My Hero Academia: Ruby and Emerald

Chapter 5: Older Bakugou Katsuki POV

Katsuki looked Tsukauchi up and down critically. He looked a lot better than he did back… or, well, in the future. His face was clean-shaven, for one. Tsukauchi caught his gaze and raised an eyebrow.

“How the hell did you beat us here, anyway? Deku called you when we were already on the train,” Katsuki asked.

“Well, I was just going to finish what I was doing and drive, but then I got a strange text from Yagi, here. So I suppose you could say I took the express route.”

“Tch. That makes sense, I guess,” Katsuki conceded.

Nedzu led their group into the building, and then to the elevator. They all fit, but it was an uncomfortable squeeze. Baby Katsuki was visibly uncomfortable, but he also wasn’t exploding anything, so Katsuki supposed that was as much as he could ask for.

They all spilled out once the elevator stopped. Yagi hadn’t stopped sending suspicious glances towards Deku and Baby Deku the whole time. The rat led them into his office, then locked the door.

“Okay! This room is soundproof, radiation-proof, quirk-proof, and generally as secure as I could reasonably get it! Now we can discuss things freely!” he said excitedly.

“You said you’re next,” Yagi demanded instantly, rounding on Deku, voice hard.

“I am. Please remember that we are from the future,” Deku requested. He turned to address Baby Deku. “How old are you, exactly?”

“I’m thirteen,” Baby Deku answered easily.

“So I am from about twelve years in the future,” Deku declared, spinning back around to face Yagi.

“You can’t keep going forever, old man. You knew this was coming,” Katsuki said remorselessly.

“Kacchan!” Deku gasped, scandalized.

“I suppose… I just thought I had more time,” Yagi sighed. “I suppose you know about it, as well?”

“I do,” Katsuki agreed, steadfastly avoiding Nedzu’s beady gaze.

“Know about what, assholes?” Baby Katsuki yelled.

“Perhaps it would be best if you started from the beginning. Can you give us a summary of how you got here?” Nedzu requested, setting his tea down delicately. When had he even gotten tea?

“We were fighting a villain. A newbie on the scene, calling herself Vanish. We nearly had cuffs on her when she unexpectedly lunged and caught both of us in her quirk. There was no evidence to suggest that her quirk had anything to do with time travel; she didn’t even seem to know. We were just suddenly standing face-to-face with our fuckin’ baby versions,” Katsuki reported dutifully.

“You’re rather… dirty, for having come from a villain fight. I can’t imagine a time-travel quirk causing that level of damage,” Tsukauchi pointed out.

“She had a five-point-touch quirk. It worked on inorganic materials, but there was no debris around us when we appeared here, so I don’t know where it’s going. She used her quirk to simulate what we thought was a fairly routine building collapse. Neither one of us expected it to be a trap,” Deku explained.

“Um, if I could, Principal Nedzu?” Baby Deku interjected.

“Yes?”

“Before my older self and Kacchan’s older self appeared in the park, there was a strange effect in the air… it drew our attention. It looked like a heat haze, except it was outlined in white lightning. It only lasted a few seconds,” Baby Deku explains.

“Interesting! Thank you, young man,” Nedzu cheered.

“I’m more interested in what could possibly make a building collapse routine,” Yagi asked. And shit. That was something that All Might would know about, with how many disaster zones he helped in.

“The future…” Deku hesitated.

“The future is shit. Your fuckin’ shadow war comes into the light and proceeds to kick our asses. Lucky for you, you now have us. We’re the fuckin’ Wonder Duo, y’hear? The Symbols of Hope and Victory!” Katsuki proclaimed. Deku turned to look at him with heart eyes. Hell yeah.

Baby Deku burst into tears. What the fuck.

“You’re not making that up? You’re being serious?” Baby Deku asked, a tinge desperate.

Oh, right. Baby Deku was still a stick with a brain full of dreams but not much skill. Of course it would surprise him that he was any kind of Symbol.

“What, you think I’m a fuckin’ liar?” Katsuki demanded. Tsukauchi sighed.

“Midoriya-kun, I can assure you that what he said was true. That is what I’m here for,” the detective said. Fuck yeah. This made Baby Deku cry harder, but these were good tears so Katsuki guessed it was fine. Other than Deku, though, every adult in the room looked pretty uncomfortable.

“I’m the Symbol of Victory?” Baby Katsuki asked. Oh, right. This would be news to him too.

“Well I sure as shit ain’t the Symbol of Hope,” Katsuki snapped.

“Kacchan, calm down,” Deku requested, softly. He crouched down next to Baby Deku and ran his hand up and down his back lightly. “Hey, hey. I know everything is a little overwhelming right now, but can you reign it in a little? You’re not going to learn anything else here if you exhaust yourself crying.”

Miraculously, it seems to work. Baby Deku takes some deep breaths, and wipes at his eyes, and it’s not instant, but he stops crying and straightens up.

“Thank god,” Baby Katsuki mutters, under his breath. Katsuki decides he’ll let that one slide, but only because Baby Deku didn’t seem to hear it.

“You’re both a Symbol?” Yagi asked.

“Yeah. We’re hero partners, anyway, and…”

“And the Symbol title kind of took off for the more prominent members of our class, after All Might retired. Society replaced one Symbol with many,” Katsuki finished for him.

“And what made me choose you, young man?” Yagi turned to Deku and narrowed his eyes in consideration.

“There was… a situation. And I asked you if I could be a hero. You, uh, you said no. But, I rushed in to save my friend anyway—my body moved before I could think. You recognized that, and I suppose you just liked me? And so you made the offer,” Deku explains. Tsukauchi pays careful attention, nodding every time that Yagi looks over at him.

“Probably helped that you recognized yourself in him,” Katsuki interjects. Deku flushes bright red.

“Kacchan!” he hisses.

“What? Quirkless, dreamer, self-sacrificial, prone to overworking, smiling while you fight…”

“Okay, only one of those is actually trying to mimic Toshinori! And he’s just mimicking Nana, anyway, so—”

“So you both mimic your mentors, too,” Katsuki shrugged.

“Kacchan!” Deku squealed.

“I’m confused?” Baby Deku tentatively said.

“Yeah, me too! You brought us in here because Scarecrow’s quirk is top secret or some shit, and now you’re telling me he’s quirkless? What the hell are we even here for!” Baby Katsuki screeches.

“Uh! Your younger self makes a good point, Kacchan! We’re not really here to convince Toshinori about his successor!”

“No, we are. If it’s not you, it shouldn’t be anybody.”

“Principal Nedzu! Because we are from the future, we need legal identities to continue going forwards! As alumni of UA, we were hoping you would be willing to help us!” Deku requested, bowing politely.

“Well, it certainly seems like an interesting challenge! I would be delighted to help! Of course, I will need some more details from you in order to craft you something that looks real,” Nedzu cackled.

“Of course! What do you need to know?” Izuku asked, enthusiastically.

Nedzu grinned.

To be continued...