In Loving Memory

The weird guy breaks my tile floor

The next day, after a long conversation with Nana, he left to go to U.A. He tailed behind Katsuki, who walked to the train station and took the train all the way to the U.A campus. For some reason, Katsuki was oddly quiet. He didn't even yell at the random guy who bumped into him because he was on the phone. Izuku looked at him quizzically. Granted, recently he hadn't paid as much attention to Katsuki as he had in the past because of all he had been doing, but what would have happened that would cause Katsuki of all people to go silent? Katsuki had been unusually quiet anyway for the past few months, but he usually let out one outburst in the morning. He could almost imagine Katsuki thinking to himself about how great amounts of fury were good for the soul. (Trust me, it's not.)

Izuku thought for a moment until his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice. "Hey, Bakugo! What's up?" Izuku looked up, recognizing Kirishima running full speed over to Katsuki.

"Ah. Right. Kirishima."

"You remembered my name!" Kirishima grinned.

Katsuki snorted. "Barely. What do you need?"

"Do you want to spar sometime? I saw you fighting, you seem pretty cool, and I think we could, y'know, learn from each other, I guess."

"And why would I learn anything from you? You lost miserably to that brown-haired girl. She barely knows anything about combat."

"I know I can learn something from you, and I know a think or two about combat. It just kinda seemed like she had an advantage then, but even if I can't help you learn something, I can certainly take a few hits." Kirishima grinned brightly, the kind of smile that lit up the room.

Katsuki raised an eyebrow. "You're offering to be a punching bag? And to think I thought more of you. I've known plenty of people that don't fight back against bad people." Katsuki's expression half-faltered. "They don't turn out alright. So if you want to spar, you're gonna have to fight back."

"Always do." Kirishima's toothy grin reappeared.

"Fine. I'll set up some time to spar with you," Katsuki finally relented. Kirishima cheered.

"Alright, man! Looking forward to it!"

"Mm." Katsuki nodded, seeming indifferent to the redhead. However, Izuku noticed a flash of something in his eyes. Katsuki found this boy to be interesting, enough to pay attention to for a little bit. However, unlike the kind of look Izuku was used to, the kind of look Katsuki had when he had found someone he could beat up, he seemed to be genuinely curious about how this would turn out. Izuku smiled. If this all worked out, Katsuki would have a genuine friend. He hadn't had one in a while, but whenever he did, he was a lot gentler on the people around him. Ochako would likely be a lot safer from his outbursts! And even better, Katsuki would be happy. And this, readers, is why Izuku needs therapy from a ghost therapist who would listen to the 'funny stories' from Izuku about Katsuki, stare at him for a few seconds, click their ghost pen and scribble something down.

Katsuki entered the class 1-A classroom and the rest of the class filed in. Iida, as usual however, was already there. Katsuki roughly sat in his seat, and so the day began. It was dull, at first, and soon it was time to head to lunch. Ochako was talking with some of the other girls. They were chatting about going to the mall after school and maybe studying after that. A support course student and Kaminari were excitedly chatting, and Shinso walked alongside both of them, listening to them talk. Katsuki however, was still silent. Kirishima was walking next to him, but Katsuki didn't even acknowledge his presence.

They entered the lunchroom that had just started to be filled and every student went to go order some food, everyone except for the ghosts in the room. Of course, ghosts came and went all over the place. He saw them on the street, in his neighborhood, heck, one or two had come into his mom's apartment by accident. So, it was a given that some of them would be here at the school. Most of the ghosts there were students or heroes. Some of them looked so close to the living that Izuku almost thought they were alive. However, they were still ghosts, just like Izuku was. Izuku watched the idyllic scene in front of him as students chatted and ate the food they had ordered. Only the first year students ate for this lunch period, considering the size of the school, but even then a lot of people were there already. He sighed, a little miserable about the reminder. He turned to leave the room and explore the rest of the school, but a sight caught his attention.