Technical Support

Chapter 40

"Are we sure it's alright to let him go in there alone?" Vlad King asked, caution in his voice.

"Bakugou can protect himself." Aizawa defended his student, but Vlad King's wariness did not lessen. "It's really not him that I'm worried about..." He hesitantly stated.

"Young Bakugou and Young Sasaki seem to have a strong bond with one another, despite all of their fights." All Might declared. Midnight nodded in agreement, "I think we don't have much to worry about. After all, you saw how they were at the Sports Festival, right?"

With that, the teachers directed their gazes towards the monitors, a hopefulness in their eyes.

Bakugou entered the room, the door behind him sliding closed. The clink of the door seemed to echo in his ears.

At the sound of the door and his footsteps, Ayano raised her head. All of the rage within Bakugou diminished the moment their eyes met.

Her eyes were so hollow. So empty. So desolate.

She looked so...defeated.

The tension in Bakugou's shoulders completely disappeared. Seeing her like this. Seeing her so...pitiful. It depressed even him.

The tension in his shoulders returned. This wasn't right. This wasn't acceptable. She wasn't supposed to look like this. Why had she become like this?

"...Get up..." He spoke after he got his bearings. Ayano was in a straitjacket, but her legs were left unbound.

Bakugou had no intention of talking down to her and no intention of crouching to her level either. She was above that.

However, Ayano made no move to stand. She simply continued to stare at him with that awful, hollow look in her eyes. He made a low growl. "I said get up!" She still remained seated.

"GET UP, DAMN IT!!!" He was very close to using force when she finally moved. She stood up excruciatingly slowly, still leaning against the wall.

They were now properly face-to-face, but even looking at her on the same level, her eyes did not change. Bakugou grit his teeth. "Why do you look so pathetic." It wasn't so much a question, as it was a statement.

Ayano didn't move. Not a single indication that she had even heard him.

"Answer me!" He shouted, his hands clenching into fists.

"I apologize for the trouble that I have caused you." Her voice was just as hollow as her gaze, the coldness in it causing Bakugou to flinch.

"What the hell are you going on about?" He asked, knowing that he definitely was not going to like whatever answer she gave.

"...Had I been stronger...less foolish...you would not have had to experience what you did." Her eyes travelled to the floor, showing shame and not just the emptiness from before.

Even so, Bakugou still didn't want to see that on her either.

"What the—If you're talking about me getting caught, that's because I wasn't strong enough! I should've just blown them all to hell!" He shouted at her, not believing she was really blaming herself for something to stupid.

Ayano sighed. "Perhaps...but the underlying cause of all of this was because of my negligence. I was kidnapped because I was not strong enough. The villains invaded the training camp because of my support items."

Bakugou's eye twitched in annoyance. "Are you deaf!? I just said those idiots got me because I was too weak!"

She growled back at him. "Your kidnapping is irrelevant! Do you understand how many people got hurt!? How many of our own classmates! How do you think the villains found the training camp in the first place?! It was because of me! Because of the tracking device that I forced Izuku to bring with him..."