28 | Aftermath of the Attack

                                    

                                          
Katsuki Bakugou


                          
The perpetual ring of silence drones softly in my ears as I enter my dorm, half expecting to find myself enveloped by the fact that I'm alone again, but Kirotoshi greets me instead. A certain hollowness consumes my mind when, for a split-second, I thought that perhaps Todoroki was the one disturbing the stillness in my eyes. The way his luminous face glances up from his phone seems familiar to me, but that may or may not be due to the fact that I'm guilty of this myself. 
                          
"Bakugou," he calls out, resting his phone on the bed that was formerly mine. "How are you?" His glasses are no longer cracked and have a slightly different appearance, so I assume him to have brought a spare pair.
                          
What the hell? Mind your own damn business, Icysharp. "Shit. Do you even have to ask? I couldn't do anything. I was useless. I could've been the reason Deku died. I couldn't even lay a finger on that damned piece of shit S!" My skin feels as if it's being charred by flames. "And where the hell did you go for most of the time? You brought that Dunce, out of all of the other people in our class?" My thoughts, razed by fury, melts the frown on my face and molds it into a nasty lour.
                          
What the hell are you saying, Katsuki? You saw the gashes. You saw the damn damage!
                          
Kirotoshi unflinchingly replies with, "You couldn't have known that something like that would happen to you, so it isn't your fault. But S, I believe you said, knocked me out for a little while. I brought the electric quirk user with me because he was the closest person to me."
                          
"You're pitying me, arentcha?" I sibilate like a domineering viper. "You think you can be the gallant vigilante that extricates the protagonist when he least expects it because your fancy-ass quirk gotcha in here?"
                          
Like a sea of stars in a kaleidoscope, something in his resplendent, phlegmatic yellow eyes shifts perniciously about. "Do you, uh, really think that that was what I was supposedly endeavoring when I fought alongside you and Midoriya? Yes, of course I want to be a hero, but not someone quite like the wry image you're insinuating." By the time his final word escapes his lips, his voice is a meek whisper.
                          
Thumping a few steps closer to Kirotoshi's bed, I grumble, "If you're throwing shit at my face, your ass will be orbiting the world at the speed of a comet."
                          
"It's just...hard to muster up respect for someone who keeps jeering at you with such cruel things," Deku informed me. "Imagine if Todoroki-kun started calling you all the things you call me. B-But believe me! I'm trying to understand you, too. I'm not asking you to change who you are, but I want you to consider the impact of what you're saying before you say it, Kacchan. I-I know you know what words can do and how they inevitably play a role in shaping us and our actions, but so...try to think about that before you explode."
                          
Guess I'm the same jackass as I was yesterday and the same piece of shit I've always been. I don't intend to cause any harm, even though I'm the epitome of tyranny. I can learn new tactics and adapt from my mistakes in the blink of an eye, but when it involves damn emotion, I veer back into danger. How the hell did Shouto hold all of his emotions in? Tch. He was stronger than I am now.
                          
"Is my love not good enough for you? Am I not enough to prove that you're fucking invaluable to me?"
                          
Why did you jump, Shouto? Did you want to watch a play of a wretched puppet dragging itself along the stage? Strings cut and transparent, yet tangible on the floor, were what you severed when I heard that repulsive thud of your body. Was my misery what you desired to stare at, from wherever you are? No...your heart was far too pure for that.