Something Different

30: The League

The sky had broken open, painted in strokes of ember and shadow. Bakugo stood atop a cliff edge, his ears ringing with the muffled booms of distant explosions. His palms were coated in soot, tingling with the ghost of a fight just passed. The forest below smoldered, streaked with fire and flooded with smoke, like the battlefield had exhaled its last breath.

He wiped a hand across his forehead and turned, expecting to see Izuku bounding up from the treeline with some snarky comment and a dozen injuries he didn't care to explain.

Katsuki Bakugo stood stiff as a statue, every muscle in his body taut as he stared at the darkened clearing in front of him.

Something was wrong.

He'd known it the second he heard the first explosion. Not the ones he caused—no, those were familiar and sharp. Controlled chaos. But this one was different. There was no rhythm, no reason. It was too distant from the training zones. Too close to where the brats were sleeping.

"Kirishima!" Katsuki barked, not bothering to glance back as he sprinted toward the source. "Get the others, now!"

He didn't wait to hear a reply. He didn't need to. The hairs on his arms stood up, warning him with the kind of instinct you only developed from watching the world burn around you more than once.

But Izuku wasn't there.

"Deku!" Bakugo called, stepping closer to the edge. No answer. Just the rustling of leaves and a low growl of fire devouring trees. His stomach dropped.

This wasn't right. He was supposed to be the target.

He swore under his breath and started sprinting downhill, ignoring the pain in his legs. If this was another League attack—no, it was—then Izuku would have been prepared. He had a plan. He always had a plan.

But Bakugo couldn't shake the feeling. Something was off.

Every second ticked like a bomb. He was halfway across the field when he saw it—something streaking through the sky. At first he thought it was a Nomu, maybe a piece of the forest exploding. But no. It was someone.

Someone being carried.

The shape was awkward, flailing slightly, a limp body tucked beneath clawed limbs. And Katsuki saw the hair, green and wild, catching the moonlight like tangled ivy in a storm.

Deku.

His teeth clenched.

"DEKU!" he shouted, voice raw as he vaulted over a broken log. His feet struck the dirt hard. He skidded, eyes locked on the silhouette ascending into the sky.

What the hell—how did they get past him? How the hell did Deku end up like that?

He ground his teeth together so hard his jaw popped.

"You fucking idiot..." he muttered, already veering sharply to the right, into the woods.

The League had taken Deku. And if they thought Katsuki was just going to let that slide, they were going to learn very quickly how wrong they were.

A few meters away, Aoyama was curled against a rock, shaking like a leaf. Bakugo stormed toward him, grabbing his collar.

"Where is he?! What happened to Deku?!"

Aoyama flinched. "Th-the League—they came out of nowhere—he told me to run, he was holding them off, I didn't—there was this girl—this crazy girl in a mask—and she was smiling—"

Bakugo dropped him, heart plummeting like lead. "Toga..."

Aoyama nodded. "She kept calling him... hers."