Death Paradox 💥BAKUDEKU💥

Chapter 14

Katsuki Bakugo – Journal Entry
Parallel – Quirk Swap
Fuck Fate

You don't know what you've got until it's not there anymore. I used to think that was just shit people said to make grief sound poetic. To feel better about failing to hold on.                             
But turns out it's true and I fucking hate how well I understand it now.                                  
Fatebreaker's done a real damn good job of showing me what that feels like. How it really feels—to love something so much you forget it's not permanent.                                                            Until it isn't.                                                    
I didn't think silence could scream. But this one does. Loud enough I can't sleep. Loud enough I keep thinking I'll hear your voice crack through it.                                                                            You weren't supposed to go first.                         
And not like that, not without a sound... not without me.                                                         
I told you not to be a hero, Izuku, and now there's just a hole where you should be.

THE HERMIT

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Chapter 14

After a few more minutes of arguing, and a whole lot of side-eye, Katsuki didn't have the patience for, both he and Izuku had signed the damn agreement—big surprise. The fine print was about as friendly as a landmine, but it wasn't like they had a better option. And of course, just to really brighten his fucking day, there it was: stamped right at the top of his page, half-hidden in the watermark.

A symbol.

Subtle, clean, and circular at first glance, but with jagged inkwork that spread outward like a compass spun wrong. It matched the one tattooed on his wrist. Of course, it fucking did. He stared at it like it had the audacity to smile at him. They had noticed rather quickly that they didn't have their notebook. It had been confiscated or maybe just lost between parallels—so Katsuki had no damn clue what the mark meant. Some tringle symbol with a circular crosshair at the top, it was in the least bit familiar.

Izuku leaned over, squinting at the symbol before his brows furrowed in that thoughtful, "I've studied every aspect of the Arcana" kind of way.

"I think that's The Hermit," he said quietly. "Major Arcana. Usually represents solitude, introspection, self-reliance. Wandering the dark with only your own light."

Katsuki made a face. "Great. Love that for me. Just me, myself, and my crippling fucking trauma."

Izuku ignored him, for a moment before he gave a soft, breathless huff, almost a fucking laugh. "Wish we had my notebook to be sure, but kind of fitting, though."

"Bite me, asshole."

Izuku's small smirk faded into that almost neutral expression he had since dropping in here as he handed over his paper, "Mine also had a mark too, but mine looked like..." he turns his wrist over. "Yeah. That's The Six of Pentacles."

Katsuki's gaze flicked to the red tattoo on Izuku's wrist. His mark was made up of two lines intersected at a forty-five-degree angle with the number six imprinted inside. The Minor Arcana were easier for Katsuki to distinguish now. Clean lines. Fixed shapes. Numbers. After seeing a handful of them across the last few parallels, he could spot one at a glance—Six of Pentacles, Five of Wands, Page of Wands, Three of Pentacles—each one distinct in its geometry, as if designed to be read in an instant. Unlike the shitty damn Majors.