Izuku couldn't feel anything. Not his limbs, not the light of his face if there was any to begin with, not even his own heart that was probably hammering in his chest. Only his murky thoughts chock full of questions greeted him.

Where was he? He vaguely remembered a bar, but had had no clue as to whether he was still there or not.

How long had be been here? Not sure but he was dying to figure it out, literally.

He wasn't sure how many times they had done it, poked, prodded, punched, because after each bout he passed out. He still felt the linger of the sharp sting on his skin and intense heat burning in chest. He knew bruises had blossomed across the entirety of his skin similar flowers in spring, and that blood ran from newly created wounds like waterfalls. He couldn't quite remember just who was it that dished out this torture, but decided this was a guy never wanted to pick a fight with.

Speaking of memory...

Izuku's mind felt clouded for some reason and he couldn't pinpoint why, and was slowly starting to struggle to remember things that should have come as easy to him. Things about himself that he should have known like the back of his hand.

He couldn't remember the layout of his neighborhood, or what restaurants were in the area, or his address, or what school he went to, or what his friends' names were, or if he hand any. That wasn't that scared him though.

What chilled him to the bone, was that he couldn't remember his last name.

He almost forgot his first name, but for the entire time he'd been awake, he'd been clutching onto the name. Izuku. He didn't want to lose the last important shred of memory he had. He didn't want to faint, because for some reason, each time he did, he lost a piece of his memory. Nothing like mathematics or science or history, but any of the memories he shared with another person had just vanished like they had never existed.

At least, he thought it was the memories with people that were missing. He didn't know what exactly was lost, so he couldn't be sure, but that was the only logical trend he found. Nothing besides that made sense, well not his current state of mind anyways.

If it wasn't for the fact that Izuku could crack his eyes open and actually see objects, he would have thought that he had already been buried in a coffin alive. He'd felt that before, the feeling of the walls closing in around him, suffocating him, killing him. Fear getting jammed in his throat, causing all the words threatening to spill out to become clogged and forcing him to be unable to breath properly. He'd felt it when Kacchan was bullying him by trapping him in a cardboard box when they were younger, and he had never wanted to feel it again. Apparently luck wasn't on his side.

Izuku paused.

Kacchan?

The name had just popped into his head like it was natural, he had no idea who it belonged to though. The name lit a fire in his chest, but it was different than the searing pain type of fire in his chest. This one was warm and a little unruly. It flooded his head and threatened to escape out the top. It felt comforting though, the flame the name brought him. The rambunctious flame settled at where his heart would be, and didn't move anywhere else.

Just who or what was Kacchan?

Now he really didn't want to pass out.

| |

'Kacchan!'

Katsuki whirled around his seat, only to face the desk behind him. Empty. Just seeing that caused the small void in his chest to expand. He... He could have sworn he just her that shity Deku's voice from behind him where his chair would be. He growled and ran a hand through his spiked hair.

Damn Deku. Haunting Katsuki when he wasn't even there as well as when he was.

Why was he worried about the obnoxious person who sat behind him and mumbled through the entire lesson?

Nobody said he was worried, dumbass.

Why did he care about the wellbeing of the person who followed him everywhere despite the way that Katsuki treats him?

Who the hell said he cared? He was going to drop an explosion on their face.

Why didn't--

"Shut the fuck up!" He yelled out loud and slammed his fists on his re-fixed desk. Once again the class when dead silent and stared in his direction.

Kirishima angled his head towards his temperamental friend. "What's gotten into you, Bakugo?" He asked with so much concern it made Katsuki want to vomit.

"None of your business, hair-for-brains!" Katsuki snapped at him. He really didn't want anyone barging into his thoughts. If any of them found out he was thinking about Deku, he would never hear the end of it.

"Oh!" Kaminari's face lit up like a Christmas tree, appearing like an idea had stuck him. Katsuki wished the impact had hit him harder and knocked the electric kid out cold. "Maybe he's being moody because of the heroes' battle at lunch?"

"Hah?" Katsuki snarked at his classmate. "What hero battle?"

"Nah," Ashiro waved her hand, nonchalantly dismissing the idea. "He was asleep during the entire lunch period and missed all of it."

"Exactly!" Kaminari pushed, sitting up a little straighter in his seat. "He has to be mad he missed the sweet action." Katsuki scoffed at his words. Like he would be interested enough in another hero's fight, much less be upset by missing it. If anything, Deku would be the one who-- "Especially since All Might was in it."

Katsuki froze.

"All Might?" He questioned, but his tone didn't have the usually bite to it like normal. Instead, there was a hint of urgency in his voice, panic even if looked for hard enough.

No, something had to be wrong. That couldn't have been right.

He couldn't tell if his friends noticed the sudden change of his attitude because they kept on spouting their theories.

"Yeah All Might! He was so cool, 'cause he like, swooped in and kicked the bad guy's ass! It was such an intense fight, at least everyone in the entire city had to be watching it! Unfortunately he didn't catch the guy 'cause he escaped, vanished into thin air without a trace. That's alright though. He saved a lot of people." Kaminari crossed his arms proudly as if he was the one to have saved all those people.

"You're an idiot." Jiro said, smacking lightning boy upside the head, almost making him topple off the chair he sat on. "It's not fine that the villain got away. He could endanger that many or more people while being free." The three of them continued to bicker with Kirishima off the the side shaking his head at their antics.

How was it that none of them made a connection? They were there too when it happened, how could they not realize something was wrong? Too many odd things were happening at one time to go unnoticed, but Katsuki seemed to be the only one to realize the fault.

He spit out curses like chewing bubble gum and stood up. He might as well try and solve one of the many issues at hand before they started affecting him on a larger scale.

He started over to Todoroki, or as he liked to call him, "Oi half-and-half bitch."

Todoroki glanced up at him unamused, but there was something wrong with his gaze. Deku, as useless as he was, had actually managed to soften Todoroki's walls during the tournament, and his eyes had been mildly kinder ever since. Right now though, his eyes were cold and unforgiving.

"What do you want, Bakugo?" Todoroki said it like more of a statement than a question.

"Where the hell is Deku?" Katsuki asked after a moment of silence. He expected a smirk of some sort and an answer that completely dodged the question while simultaneously making fun of him, but none of that happened.

Instead, a flicker of confusion flashed through Todoroki's heterochromatic eyes along with a slight rise of an eyebrow. "Who?"

That should have immediately raised an alarm bell inside Katsuki's head, but all he did was sneer. "Oh ha ha, very funny. Great joke, now can you tell me where the damn nerd is or not."

Todoroki sighed irritably and laced his fingers together. "I can't help you find who you're looking for."

Katsuki wrinkled his nose. "Useless, just like fucking Deku," he quipped before heading to his desk and slinging his school satchel over his shoulder. Maybe just like Deku, but they would never be the same.

He would never say it out loud, but Deku was stronger than Katsuki would ever give that loser credit for.