Professor Paradox

Chapter 29: Issues Revealed

....

"Sell them?
It's not like I need the extra money. But I'd hate to see these go to waste. Fine. Having some extra pocket money doesn't hurt"
Midoriya thought to himself, walking over to a cabinet in his classroom to grab some additional supplies.

"hey professor"
Bakugo said, walking in with his gold medal proudly on his neck.

"hello Bakugo, what brings you here? Shouldn't you be celebrating with your friends and family?"
Midoriya asked, grabbing the basket of supplies and bringing them over to the basket of agents.

"My friends went on to celebrate with their families."
Bakugo replied, pulling up a seat at a desk and sitting down.

"And your family? Why don't you celebrate with them?"
Midoriya asked, glancing over at Bakugo. He noticed the shift of discomfort in his face.

"My mom is busy with work. My dad..."
Bakugo paused, debating whether or not he were to say anything. He sighed, "he died when I was younger"
He said, looking away from Midoriya.

Silence struck the air, Midoriya didn't know what to exactly say to that and Bakugo didn't know how to continue the conversation from that point on.

Midoriya turned around to face him completely, "I'm sorry for your loss. I understand the feeling. Your father would've been proud of you and I'm sure your mother is proud, even if she can't come and celebrate with you today."
He said, a solemn look on his face.

Bakugo shook his head, "it's whatever. I barely remember the old man anyway" he grumbled as he turned to face Midoriya, though it was clear his eyes were stinging with tears.

"grief is a normal aspect of life. Don't correlate sadness with weakness. It's okay if you're still sad over your father's death."
Midoriya said with a bit of heavy air.

"don't pity me. I hate it. I told you it's whatever so drop it"
Bakugo said, a bit annoyed.

Midoriya scoffed a bit, "you know. At least your grief eventually comes to an end."
Bakugo stood there, confused for a second before Midoriya continued.
"The death you will see In your life time will make you sad. You'll see your family pass, your friends, your pets, people you didn't know.. as long as you're alive that is. The last death you'll see will be your own and by then the grief will be over."
Midoriya explained, and despite the fact he was looking at Bakugo, his eyes seemed to be distant.

"Tch-"

"But that's enough about death and grief.
Today's a day for you to celebrate for 2 reasons"
Midoriya said, coming back to the main point of the conversation.

"Huh, what?"

"Well the obvious one being that you won the sports festival.
The second not so obvious one is the fact that you displayed characteristics that will scare my brother away for a long while."
Midoriya replied, a small smile evident on his ever so stoic face.

"Great!"
Bakugo grinned, the smile basically took up half of his face.

"My brother does not like strongly willed people, moreso- when it comes to strong wills in a direction he doesn't like.
He won't be able to manipulate you the way he'd want and use you for his work- he doesn't like that. Today you displayed that not only were you strongly willed, but also in a way that he can't use against you. Persistencing that Todoroki should use his flames just to blow him up, yeah that definitely worried him.

That's a milestone.
That's worth being proud of.
That is worth celebrating.
So go celebrate.

There won't be another chance like this again where you won't be focused on training. Take the day"
Midoriya said, waving his hand off as he turned back around to focus on repackaging the agents.