Final Form

Chapter 61

Bakugou's Point of View

Bakugou banged on the door as he let himself into Nezu's office.

"Well at least you bothered to knock this time Master Bakugou, although I do believe the point of knocking is asking whether or not you can enter, not alerting me that you are entering." Bakugou swore at him, "I see your language is as pleasant as ever."

"Cut the pleasantries." Bakugou snarled and leant against the wall, Nezu's eyes narrowed.

"I understand your urgency and emotional attachment towards this issue, but I must remind you that I am your headmaster. Though you are an exemplary student, with a bright future ahead of you that UA will help lead, you are not immune to expulsion. Your recent grades and in-class performance has dropped dramatically, this has been excused due to recent events. But part of being a hero is knowing you can't win every battle and that sometimes patience is necessary. You need to remember what you wish to become, and who you need to trust and respect at this moment in time. The police are working hard on locating any trace of Izuku Midoriya, and all the teachers are convening frequently, attempting to find ways to help them." Bakugou snarled, his ears flattened to the back of his head.

"But they haven't approved." It wasn't a question, Bakugou already knew the answer.

"No," Nezu didn't quite stifle the resentment in his voice, "The teacher council has sent in many requests to be involved in this missing person case but the police force has deemed it under control, not worth our time. We should be focusing our resources on keeping the rest of the student body safe, and we should-"

"Trust and respect those higher than you? Be patient? Know you can't win them all?" Bakugou asked mockingly.

"Watch your tongue or I'll cut it out." Nezu hissed menacingly, his claws splitting the wood of his desk slightly, "But yes, that appears to be the case." He leaned back in his chair, frowning at the new claw marks.

"You're meant to be heroes! You're meant to be the face of justice and save the day. But all you do is sit behind a desk and tell me that you're doing nothing because someone told you no. De- Izuku got told no a million times, by me, by doctors, by his mother, by everyone around him. But he still believed in himself, and he made it. When Eri went missing, he wanted to keep searching. Again, everyone said no and again he didn't listen. I reckon he found her, sir, he didn't give up, he found her and now we need to find him. Please, I didn't understand why he was so ready to put his life on the line to search for her before, but now I get it. I can't go to class and keep living when I don't know if he is anymore." Bakugou's voice cracked and he swore as tears filled his eyes, he wiped them away harshly with his arm. For a moment, Nezu saw a different boy from the one who scowled and yelled at him. He saw the deep, shadowy bags beneath his eyes, the swollen knuckles and the scattered bruises around his wrist that came in every colour from purple to green. But then the scowl returned, the tears receded and the hard glare sealed the cracked facade from view. 

"Master Bakugou..." Nezu pondered his options, but Bakugou cut in once again, though the fierceness had left his voice.

"If I went missing they'd search for me. Maybe that'd work, they'd have to do something if a Formed went missing." Nezu sighed.

"If you were to go missing, more urgency would be put on the case as a whole, your animal orientation would not affect that in this modern and equal generation." Bakugou scoffed.

"Keep dreaming, nobody cares if a Shifter goes missing, people are comfortable being payed off cause 'they're less human' or some rubbish." Nezu sighed again.

"Alright, Master Bakugou, please listen now. We are not as blind as you believe us to be, we know of the injustice in the world, it is the very thing, as you said, that heroes stand to eradicate. The teaching council has been conducting their own investigation. Nothing much more than what a curious journalist could do but with better resources. We've expanded our patrol areas and lengthened our night hours, we've also been attempting to catch what's on the wind, talking to suspicious figures and what have you. Our plan is to find as much on Izuku Midoriya, or more specifically the Shifter trade, as we can and then present it to the police and ask what the first course of action is. It'll put them in a spot where they have to work with us or the media will have a field day. A small problem we've encountered however, is that we do not come across as...it has been proven difficult to find those loose-lipped enough to give us any information." Bakugou smirked.

"You mean you're all so famous everyone knows you're up to something?" Nezu grimaced.

"Yes, that appears to be the case." There was a few minutes of silence before Bakugou put the pieces together.

"So...does that mean... Are you asking me to spy for you?!" Bakugou laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

"Well- "

"Specifically on 'suspicious figures'?" Nezu rubbed the base of his ears exasperatedly.

"Let me be straight with you, Master Bakugou, this is illegal. I am conducting a non-government official investigation and coercing you into being included, therefor risking your safety as a guardian, hero and headmaster." Bakugou nodded and thought for a bit.

"Okay, I'm going to sneak off of school campus and talk to some dodgy dudes cause I want to, then I'll just happen to tell you when I return. Sound legal?" Nezu smiled.

"Not in the slightest. Please go to the staffroom at eight pm tomorrow. Have a good day." Bakugou bowed his head slightly and sauntered out of the office.

"You too sir."

In the hallway Bakugou allowed himself a small smile, he had done something, things were happening.

"Hang on Deku, I'll find you." He muttered, he glanced out the window and saw the green grass. He thought of Izuku's hair, soft and forever messy, tickling his face whenever they were close. Then he though of Izuku's lips, also soft and smooth, slightly red after being nipped and kissed. Then Izuku's eyes filled Bakugou's mind, sparkling green, emerald rings that started out bottle green and darkened to black at the centre, making it impossible to differentiate the iris from the pupil. Whenever Izuku laughed his eyes would crease and squint, radiating happiness and delight.

'I wonder if I'll hear that laugh again.' The thought burst through the memories like a pimple on clear skin. Suddenly Izuku wasn't smiling, fear mixed with the tears in his sparkling eyes as he screamed and was dragged away into the abyss. Bakugou's throat tightened and his knees buckled, the walls were closing in, he was suffocating. He tried to bring back Izuku's eyes, he found them, but they were staring blankly at the ceiling with the sparkles long gone-

"Hey bakubro! Why the stricken expression?" Mina pushed Bakugou's shoulder playfully, knocking him from his nightmare. Denki appeared next to her.

"Woah, careful Mina, don't want to use your entire vocabulary in one sentence yet." Mina glared at him and tugged on his horn.

"I bet you don't even know what 'stricken' means." Bakugou looked around, his lungs filled with air, the walls hadn't moved and Izuku wasn't there. Kiri threw an arm around his shoulder.

"You're pinching your wrist again, you okay?" He asked quietly. Bakugou looked down and saw he was indeed pinching his skin repeatedly, adding a new bruise to the ever-growing collection. He shook Kiri off and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I'm fine." Kiri tried to look him in the eyes, Bakugou looked at the floor.

"Okay." Kiri said defeatedly.

"Saw you came from Nezu's office." Denki raised an eyebrow in pretend maturity, "You in trouble again?" Bakugou shrugged.

"He attempted to coerce me into partaking in illegal activities outside of school." They stared at him for a few seconds before bursting into laughter.

"Sooo he just told you to do your homework then?" Bakugou snickered and they all began to walk towards the dorms.

Heyyooooo, kinda dead, should be asleep, don't have a life. Yup.

Toodles!

Human, OUT.