Inheritance: A My Hero Academia AU

Katsuki Bakugo

UA Island. Anyone who's anyone lives there. It's all big mansions, lavish parties, spoiled heirs and broken homes.

It's where I've spent most of my life.

I wouldn't call it my home, exactly, because the place is full of self absorbed, cocky, privileged losers. But living here, on the island, keeps me on my toes, and at this point, I can't see myself living anywhere else.

My family didn't always live in this hunk of rock in the middle of the ocean. We weren't always filthy rich, either.

When I was born, my dad was running an upstart manufacturing business that was deep in the financial red most of the time. My mother was working as a waitress at a crappy diner by the highway to help make ends meet.

It was at that diner where my mother met Inko Midoriya. They hit it off right from the start, being able to relate to each other's stories of struggle and strength. Inko happened to have a son the same age as me, and her and my mother decided that we should meet.

Three days later, my mom brought me to the Midoriyas' house, and I was introduced to Inko's son, Izuku.

Back then, Deku and I got along rather well. We did everything together. On the nights where my parents had to work late, I would stay with the Midoriyas, and when Inko had to work late, Deku would stay with us.

As kids, sometimes Deku and I liked to go down to the beach and look out at UA Island. We both were determined to live there one day, to make a ton of money and be like the shiny people across the water.

Despite being dirt poor, we both thought that we could pull it off, because Toshinori Yagi did. People called him All Might because of the weapons that he manufactured. He started out just like Deku and I did, poor as heck. But somehow in this cruel and broken world, he managed to fight his way to the top, and by then he was one of the richest men in the world.

All Might's story gave Deku and I hope, and we both looked up to him like he was the sun itself.

We'd spend hours standing on the beach, looking out at the horizon and talking about what our lives would be like, once we hit it rich. We'd talk about all the places we'd travel and all the cool stuff we would buy with all of our money.

It was our overly ambitious dreams, the hope for a bright future, that kept us going.

But dreams aren't reality, and dreams rarely ever come true in this world.

When I was five years old, my father's company hit it big, and money started to flow in. My mother didn't have to work anymore, and we moved out of our nasty, cheap apartment and into a nice house in a nice neighborhood.

I didn't spend as much time with Deku anymore. I got new friends, friends who were rich like me. I realized that because my family had money, I could get away with a lot more, and I was better than most people. The times when we all hung out together - Deku, my new friends and I - we teased him about his lack of money. That was when I started calling him Deku, because it was a different way the kanji of his name could be read. It meant that he can't do anything, that he's worthless. Deku was resilient, though, and he told us about his dreams, how he would be like All Might and work his way up from the bottom.

We just laughed at him.

By the time middle school came around, Deku and I barely talked anymore. When we did, it was just an opportunity for me to mock him.

My seventh grade year, my father's company was declared fifth most powerful in the world, and we moved to UA Island. Deku and Inko came to see us off.

"I'm leaving you behind," I told him.

Deku just squared his shoulders. I'll never forget the way determination burned in his green eyes. "I will catch up to you one day, Kacchan. You'll see."

I laughed at him, like I had done countless times since my family moved up in the world. "I doubt that, Deku."

That was the last time I saw him.

Well, until ten years later, when he showed up on UA Island, with new clothes, a new car, and new money. A lot of money.