ｓｅｖｅｎ

ｄｅｆｅｎｓｅ

Bakugou Katsuki didn't know when he left his seat.

He saw Izuku falling into the rubble pit he created, and suddenly Katsuki was airborne.

He jetted over towards Izuku, and it was like everything was moving in slow motion.

Katsuki's hands pulsed with slight pain, but he ignored it. Shouts from people in the stands, and his classmates were shouting at him to come back, but he ignored them as well.

He had to catch Izuku.

He stopped propelling himself forward and outstretched his hands forward.

Izuku's body fell into his arms, and Katsuki cradled him as the momentum slammed him into a wall of rubble. His classmates screamed for him, but Katsuki waved to them to notify them that he was alright. Bits of debris cut into his right side, but he didn't care. Izuku didn't get any damage on him, and he was the priority at the moment.

Cheers were heard as he stood with Izuku in his arms, and the TV screens caught them both. He thought they were cheering because of the massive fight that just ended, but Present Mic's voice told him that they were congratulating Katsuki on his quick reflexes to save his friend.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. "And Izuku will be the only person I save."

Someone running caught his eye as they ran towards the hole in the wall. Cementoss was trying to repair the wall but noticed the figure and nodded at them. Katsuki tried to see, but Cementoss was creating a dust cloud that was hard to see-through.

The figure ran towards him with someone on their back and looked a bit frantic.

"What are you waiting for, Katsuki? Let's go!" Lust had Todoroki on his back. Todoroki was breathing hard, and there was blood coming down from a head injury Katsuki could not see.

Lust didn't wait for his answer and took off in the opposite direction.

Katsuki was about to take off, but he heard a voice from underneath him.

"K-Kaachan?" A hand weakly gripped at his uniform. Katsuki looked at Izuku, and he noticed an odd black band around his neck. It wasn't there before, and it was thin. It looked like a tattoo, and it made Katsuki confused. Izuku's harsh breathing snapped Katsuki out of his confusion, and he decided to save questions for later.

"Just hang in there a little longer, Izuku. Greed will make you feel better soon." Katsuki shifted Izuku to his back and threw his arms over his shoulders. Izuku limply laid on Katsuki's back, and his breathing got heavier after sudden movement.

"Kaachan, the bumblebees- the bumblebees are out." Izuku's left hand snatched at the fabric on top of Katsuki's heart. He clenched it hard before softly letting it go.

Katsuki reached behind him and patted Izuku's head.

Izuku didn't respond, and Katsuki ran faster.

~~~

The first thing the brothers did when they got to the infirmary was that they kicked out Recovery Girl. She made a fuss and threatened to get All Might, but that didn't stop Envy from grabbing her hand and leading her outside.

As soon as she was out, Envy shut the door and locked it.

Izuku and Todoroki were both put on beds next to each other. Greed quickly spoke some words, and his palms started to glow. He placed them over Izuku, and Katsuki saw the quick response Izuku had. He wasn't breathing as hard, and his color came back to him. Todoroki was still going through the wringer, but Lust managed to bandage his head wound before it got any worse.

Gluttony was tearing into another meal in a chair next to Katsuki. Before he started, though, he gave Katsuki a water bottle and offered Katsuki one of the meals Inko had prepared for him. Katsuki declined but took the bottle of water. Pride was pacing in front of the beds, and he looked to be in intense thought. Envy and Wrath stood behind Lust and were leaning against the cabinets. Wrath wore a frown, and Envy was hugging him. Sloth stood next to Envy with his arms crossed, and he was looking at Izuku with slitted eyes.

While all this was going on, Katsuki noticed that all of the brothers had black bands around their necks.

"Finally, finished." Greed said. He managed to finish healing Todoroki in record time. Greed wiped the sweat from his brow and walked out of the small slit of space between both beds.

"Todoroki will wake up soon. He was just a bit exhausted and must've cut his head on a rock while dodging."

"And Zero?" Gluttony asked with rice stuck to his face.

All of his brothers looked to Greed for the verdict.

"Zero will be alright, physically. He'll wake up soon as well." A breath of relief swiped through the room.

"Now that our main priority is taken care of, can someone explain what the fuck was that?" Pride stopped pacing and shouted. "I'm all for getting stronger, but like what the fuck?"

Wrath's head shot up from Envy's chest, and Envy looked sternly at Pride.

"I know you don't like that kind of language, Wrath, but like I'm just confused." Pride ran his fingers through his hair. "He didn't show any of that during training."

"Maybe, that was someone else." Envy said slowly.

All eyes shot to him with a range of emotions. Even Wrath had confusion on his face.

"Apparently, King and Zero have been commuting. What if King made another version of himself?" Envy asked.

"But why would he do that? He has seven different versions of himself already!" Pride yelled and gestured to all of his brothers.

"Maybe it's another barrier of defense for King. But Zero has use of some of his Quirks, so I don't know why-" Lust spoke but stopped. He looked at Greed. "Unless you know what's going to happen in the future, and King had to take precautions."

Greed huffed and flicked his hand upwards. A small black agenda popped up, and Greed flipped through it. "I will admit that things get harder from here on out, but we are always with Zero." Another flick of the hand made the agenda disappear.

"Unless something is coming that we can't escape from without a little more help." Sloth scratched behind his head.

Katsuki spoke up. "I don't know King as much as I know the rest of you, but if he protects Izuku as much as you all do, then it should be fine- right?"

"Everything King did for Zero and us. King is very protective, so maybe this is a safe system for all of us." Gluttony pointed to his neck. "Maybe, we all can transform into that 'state.'"

"So, you all can get even stronger than you are now?" Katsuki leaned back in his chair. "I'm curious to see what dangers King saw for you guys to have a defense like this."

"If he's like us, then he should be able to talk to us himself." Envy supplied.

Greed nodded and looked at Zero's sleeping figure. "Until then, we just have to wait."