Smoke And Mirrors (BNHA x Male OC)

25: Blindsided

What did he have to fear? A bear? He could take a bear. Any day of the week. He didn't have to be afraid of the idiot either. So what if he had an animal form? Fuck, everyone praised him for having a powerful quirk so often that he wondered if they even knew what his quirk was. 

Melee based quirks were weak as hell and would always be second to quirks like his, emitters with long range attacks. 

But still, something was nagging him in the back of his mind, telling him to be careful. 

He took another step forwards and noticed an unnatural colour. Shoes. It was a pair of green shoes. 

'Fuck' He thought, realizing his peace and quiet in the woods was over. 'Those are probably the idiot's shoes'. 

"Oi!" He called out, cupping a hand around his mouth. "I'm not gonna go looking for you so hurry up and get out here!". 

No response. The forest remained completely silent. 

Then he heard a sound. Like a twig snapping underfoot but...heavier. It echoed longer and just felt larger. More akin to the sound of a branch. 

Furrowing his brow, Bakugou made his way towards the sound, his palms beginning to sweat in anticipation of a fight. 

Slowly he crept around a bush, taking a peek at whatever was going on just beyond it. 

Only about a minute or so away from where the shoes were, Bakugou finally found Taiya. 

His eyes widened, clamping a hand over his mouth involuntarily at the sight in front of him. He didn't really know if he was holding back vomit, bile or a scream but he didn't want to find out. 

He wasn't sure what was worse-the sight, the smell, the sounds. God the fucking sounds. 

But Taiya stopped in under two seconds, he had already started morphing back when he heard Bakugou, but it took a surprisingly long time for his mind to catch up to his instincts. 

His pupils were blown wide, the usual muted brown replaced by piercing green. His fangs were extended in his mouth, dripping blood onto the grass beneath him and slightly onto his already blood stained knees. 

Taiya's whole mouth was filled with the unfamiliar taste of animal blood and raw meat, but there was no guessing as to why. 

The mutilated deer carcass that he was kneeling over spoke for itself. 

Without even turning around, he had known someone was approaching. Enhanced hearing, probably. He didn't think about it for more than a second though, his mind quickly becoming overrun with panic. 

You have to imagine, for someone who hates people seeing them eat, this was a nightmare. The worst thing that could happen. The situation so bad it doesn't even run through your mind when you think of the worst case scenarios. 

Taiya's heart pounded in his ears, blood rushing away from his head so quickly he felt faint. He didn't....he didn't know what to do. 

"Don't look." He whispered out, his voice so hoarse and shaky he didn't even know if Bakugou heard him. 

When Bakugou didn't reply, anger boiled inside Taiya. Why wasn't he listening? Why did no one ever listen? God he was seeing so much. So many things no one was ever meant to see. 

"Don't look." He said, his voice louder and firmer this time. 

Everything was starting to get uncomfortable. It was hard to articulate properly around the fangs. His hands and knees were starting to feel sticky as the blood dried quickly in the afternoon breeze. It was hot and gross and all the wrong texture. Somehow, despite it being glossed over with a morbid sort of milky white, he felt like the deer's eyes were boring into him. Staring at him. 

Taiya wanted to scratch it off his skin. Anything to make the texture go away. 

He was actively trying to avoid looking at the dead dear. He didn't know if the sight of its organs hanging out, skin peeled away in parts, would make him vomit or if it would be far worse and he would still find it appetizing. 

"You..." Bakugou trailed off behind his hand, like he was unable to make the words form properly in his mouth. 

"Leave!" Taiya gasped, the thick feeling in his throat making it hard to breathe all of a sudden. 

Bakugou didn't hesitate a moment longer, rushing off away from the area before he could see the first tear drop from Taiya's eyes landing on the soiled grass and mixing with the still growing pool of warm blood.

What had he done? 

Bakugou was sitting on a fallen log, slumped over his lap when Taiya came to find him. 

He didn't know how much time had elapsed between seeing the dead animal and now. The sun was definitely a little lower in the sky, but it didn't matter. It only felt like seconds as the image played over and over in his mind. 

He heard Taiya approach him from behind, but didn't make any moves to acknowledge it. 

"Are we going back or what?" His classmate asked, his tone not unkind. It was detached though, more impersonal than Bakugou had ever heard it. Even when he was being an asshole he wasn't as listless. 

"Yeah." He gritted out in response, quickly rising to his feet and trudging off towards the camp. 

He didn't know if he should turn around to see what Tachibana looked like or not. He didn't want to see any more blood but at the same time something was urging him to look. He chalked it up to morbid curiosity or genuine concern, he couldn't tell. 

Taking a deep breath to muster up whatever fucking nerves he had left, he cast a quick look back at Tachibana. 

He was wearing clothes now, looking more or less normal. He had obviously tried to get the blood off his face and was more or less successful. There was a lot on his clothes though. It looked like he had been dragged through razor wire. His eyes were back to normal too, disassociated as he kept them down, following blindly behind Bakugou. 

What the fuck were they going to do now? 

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Me in the last chapter: he might eat something lol maybe do a little hunty-hunt

Me in this chapter: *graphic descriptions of the mutilated corpse of a deer* 

Now, allow me to explain for just a moment 😅

I've always been really interested in quirks and their ties to human physiology. Some of them are tied to emotions, like Todoroki's is theorized to be, and others are tied to more to physical, tangible conditions like say Momo or Sato. 

So my brain, you know the one that likes to traumatize characters, was like 'oh I can work with this' 

'what if I make part of Taiya's quirk tied to his hunger?' 

You know. The one character with an eating disorder. 

But I totally don't let my own past experiences with an eating disorder affect me or my writing👍. Not at all. I would never do that, scouts honor. 

Anyways stay tuned!