Ignition: Katsuki Bakugou x Reader

Chapter 16: Puppet on Strings

"You do realize we could lose our jobs for not apprehending the threat? Are you ONLY saying this because she’s your damned daughter!?" Midnight offered a well deserved glare to the man in black, smacking him yet again.

"I’m doing what’s best,” Aizawa refused to glance at Midnight, fearing it’d cancel his quirk and everything would go south fast. “Besides… Knowing Nezu... He won't fire us if he knows the details," Aizawa smirked.

Bakugou stumbled backwards, muscles tensing, doing just about anything to soften your blows. You were a monster in close combat, the strength of ten men behind your swings and lightning fast movements. Even then, Bakugou can’t just pull his trump card with one large explosion like he did in your first fight with him nor that escalating fight with Zack. Bakugou remembered back to that training exercise from easily a month or two back, yeah, the one where you got gravely injured by the ceiling collapse. Again, his trump card was used there as well. The point of the exercise was to keep interior fights to a minimum in order to preserve the building. This factor led to the shedding of his quirk. If you can't use your explosions, he won't. That’s what Bakugou is telling himself at least. The blonde gripped his fists, time to go defensive. You strike with a zipping kick that landed at his forearm. Bakugou moved quick, taking hold and threw you over his shoulder. You crashed onto the tile flooring, cracking some along with it, with a guttural whine that vibrates your throat. Another trick that Bakugou remembered, even though back then he were in your lowly position and Deku was on top with a determined yet terrified victory face.

You shuffled, whimpering, trying to get back up as quickly as possible. Bakugou pressed his shoe to your chest more like a stomp to prevent such escape. Immobile. The blonde stared down upon you. His crimson gaze burning holes into your own and about to speak, but those blue eyes of yours... They were a pastel grey, bloodshot, pupils dilated to the point he asked himself if you even had pupils. "You there (Y/n)?" He grumbled, not expecting a reply any time soon. This isn’t you, those eyes aren’t yours.

You remained silent. Words flooding in little by little just to escape out the other ear. Aizawa and Midnight stepped before you both. Curious yet all so disappointed. And just as Midnight began to tug on the sleeve of her costume to incapacitate the little troublemaker. "I'm... Here," you yawned in an absent minded tone, Bakugou could’ve sworn some color came back to your eyes.

"Care to explain why you tore up the entire school?" Aizawa asked as if it were a regular everyday question like ‘how are you?’ while he peered over you, his quirk still activated upon yourself.

You physically trembled, eyes beginning to bead up with tears. "There's voices in my head… I've ignored them the best I could b-but," you hiccupped. "I can't handle it anymore!"

Aizawa knelt down, brushing a hand across your cheek. Close up, your features were dusty, overwhelmed with exhaustion, physically reeling with a sickness that you must've been covering up for quite some time. "If you aren't gonna attack anybody... We can walk down to Nezu's office peacefully,” an offer that he knows he’ll receive backlash upon.

"No promises..." You were still sniffling, no trust in your own self.

Aizawa pats Bakugou's leg, a signal where the blonde removed his foot from your chest hesitantly. "Stay close to her," Aizawa asked of your friend and straightened himself out. You struggled to even sit up from the floor, body aching with every movement made, your spine a jumbled painful mess. Even despite the escalated fight, nothing like the first fight you both shared, Bakugou offered a hand.

"Come at me again and I won't hesitate to blow your brains out," Bakugou warned with a distasteful grimace. He knows that you know he won’t do such a thing. An attempt to liven the mood. You began to accept his hand, rather yours began to shake. You don't trust yourself not to harm Bakugou any further than you had already... "Are you being difficult or are you gonna attack me again?" Bakugou huffed, now beginning to doubt even his own judgement.