Have you guys ever seen the manga version of the sludge monster incident? In the anime, it looks a lot different. He looks more combative and angry.
In the manga, he looks terrified. He's crying and you can see that he's trying to breathe. Idk when I saw that panel I kind of wanted to write something. I think he truly is a deep character. He's an asshole and a bully, but he's growing. I think that with all the times he's almost died, all the times that he's come in contact with villains, and all the guilt he carries, he kind of creates a front for himself out of fear of being a weak hero. He probably thinks that you can't be afraid if you're a hero.
And then he never has anyone to support him. Sure, he has Izuku and Kirishima and the whole Bakusquad, but they're all kids. They're all dealing with this. I think he fell through the cracks, because you never see any adults and just ask them if they're okay. You never see the heroes genuinely worry about his mental health after this, they all just applaud him for being tough.
I really could go on about this, but I think you get the point. What I've said really applies to all of 1A. All of them have seen horrible things and I think we forget that.
I've read the manga before, but I saw a post about it on Instagram and it just struck me. I hadn't thought of Bakugo's fear before. I wish they would have illustrated the tears and pain in the anime.
Anyway, here's an angsty chapter about one of my favorite future heroes.
Sorry it's so long btw :/
It was one of the gray, drizzly days. You looked out the window of your classroom, the fog preventing you from seeing anything of interest. There was nothing to be excited about. Nothing to gossip about. Nothing to look at, even. All you could do was space out while Mic drew past-tense verbs on the board.
You looked over to the seat next to you, which was empty. Normally Bakugo would be there, scribbling notes in an unorganized fashion. He always took notes, no matter how hard the subject was. His handwriting was messy and scrawled, but somehow he knew exactly what it said. Whenever you had nothing else to do, you would reach over to his notebook and doodle a little smiley face while he wasn't watching.
He would make an annoyed face, but sometimes he would add onto your drawing, doodling flowers around it, give it a head, a nice little hat, and for some reason a hand grenade. He was highly imaginative, even if he wouldn't admit it.
He had been absent a lot recently. You had no idea why, but then you also never asked either. He had this big deal of telling people to mind their business whenever they checked in on him.
You hated that. On his quiet days, ones where he moped around and didn't yell at Deku, you would ask if he was okay. He would just push you away and cause a deeper divide than there already was.
You thought back to before you came to UA: you and Bakugo were family friends that grew up together. Your parents would drag you to his place once a week, and you inevitably would spend your time with the only other kid there: Bakugo. Before UA, he was, in many ways, a bully. Despite that, you still stuck around him.
He had changed a lot since then. He had become a nicer person as the months went on, but there was also something else building up in him that dimmed the light in his eyes. You were happy that he was finally maturing, but at what cost was he maturing at?
You had the same experiences as him (more or less). You knew how taxing the hero course was. Was there something that he was hiding, some pain or guilt, that dampened his proclivity to be fiery and unique.
You wanted him to be back to normal.
You pulled out your phone, tapping on the screen till you found Bakugo's name.
