Saying Their Goodbyes: Shouto, Katsuki

Saying their goodbyes: Shouto, Katsuki

Shouto

Nee-san spoke first, “Please be careful, Shouto. I... I’m so sorry for being such a useless older sister. I wish, I cou-"

"I will. And you're not useless." That felt insufficient. Shouto tried moving his hand over his sister's head, like he had seen Asui doing with some of their classmates when they got upset. "Please teach me how to make soba properly, when I get back."

At this, Fuyumi's eyes turned watery.

Shouto faltered. Then he froze.

Natsu-nii had pulled him into a hug.

Perhaps not wanting their sister and mother to hear, Natsu-nii said into his ear: “Punch him in the face. Pummel his ass." And with an even lower voice, his brother whispered: "And if there's any possibility… please drag him home.”

Shouto flailed. Then he remembered what he did, when okaa-san had asked for his permission to hug him during one of his first visits, and put his hands lightly on Natsu-nii's back. For few seconds, his fingers gripped his older brother's sweater tightly.

Shouto turned to their mother. She had lagged behind his siblings slightly.

He knew that the loss of Touya-nii back then, had completely shattered whatever small parts of their mother had been left, that hadn't already been broken by their father. But Touya-nii had killed so many people. And his flames were so strong, surpassing those of Endeavor's.

Shouto didn't know what to say to his mother. But he had to say something, so he settled on, "Okaa-san, I won’t let our family hurt any more people. I promise.”

“I know. I’m sor…” His mother stopped. Instead, she reached out to wrap his left hand between her own smaller ones. “Thank you, Shouto. I’m grateful for having you.”

Shouto swallowed hard. His hand stayed in between his mother's palms, until the heroes were signaled to move out.

Katsuki

“You will win.”

“What do you take me for?! Of course I will!”

For that, the hag decked him over the head.

Katsuki was about to let his mother know, that she hit like a ninety-year old. But before he could, his old man caught his gaze. Something in his father's eyes made Katsuki close his mouth again.

With her hands on her hips and her chin tilted up, his mother said: “Absolute victory. That's what you've always spouted. And absolute victory requires making it back. Preferably, in one piece. Although I don't expect that - no, I'm not underestimating you. But I'm also not an idiot. And neither are you."

At this, Katsuki averted his eyes. The hero students involvement in the PLW was still kept secret from the public. Aside from Icyhot, none of the students who got hospitalized had been allowed visits from their families.

Katsuki knew from his old man, that his mother had stood in front of the hospital every single day, until they learned that their son had been released and escorted back to his dorm.

During phone calls, he had tried to downplay his injuries. It wasn't because he agreed with the Commission's dumbass decisions.

It had been futile anyways. Katsuki saw from the expression of his mother's face, when she first laid eyes on him after UA's emergency shelters went into effect, that she had guessed the severity of his injuries right away.

His mother combed her hand slowly through his hair. Katsuki fought against the urge to tilt his head towards her.

"So. I expect an absolute victory, where as much of you makes it back as needed... to take the decking that you’ll get for being disrespectful to your mother. Got it?”

“…yeah, yeah. Just watch me.”

The hag gave his hair a slight pull.

And so, Katsuki's schoolmates, teachers, and anyone else in their vincity, got subjected to an encore of the Bakugou-screamo-musical, until it was time for the son to leave.

Eijirou's POV on the dynamic between Bakugou and Midoriya

Kirishima and Deku share quite a few significant characteristics: Both of them are among the sweetest kids in 1-A. Humble about themselves, but very open about their admiration for others. There is little doubt, that they also hold strong admiration for each other. Along with Uraraka and Asui, the two boys had to keep their involvement in the Shie Hassaikai raid a secret from the rest of their class for weeks. They prepared for the operation together, and went into the raid together.

However, I’m not sure where to place Midoriya from Kirishima's POV regarding their biggest commonality: Each of them has a significant personal tie to Bakugou, but very different ones.

Bakugou haters and apologists alike, have argued about class 1-A’s hypothetical reactions towards the true extent of Bakugou’s bullying of Deku (as well as whether those hypothetical reactions would be warranted or not) to death. I have no desire to get into that.

