he's been his best friend since birth. Izuku immediately stopped the training, walking up to Katsuki, and going to see if something was wrong. When Izuku walked up to Katsuki, he immediately started to check Katsuki all over for injuries. Katsuki, trying not to get caught with how injured his hands are he started acting like his leg was hurting.
"Izuku, I just hurt my leg. I'm fine." Katsuki acted like his normal self and pushed Izuku's worry away like he usually does when Izuku worries. Izuku seemed not to believe him, but shrugged and gave him the benefit of the doubt, and went back to training.
"If you say so, Kacchan... You want to stop for today or continue?" Izuku asked, not wanting Katsuki to hurt more than he's already hurting. Katsuki just put his hands up in a sparing stance, ready to blast an explosion towards Izuku. Izuku sighed and put himself in a fighting stance as well, and charged towards Katsuki, spewing greenish-blue fire out of his throat, not directly aiming to hurt Katsuki, but just enough to simulate a dangerous attack. Katsuki decided to dodge and punch Izuku in the gut and backed up for distance. After he gave some distance, seemingly at the same time, both of them sent out an attack, both of them sending an attack with their quirk, both dodging, and then the next thing Izuku sees is Katsuki holding his hands, holding in a scream to not alarm his parents.
Izuku stops and stands before running over to Katsuki, who was on the ground, clutching his hands doubled over. When Izuku started to ask what was wrong, but ended up seeing that Katsuki had lost two fingers and his thumb was missing on his right hand, and his left hand was missing one finger and as well as his thumb. Izuku didn't say anything; he just took off his shirt and covered both of his hands with the cloth, and had Katsuki stand up. Izuku stood there for a second, scanning the area for the fingers, but didn't spot anything but blood. Izuku rushed Katsuki inside and told his mom that they needed to go to the hospital and that Katsuki ended up having a quirk accident, which is rare and most don't even believe in them, that it's so rare, it only happens when the person's quirk is too much for the their body, which is usual caught at a young age but due to Katsuki hiding the side effects and due to the protective layer on his skin slowly breaking down over time, they didn't catch it.
Katsuki was being dragged to the hospital by Izuku, since Izuku was panicking, he didn't have a choice in being dragged or not. Once they reached the hospital, they took him back, and Izuku went with him. Once they reached the room, Izuku made a silent call to Masaru, telling him what had happened. Within a few minutes, Inko was walking through the room door while they were trying to stop the bleeding enough to stitch him up. Inko just sat in one of the chairs in the room and started feeling out paperwork as they were fixing Katsuki's hand. Masaru shows up in the room just as they finish stitching up Katsuki's hand. Katsuki had sat there blank-faced as the doctor wrapped his hand for the burns, fresh and old. Katsuki stared at the floor until he felt someone hug him. When he realized it was his dad, he started crying and didn't stop. His dad was the only one he could openly cry into his arms and not feel awkward afterward, and he was grateful for him being there.