Maskless (Bakugou public identity reveal and au)

Chapter 12: The Reason of a Hero

Bakugou keeps his eye on the clock as he waits, dreading the time the minute hand reaches twelve. He glares fiercely as the hands move, tick by tick. It only has four obnoxious "ticks" left before the two hours have passed.

He removes his glare from the clock for a moment to scowl into a mirror mounted on his wall. He stares at himself, red on red outlined in black fabric, and breathes in the sight of himself back in his hero suit. UA had requested that his agency repair it for him and send it back over—they basically remade the whole thing, seeing as it was destroyed. UA even paid for the repairs, not that Bakugou needed help with it. He felt reluctantly grateful to the school for getting it to him. He feels more normal in it. Like he can take a deep breath for the first time since all of this began.

Things still are not normal, though, and Bakugou is drawn away from that feeling and the mirror when Aizawa raps on the door. He calls, "Bakugou, it's time," in that bored tone of his.

Shooting himself one more long glance, Bakugou lifts his chin, squares his shoulders, and nods to himself. He unsticks his feet from the ground and heads out. He is Dynamight again, and Dynamight is a mask he is confident hiding behind. Even though he is still him, one and the same, Dynamight and Bakugou are also different characters. It makes sense but is somehow confusing, so Bakugou does not pay the identity crisis much heed.

Either way, he has been made maskless. The two have become one in the eyes of the media, and it makes him feel naked. That reality sinks in even more as Aizawa pushes him into a wheelchair despite him being in his hero getup. Dynamight has Bakugou's weakness, now. He is no longer the strong, unfaltering character he had been made to be. Still, Bakugou fights back a moment when he lands on his bum, stronger than yesterday but still weak.

He stares at his thumbs during the walk through the halls of UA, which is also hosting this conference. Damn helpful school and its rat president. Screw it. He doesn't need help. He scrunches his nose. He doesn't understand why they are backing him up. What could that rat want with him? Maybe he's scheming something. He's scary smart, so who the fuck knows.

"Bakugou," Aizawa's voice interrupts his thoughts. He glares a quick side eye at the man, who raises an eyebrow, and then looks up at the big double doors in front of him. They tower above him like the other doors in UA, but these ones are even wider, more daunting. If they fell onto him as he is now, he probably couldn't even wheel himself away in time to not be squished. He feels Aizawa's hand rest on his shoulder and squeeze lightly, making him glance at it. "Ready, kid?" he asks.

Bakugou huffs through his nose and lifts his chin. A smirk on his face because none of these idiots are gonna see him look defeated ever again, he retorts, "You've never been this ready, Eraser-fucker."

His smirk becomes a real one as he hears Aizawa choke and feels him pull back his hand to muffle the embarrassing sound. "I'm only letting you pull that this once, kid. Never again," Aizawa says grumpily, and Bakugou's smirk becomes a shit-eating grin. He was expecting to get a detention.

He is glad that that is the expression he wears as a couple of hired heroes open the doors, and cameras flash blindingly into his eyes.

People shout loudly, scrambling over one another to get a shot of his entrance, and Aizawa calmly wheels him inside, leaving them standing beside the stage as the large side doors are pulled closed with a resonating thud, closing them in. At this point, there is no going back, Bakugou thinks to himself.

The little white UA rat is standing atop a sturdy step-ladder at the podium and smiles politely at Bakugou, who lets his face fall back into a smirk, giving the rat-mouse-bear-whatever man a nod. Having finished giving a brief speech before Bakugou came in, Nezu turns back to the crowd. "Well, without further ado, let's welcome Pro Hero Dynamight!" he says cheerfully, raising his scrubby little paws as shouts and clapping fill the large audience around the flashing lights.