Nevertheless, I have wondered about Kirishima’s thoughts behind his canonical reaction towards Midoriya and Bakugou's interactions. Or more precisely, his lack of reaction throughout the series.

To contrast: There's one scene where Uraraka confronts Bakugou and point-blank asks him, why he treats Deku like dirt. I see this as a very brave act from Uraraka. Not because of who and how Bakugou is (crass at best, violent at worst, let’s not sugarcoat this), because I don’t think that he would have had physically attacked her for that, but because of the cultural context of Japan. It is very frowned upon to “meddle” in what people perceive to be others’ private business.

However, while I do share the opinion, that their relationship to each other is mainly Deku and Bakugou’s private business, I would not classify Uraraka confronting Bakugou with the negative connotations of meddling:

By being so openly hostile to Deku, Bakugou had already broken the social rule of keeping your private business, well, private, and not imposing your issues on others. His degree of unrestrained hostility towards Deku could have (or has it canonically?) very well disturb the entire group’s hero training overall.

In the present, Deku is Uraraka’s friend. And their mutual classmate is presently treating him like shit.

In my eyes, those two facts are reasons enough, for Uraraka to at least ask Bakugou a few questions.

One would think that those would be reason enough for Kirishima to confront Bakugou too. So why has neither he, nor any of the other 1-A kids done anything of significance in that direction?

Uraraka confronted Bakugou, and asked questions. To which he logically would have had to either be able to justify himself somehow, or cease his aggression towards Deku immediately. Naturally at that point, Bakugou does neither. He just leaves huffing and puffing. But people have to ask others such question, and not just as a throwaway remark (a half-hearted "Bakugou, calm down" doesn't count), to signal, that their treatment of others is not acceptable. Afterall, continuous disapproval can influence people to change their behaviour.

Even if one may interject that Kirishima is closer to Bakugou, than he is to Midoriya... that would only be more of an argument for Kirishima to intervene, as he has more emotional leverage over Bakugou than e.g. Uraraka.

And even with everything else aside, based on Kirishima’s overall characterization, one would have thought, that he would never be okay with his friend attacking another classmate repeatedly for no discernible legitimate reason.

The only tentative possible reason I could come up with, for why Kirishima never intervened here, is that to him, Midoriya had never seemed less capable than Bakugou from the very first day they all started at UA together. As in, Kirishima had never perceived any power disparity between Midoriya and Bakugou.

...

However, Kirishima and the rest of 1-A did witness, what Bakugou did to Deku during their first class assignment (All Might deserves criticsm for not interrupting that fight. He truly was a bad teacher... still isn't a good one). Even after that incident, Bakugou’s verbal aggression towards Deku still continued on for a while.

While Kirishima may not be emotionally intelligent to same degree that e.g. someone like Kaminari is implied to be, Kirishima is still sensitive to his peers’ feelings (see his reaction towards Tsu-chan's sadness after Kamino).

Furthermore, one must simply be blind and deaf to have missed Bakugou’s belligerency towards Deku - that lasted at least until they had beaten the crap out of each other and got grounded together.

As such, it can be safely inferred, that Kirishima (and the rest of 1-A) noticed that Deku and Bakugou had bad history with each other - and that the animosity came one-sidedly from Bakugou.

Either way. If I witnessed a peer being repeatedly put down by another, I would firmly and repeatedly tell the latter to knock it off, stfu, and get himself a therapist for his anger issues...

...

What did Kirishima see, when he looked at Midoriya, and everytime he witnessed how he was treated by Bakugou?

How did Kirishima justify it to himself, to not try harder to get his bestie to stop being a total dick to another friend/ a classmate?

After Bakugou apologized to Deku in front of all of 1-A, did Kirishima and the rest of the class ever wonder, what exact actions warranted such a gesture from someone as proud as Bakugou?

The parents of class 1-A, and their favourite kids

Parenting is hard: Trying to keep their stupid impulsive kids from getting themselves killed.

Let's be real, while I can see parents usually loving all of their children equally, most don't like their children equally.

