Death Paradox 💥BAKUDEKU💥

Chapter 3

Strength

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Chapter 3

Izuku squinted at the side of the aspirin bottle, the overhead light stabbing through his eyelids. The words were swimming, curling around the edges of his vision, and every attempt to focus just made the headache worse. Just like the words in his notebook he'd been trying to read for the last ten minutes—floating, doubling, blurring into each other like his brain was buffering on a bad connection.

Was it the quirk? The stress? The riddle echoing in his head like a warning bell?

Probably all—excuse his French—fucking three.

He tilted the bottle slightly, trying to catch the angle where the glare wouldn't blind him—and nearly dropped the damn thing when the door slammed open. "Crap!" he hissed, jerking upright.

Katsuki stormed into the room like a live grenade, chest heaving, eyes sharp, already mid-scowl. He didn't even glance at Izuku before turning around and slamming the door shut hard enough to rattle the frame. The muffled thump of someone on the other side was immediately followed by a chorus of confused voices.

"Wait—was that Bakugo?!"

"Why the hell is he in Midobro's room?!"

"Should we be concerned—?"

Katsuki growled low under his breath and braced a hand against the door like he was holding back a damn siege. "Nope. I'm done with pretending to be Deku today," he muttered, voice dry as gunpowder and just as ready to light.

Izuku blinked, still holding the aspirin bottle before he shoved the pills into the top drawer of his desk and closed it fast—just in case.

Katsuki didn't seem to notice.

He marched across the room and dropped himself onto the edge of the bed like he owned the place—because, to be fair, he kinda did. Katsuki had been sleeping in here since they woke up in this parallel, like moving back to his own dorm room would somehow break the fragile thread holding their reality together.

That—and Katsuki couldn't stand to be in a room filled with so much All Might merch.

Izuku was pretty sure that was part of it.

Katsuki had gone in once, stood there for maybe thirty seconds, then turned around and walked right back out without saying a word. Like the sheer volume of toothy grins and dramatic poses had physically repelled him.

So now here he was, elbows braced on his knees, notebook already in hand as he looked every bit like he belonged. Izuku didn't mind.

After a second, he flipped to another page. Then another. Then another.

"You seriously still writing this shit in that ancient language?" he grumbled, squinting like the letters were going to glow like the magic runes they'd come to know. "No wonder your head was hurting."

Izuku let out a sigh and dragged a hand down his face. "Kacchan... you can't just ignore them forever."

"I can and I will," Katsuki snapped without looking up. "They're nosy. Loud. And annoying as shit."

"That's the entire class," Izuku said, voice dry.

"Exactly."

Izuku rolled his eyes and walked to the door. The voices on the other side were still arguing, confused and semi-panicked in the way only the "Deku" squad got when left in the dark for more than five seconds.