The Flap of a Butterfly's Wings

Hope Makes Us Stronger

    Katsuki felt homesick. That was the best way he could describe it. He missed his best friend so, so much. It made his entire body physically ache. To him, Deku was his home; a part of him that would always be here. When Deku was kidnapped, a part of him had been ripped out, and Katsuki knew that it wouldn't come back until Izu did.

    Izu had to come back. Not just for him, but for auntie as well. Every time he and his parents visited her, she looked worse. Way older and paler than she used to be. Katsuki was smart, and he knew that she wouldn't last long at this rate. He always made sure to be the sweetest little damn angel that Inko would ever have the pleasure of meeting. If only to make her day just a little brighter. Lately though, it was getting hard to even get her to crack a smile.

    School was hard. Sure, he had a few friends but he never let them get too close. That was too dangerous and he made sure to tell himself that every night. Bakugou tried his best to get the best grades possible. After all, heroes couldn't be stupid, but also he knew for a fact that Izuku would scold him for studying too much. The thought made home want to cry and smile at the same time.

    No one had seemed to even remember Deku. Not even questioning why the little sunshine wasn't in class anymore. It was like he never existed, like he didn't matter. He had vented (screamed) at his parents about how angry he was that no one seemed to care that his favorite person wasn't here anymore.

    His parents told him that sometimes people, especially children, could be like that. That they can be confusing and unpredictable. His parents told him that the best thing to do was accept that and focus on something else. Maybe something more positive.

    Here's the thing though, Katsuki didn't want to accept it. He didn't get how people (he knew it wasn't just children, but everyone) were so confusing. Why couldn't they be simple? All he wanted was someone to remember his best friend. Was that really too much to ask? The explosion user was smart, and he knew that the invisibility of Izuku was probably because of his status. Of being quirkless. How could they not understand that Izuku was special?

    He started going to the dojo Izu went too. He meant all of his teachers and that alone had lightened him. They talked about Izuku like he was a shining star (which he was. The brightest one in the whole galaxy). They told him about how Izuku always puts in his best and how they made him -on multiple occasions- stop for the day before he overworked himself.

    Katsuki promised the teachers that he would try his best as well. That he would master every fricken move perfectly no matter how long it took him.

    Soon the training wasn't only because he wanted to be a hero, but because maybe if he grew strong enough, he would be able to save Deku someday.

___________

The day was starting off to be egregious.

First off, he was starving and could really use some of his mom's homemade cooking. But now he was in an arena surrounded by people that would rather rip your throat out than trust you, which will only make it that much harder to put his plan in action.

Hato just hoped that Tomura would be able get through to them. After all, he was almost as scary as they were. Except being about ten years old definitely put him at a more innocent appearance.

(Izuku had stopped bothering to remember the date about a month ago. He had no idea what day it was now, and in all honestly, he was unconcerned about it. Remembering only added to the barrel of things he had to do.)

Tomura wasn't kidding when he said that the mansion was huge. It reminded Izuku of those old, scary run down houses that you always see in horror movies. Most of the paint was chipping off and he could vaguely see a few holes in the front porch. The place was most likely a death trap, literally or figuratively, Izuku doesn't know. Hato wondered how they set up these up so fast. It had to be some powerful quirk, maybe even multiple. He remembered back to the maze and how detailed that was; it was like it was fake. And now this fake mansion that had as much detail as an actual, hand-crafted mansion.