Level Zero - Villain!Bakugou Rehabilitation

11 || Childhood Cruelty

"Iida-kun, we need to help him!" Ochako turned big chocolate coloured eyes to her companion.

He shifted uncomfortably under her sincere gaze, clearing being conflicted by some inner turmoils, and yet didn't move out of her way.

"Well...I'm afraid...We can't."

Ochako blinked in confusion. "What?"

Iida repositioned his glasses, their surfaces catching the light.

"Aizawa Sensei specifically instructed us to not, under any circumstance, engage in a fight with Ground Zero. I believe that includes a situation like this." Iida looked upset, being torn between his strong moral codes and the need to help a friend.

"If you think about it, our teachers would prefer us to try and calm him down rather than engage in physical combat. If we did and things got out of control, the collateral damage would be far worse than that of Midoriya's crinkled shirt."

Iida stood straight, having come to a clear decision.

"But Iida," Ochako spluttered, "Surely you can't mean to just leave Midoriya-kun to defend himself?"

"As much as I don't like it, we cannot interfere. Despite what you might believe, Ground Zero is not your average brute. He thinks clearly using deductive logic, and after his scuff during lunch today, he couldn't possibly risk aggravating another fight without worsening his own situation."

"But—You, we can't just—" Ochako trailed off, the reason behind Iida's ideas making an awful kind of sense.

Glancing back to where the two boys' were arguing, she did indeed notice that most of it was worded, without half as much violence as Ground Zero's last fight with Monoma.

Midoriya tripped and fell on the floor, tears streaming down his cheeks. Ochako's breath caught in her throat, but she realised with relief that it wasn't because he was hurt or in pain.

She huffed, out of worry for her friend and frustration from their unoptimizable position. Moving closer to where Zero was pushing Midoriya around, she overheard some of their conversation.

Ground Zero stalked up to him menacingly, standing over Midoriya's trembling figure.

"K-Kacchan, how? How are you still alive? They told us you were dead! They t-told us you were dead, and we had to live with that for years! And yet all that time, y-you were alive, just going by another n-name?"

"That's none of your damn business, Deku!" Ground Zero yelled.

Ochako frowned deeply. Years? How long had these two known each other? To her knowledge, Midoriya had only met Ground Zero when the rest of them had; today in homeroom.

But the depth of their argument seemed to prove otherwise. Ochako had heard Midoriya scream for sure, he hurt himself so much it was hard not to, but she'd never known him to raise his voice in a dispute. Especially not like this.

"Not my business? Kacchan you died! You were dead, and everyone around you, including myself, had to deal with that!"

Never in all her time with Midoriya, inside of school and out, had she heard his voice so full of hurt. It was beyond agitation about being tricked, Midoriya sounded downright betrayed.

"Well I'm so sorry for being such a big fucking inconvenience to you!" Zero seethed.

"H-Hey, what are you two talking about? Midoriya-kun, how could Ground Zero have died if he's right here?"

Ochako had no idea what had driven her to speak up, really, she didn't want to interrupt this obviously long overdue 'chat' of theirs, but this was just too much. She felt ready to burst with the number of questions springing to mind, but the second the Villain in front of her met Ochako's caramel coloured eyes, all thoughts left her head.

She had never considered herself a coward, but having the full force of those wild red irises focused on her turned Ochako's legs to jelly. Both the Hero and the Villain were trembling, one shaking like a leaf from a mix of grief and anxiety, the other with barely contained animosity.

Before either of them could say anything more though, heavy footsteps thudded into their notice. Two people skidded to a stop in front of them all, having raced around the corner to meet the three teens here.

And of course, that was the precise moment Ochako realised that there were indeed only three of them present. Looking up in confusion, she realised that Iida was missing because he had run to get Aizawa.

Both teacher and student looked mildly dishevelled from their break-neck sprinting, and Aizawa Sensei's Quirk was obviously in action. Hair floating and eyes glowing, he didn't even ask what was going on.

The only thing he said was, "Zero, go to your room. Midoriya, Nezu's office."

Ochako was shaken by how much Aizawa reminded her of a scolding parent, but her internal humour died as her teacher shot both her and Iida sharp looks.

"You two, go home now. I'll take care of this."