Iida and Yaoyorozu’s mutual favourite child is without question, Asui. She’s the kid who helps out with the other children the most, courtesy of being an older sister within her own family. Iida also listens to Tsu-chan-kun, whenever she tells/signals him smt like: ~Dad, it’s okay. The others aren’t toddlers anymore, they should do/know/learn it by themselves. ~

And Yaoyorozu always worries about her, whenever the weather turns cold - the memory of Asui collapsing in that frozen room during the license exam, remains fresh in her mind.

Parenting is hard: Both are parents, who would be tearing up themselves, when they see one of their kids being in pain.

Iida has another favorite child: Tokoyami-kun.

Class Dad went from telling his goth son off for sitting on, instead of at, the latter's school desk, to being in awe of him, telling him how he's "so wise" (ty, Michael J. Tatum for the awesome line delivery).

A couple of outings with Class Dad.

Not to mention, Class Dad internally praising Fumikage for being the only one out of his boys, who has proper sleeping manners. The light novels have a few stories in which Iida and Tokoyami are hanging out, and mainly interacting with each other within smaller groups (I think Iida might have been vocal with his praise, when Tokoyami “saved” a little girl from getting lost in the amusement park).

I don’t think there are many kids in 1-A (I can only think of two. Guess who?) who wouldn’t be able to hold some kind of at least semi-enjoyable conversation with any of their classmates, at any given time. However, I wouldn’t have expected Iida and Tokoyami to spent a noticeable amount of their very limited leisure time with each other. I found that dynamic to be a sweet little surprise.

Parenting is hard: ... but Iida definitely enjoys his role to a certain extent.

Yaoyorozu also has another favourite child. Although I picture it more as a favourite younger brother: Kaminari-san.

I might expand on this some other time.

Parenting is hard: The class reps totally deserve a vacation away from their children... but then they wouldn't be able to relax, because they would be away from them.

Sometimes, at the end of a long day, choke-full of classes, hero training, and whatever trouble 1-A members have managed to get themselves into, Yaoyorozu makes a large pot of tea to bring over Iida, who has already spread out markers and sheets of paper over the large table in the dorm's common room.

Class rep positions may not mean much in a lot of places in our real-life world, but UA is not a normal environment. Since moving into the dorms, Iida and Yaoyorozu’s (admittedly, many of them self-imposed) responsibilities have only been increasing.

Thankfully, there is a lot of trust and appreciation for each other between 1-A's co-parents class reps.

Which makes it easy to sit down and work out an elaborate plan of action for illnesses in their home, together.

Because having this many kids in such close living quarters, means being guaranteed an in-house germ factory when flu season inevitably arrives.

...

Where are the class 1-A during COVID quarantine fics? Gimme pls.

Why 1-A's loving Class Rep is the best

I understand why people are disappointed that Iida took a backseat after the Stain arc. And since the story shifted from the original trio to the New B3, and with the manga nearing its climax, the chances of Iida getting more focus again, are pretty much nil.

You could check out the stage plays for more Iida, though.

But let's keep in mind, that Iida has come a long way: Remember how condescending, rigid, and selfish he was during the entrance exam?

I appreciate Iida a lot for how willingly he acknowledges his mistakes, how he always internalizes his learned lessons, and how he does his best to do better.

And I love how supportive he is. He assures Uraraka that her motivation of becoming a hero to gain financial stability for her family, is just as perfectly respectable as any motivation, that is based on idealism. He calls Asui “Tsu-chan-kun” because while he's uncomfortable with calling her “Tsu-chan”, he wants to respect and accommodate her wish as much as he can.

The hero Ingenium: Always running to help lost children.

One of the funniest and simultaneously most heartwarming Iida-scenes to me, is when he tells Aoyama to “never stop twinkling – whatever that means.”

Aoyama stands out as an oddball, among oddballs, and none of his classmates has any idea what he's talking about - including Iida. But Iida's completely sincere with his statement: "Yes, do your best to go after your calling - I'll support you the whole way!"

Look at my son. He loves his friends so much.

Let’s be proud of what character development 1-A’s Class rep has achieved until now, and just headcanon a dozen of joyful varieties of the rest of his journey.

1-A’s most popular girl

Horikoshi may have put an underaged girl into the most inappropriate “hero costume” in BNHA and gotten her tons of... admirers in real-life. Uwabami’s commercial may have gotten Yaoyorozu legions of fans in-universe. But the most popular girl within class 1-A?

