Death Paradox 💥BAKUDEKU💥

Chapter 7

The Fool

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Chapter 7

The next morning, U.A. campus was buzzing with tension, whispers, and frantic speculation. The explosion at Ground Beta had been the talk of the entire school since sunrise. Every student, teacher, and hero-in-training was either piecing together theories or spreading rumors about what had caused the strange, reality-warping blast that had rocked the campus the day before.

Izuku and Katsuki had barely managed to slip away in the chaos, using the distraction of the arriving heroes to make their escape from Ground Beta unnoticed, sprinting back to the dorms just as the lockdown went into effect. The heroes had been quick to react to the explosion, and within minutes, U.A. security had locked down the entire campus. They had been lucky—if they'd stayed at Ground Beta even a minute longer, they would've been caught in the security sweep.

Somehow, they had avoided being spotted, slipping through the halls of Heights Alliance just before the alarms blared. It was only thanks to Katsuki's quick thinking and their sheer luck that they'd made it back unnoticed. But Izuku knew it wouldn't last forever—it was only a matter of time before someone started asking the right questions.

For now, though, the explosion hadn't been pinned on anyone. Yet.

Inside the dorm living area, the buzz of conversation was louder than usual. Students gathered in groups, their voices rising and falling as they shared their theories about what could've caused such an event. Izuku sat on one of the couches, his mind elsewhere as he pretended to listen to the chatter around him. Katsuki was nearby, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, scowling at everyone as if daring them to ask him about the incident.

"I heard it was some kind of villain attack," Kaminari said, his eyes wide with excitement as he relayed his theory to the group. "Like, they snuck onto campus and tried to test some kind of weapon. That's the only thing that makes sense, right?"

"Villains? On U.A. grounds?" Mina exclaimed, shaking her head. "Wouldn't the security system have caught them? Besides, why would they target Ground Beta? There's nothing there but old training grounds."

Kirishima, sitting beside Mina, frowned thoughtfully. "It didn't feel like a normal explosion, though. When I ran out to check it, it was like... the air itself was warping. It was super weird, like reality was bending. Maybe it wasn't a villain attack at all—maybe it was something else. Some kind of quirk experiment gone wrong?"

As the conversation buzzed around the room, a voice suddenly cut through the chatter, laced with playful curiosity. "Hey, you don't think it was them, do you?" Sero chimed in, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth as he pointed between Izuku and Katsuki. "Did you two get into one of your epic fights again? That would explain the explosion."

The room fell silent for a moment as everyone's eyes shifted toward the pair. Izuku immediately stiffened, his breath catching in his throat as all the attention zeroed in on him. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and his mind raced, scrambling for a response. Oh no, oh no, oh no, his palms growing clammier by the second. He hadn't expected this—hadn't prepared for it—and now everyone was looking at him, waiting for an answer.

"N-No, I—um, we didn't—" Izuku stammered, his voice faltering as his hands fidgeted nervously in his lap. He could feel his face heating up, and the more he tried to string together a coherent sentence, the more jumbled his thoughts became. "It wasn't... I mean, Kacchan and I didn't... we weren't even—"

Katsuki, who had been leaning against the wall with a scowl, suddenly straightened up, his fiery gaze snapping toward Sero and the rest of the group. He pushed himself off the wall, walking forward with a dangerous edge to his steps, his expression darkening. "What the hell are you saying, Tape Arms?" he growled, his voice sharp and venomous.