Diamonds in the Rough *INDEFINITE HIATUS*

Fresh Start

"Whoa! What happened to you Kacchan?!" the boy with extendable fingers asked. Their little group was walking to school together. Midoriya hung back like always.

"Heh. I got into a fight again." Bakugo chuckled, grinning proudly through the cuts and bruises covering his face. "I'm fine. Deku patched me up good."

"Wow! Did you win?" the other asked.

"Of course we won!! A hero never backs down!!" the boy with wings and the one with long fingers glanced at each other curiously

"We??" they chorused. Katsuki pointed at Izuku, slightly proud.

"Yep! Believe it or not, our little quirkless Deku took on those villains too! Not that I needed the help. I could've won that fight all by myself." He huffed. Fingers and Wings looked at Midoriya with a new sense of respect and admiration.

"Deku?? How?? You don't have a quirk!" Fingers asked in awe. Izuku turned a bright red.

"Tell 'em Deku!" Bakugo goaded on.

"Um... I-I ma-may or may n-not have hit them with a brick...and some wood..." Izuku trailed off, embarrassed by all the attention he was receiving. The two boys looked at him with horror.

"And a broken bottle! He was fuckin ruthless!! Like, seriously, I thought he was gonna kill them or something!" Bakugo cackled. Izuku somehow turned a darker shade of scarlet. "That shit was straight out of a movie!"

"Using a brick and wood? That doesn't sound very fair-" Wings started

"The world isn't fair" Midoriya snapped. They all flinched at his outburst "They used their quirks and ganged up on me. I was just leveling the playing field." He gave a sadistic grin.

"Careful now!" Bakugo laughed "or you might be next in the hospital" Wings and Fingers paled slightly.

"Wait. He sent them to the hospital??"

"I know one of them for sure" Katsuki hummed as Izuku sped up to walk right next to him proudly. Bakugo made no motion for him to move and the power shift in their small group was clearly noticed "Guess having your skull smashed in with a fucking brick does that to people"

~~~

"No offence Deku, but you're piss poor weak." Bakugo said, kicking his feet slightly while on a swing.

"Thanks Kacchan" Izuku muttered on the swing next to him.

"Which means-" he snapped "if you wanna become a hero, you need to get stronger." Izuku looked at him with a scrunched up face.

"What??"

"All the best hero's train dummy. And you" he poked his finger into Midoriya's chest "need serious training. It was the element of surprise and sheer dumb luck you walked out of that fight alive."

"Kacchan... I'm fucking eight. What the heck did you expect??"

"I'm not saying you gotta become the next All Might by next week" Bakugo snarled "All I'm saying is that maybe you should look into taking martial arts or something so you don't keep getting your ass kicked" Izuku pondered it for a bit

"Well... mom did say I should probably learn some basic self-defense since I'm quirkless" he spat out the last word.

"See?? Even auntie has the same idea!"

"I guess so" Midoriya mumbled dejectedly. Katsuki noticed his mood change and sighed

"Look. Since you're quirkless, people will always believe you're weak. That makes them put their guard down which gives you the chance to beat the ever-loving shit out of them." he explained, surprisingly patient "But surprise can only take you so far. Which is why you gotta learn how to fight Deku."