This one.

Jirou’s the female classmate who has been seen interacting with the most of 1-A guys:  According to the BNHA wiki, if you pay attention to the background events, Jirou is seen talking and chilling with each, Sero, Ojiro, Satou and Kouda, quite often.

Admittedly, all these guys easy to get along with in general. All of them are also who Bakugou would refer to as extras... but they still count!

I still stand by my previous post about how - except for MomoJirou and KaminarixEveryone - the band members aren't really friends with each other. However, to Bakugou and Tokoyami, two of 1-A’s moodiest kids, Jirou is probably still the female classmate each of them is closest to (well, Ashido might have the same degree of closeness to Bakugou that Jirou has).

Tokoyami's surprised and Bakugou has one of his many grumpy gremlin expressions on. However, both boys don't seem to be in a hurry to escape from her hold.

At the very least, Jirou is comfortable with manhandling these two.

And we all know, how Kaminari feels towards Jirou.

Or at least Tokoyami does.

And now I headcanon Tokoyami as being that person, who's usually the first one to be aware of who's crushing on who.

Katsuki and Izuku are not best friends, part 1

I have seen people refer to Bakugou and Deku as best friends, especially after Bakugou took the hit from Shigaraki for Deku.

I disagree. They are not best friends.

It’s all but explicitly stated, that within class 1-A, Kirishima is Bakugou’s closest bestie, while Iida is Deku’s.

For the majority of the time that they knew each other, Deku and Bakugou were not even on friendly terms. I'd say they would barely qualify as friends - not to mention “best friends” - even now (latest chapters at the time of writing this post).

It has been jarring (and heartbreaking at times) to listen to Deku call a person a friend, while he still had been actively fearful of them. My reading of that is, that Deku mainly refers to Bakugou as a childhood friend, because he has no idea how to describe his relationship to the latter otherwise. The fact that Deku didn't had a single real friend until entering UA might also factor into this.

Even during their childhood "friendship" stage, Bakugou used to treat Deku like a lackey, at best. But never like a true friend, because enjoying to make someone feel miserable, just to feel better about oneself, is not the same as enjoying their company as a friend.

A more charitable interpretation of their early “friendship” instead of leader and lackey, is that of siblings. Bakugou is the older, and Deku the younger brother: His whole life, Deku has looked up to Bakugou. On the other side, for most of his life, to Bakugou, Deku used to be that scary annoying thing that wouldn’t go away, no matter how much he tried to scare it off.

With not much age difference between them, the stage got set for the development of rivalry.

...

Oftentimes, siblings with this type of dynamic end up drifting apart and being rather distant - either for an extended period of time (in many cases until they reach adulthood), or even forever.

As Bakugou and Deku ended up in the same class at UA, the new environment shifted their dynamic instead:

Deku formed connections with other people. While Bakugou and All Might remain the biggest influences on his life, he gained the physical and psychological strength to stand up to Bakugou during key moments and high-stakes situations.

The "From now on, Deku will be the name of a hero!" - moment of awesome, where Deku announced himself unwilling to be Bakugou's shoe mat any longer, was basically the start of his emancipation from the latter

To Bakugou, this declaration from "loser Deku", their new classmates’ warm reception of Deku, and their cool reception of himself - the opposite of what Bakugou had been used to up until this point - made it apparent to him, how up until then, he had been swimming in a very small pond.

Bakugou reacted to his own feelings of inadequacy and the disillusionment that threatened his self-image, like the mature, self-reflecting person that he was:

With more misdirected resentment, and more violence. Alternating between distancing himself from Deku and seeking him out.

Like the mature, self-reflecting person that he was, Bakugou also didn't talk to anyone about those inner turmoils.

Instead, he let them boil over; culminating in him forcing Deku into a nighttime rumble to sort through his own emotional baggage.

The positives that came out of it, were that they reached some sort of a mutual understanding, and Deku gained his own secret keeper. If I had to pinpoint a starting point of their "friendly" terms era, it would be that scene.

But that alteration didn't make them best friends. Neither did other significant "BakuDeku"- moments that followed.