The gun is a heavyweight in his hand and, for just a moment, time seems to slow down. The rest of the room falls away as that singular eye peers up at him, an eye that is somehow passive and commanding at the same time.
Just five words, five simple words spoken in a flat tone, and yet Bakugou can't tear himself away, he can't yell, he can't refuse. Never in his life has he ever felt so compelled to follow an order but here he sits now, one finger getting heavier and heavier on the trigger without his permission.
Bakugou can't help but be reminded of a different situation, one where he couldn't do anything to save his own life. That feeling of helplessness was chilling, the feeling of having to rely on others who are just sat watching while leaving you to suffer. This is different however, this time he is powerless to stop his action.
The trigger clicks.
-
Aizawa should have stopped Dazai already, really he should have intervened during the fight against Todoroki. At first, he thought the boy was just going to do some light taunting, the type that any of his students (minus Bakugou) could easily ignore. Then he started bringing up sensitive topics, ones that Aizawa could tell ran deep in Todoroki. He should have stopped it then, he should have saved his student from being poked at by Dazai's deductive mind.
He didn't do that though, instead, he watched on in silence and curiosity. Of course, he already knew about Dazai's intelligence before the fights but seeing it in action is different. Instead of charging straight at Todoroki, which may have helped to overcome the disadvantage between them, Dazai stayed back and utilised his nullification. When his gun was knocked away he took a fall and retrieved it without notice, he then kept it hidden until the most optimum moment. Then, of course, came the taunting. The way Dazai had ordered his sentences, the way he had spoken, it was all little things that came together to ruin Todoroki's concentration.
In his fight against Midoriya, he displayed good spatial awareness once again, this time using the destruction Nakahara caused to effectively dodge the first attack. While his taunting wasn't as effective, likely due to a lack of information, it certainly distracted Midoriya enough for the boy to forget about Dazai's Ability. Speaking of, Aizawa had assumed that No Longer Human and his own Erasure would act quite similar just with a different application, now though he can't help but think differently. Erasure has been used on Midoriya countless times and yet he never seems so caught off guard, never stalled so clearly, never had a look of shock and slight horror on his face. No Longer Human must feel different then, something more bold than Erasure's silent removal of Quirks.
Bakugou's fight completely contrasted the prior two, instead of taunting Dazai stayed silent and seemed to be observing his opponent, perhaps he had labeled Bakugou as the biggest threat. It was like that for a while, and then Bakugou made that comment. A comment that Aizawa has told him to stop saying countless times but is always ignored. In a matter of seconds Dazai closed the distance and in a flurry of movement took Bakugou down, except not in a way that would win. Dazai put himself at a disadvantage, he gave the gun to Bakugou and then-
"Go on then, kill me."
A second passes as Aizawa tries to comprehend what just happened. It's only due to his many years of Pro Hero work that he manages to move his capture weapon quickly enough to drag Bakugou away from Dazai. Not a second later a paintball flies from the gun and hits the ground, despite it being a fake gun Aizawa still sighs in relief at that. The situation got far too real, far too quick. As Bakugou lands next to Aizawa with a startled expression on his face the gun slips from his hand and clatters to the ground.
A commotion rings out from the observation room, it seems the rest of 1A have snapped out of their shock. Whatever, All Might can deal with calming the class, right now Aizawa's attention is solely on Dazai. The teen, who is still sprawled across the floor, sighs heavily before turning his gaze to Aizawa.
Ignoring the annoyed look in his eye, Aizawa questions Dazai, "Why did you do that?"
Dazai sits up and sighs in a childish manner, "He was the one to threaten me, I just wanted him to follow through."
Before Aizawa can further question that Nakahara appears out of nowhere, without sparing anyone else a glance the boy arrives at Dazai's side and kicks him lightly. He seems completely unbothered about the prior events, or well, perhaps annoyed but not worried. Ignoring the whining the kick causes Nakahara scoffs, "You damn maniac, you couldn't stop for a day at least?"
Despite his words, Nakahara still offers a hand to Dazai and pulls him up. Once stood Dazai just sighs wistfully, "But Chibi, that wasn't a suicide attempt! You should know by now it only counts if I do it."
Now that is worrying. It also confirms a suspicion Aizawa has been toying with over the last few days, back when Dazai and Nakahara were first being taken to the dorms Dazai had made a similar comment. 'Terrible way to kill myself,' or something to that extent. Back then Aizawa had filed it away but had assumed, or rather hoped, that it was just an off-hand comment. It seems that his fears have been confirmed, from now on he'll have to keep a closer eye on Dazai. Of course, Nedzu will also need to be made aware of this too.
1A, who have all come down from the observation room, have varying degrees of shock on their faces. Iida too seems taken aback, or at least for a moment before he straightens up and speaks, "Joking about suicide is not appropriate! It is a real issue that-"
Iida is cut off by Dazai, "I would never joke about suicide. In fact, it's my dream to commit the most painless suicide possible~" The innocent smile on his face contrasts the weight of the words he just said and throws the room into a tense silence.
Aizawa tries to see any sign of this being a joke on Dazai's face, even with the smile and carefree expression he can tell the teen is serious. Beside him Nakahara doesn't seem surprised, in fact, he simply sighs and rolls his eyes. That pretty much confirms that Dazai is suicidal and has been for quite some time, long enough that Nakahara isn't even phased by such a sentence. He shouldn't be surprised, even if he didn't have a prior hunch about this what Dazai has revealed about his life so far would likely lead to such a thing.
"If you are being serious," Aizawa starts, "Then I need to take you to the Principal immediately."
Dazai looks genuinely shocked for a moment before his expression turns to something more childish, in the same whining tone he seems to favour he complains, "There's no need for that… right, Chuuya?"
Nakahara spares him a glance before shrugging, "If it'll stop you from asking any damn woman you see to double suicide then I'm all for it." At this point Aizawa isn't surprised by the relaxed tone when the boy speaks of such a serious topic, it seems to be a running trend with the pair. Absent-mindedly, Aizawa wonders if there is any topic these two wouldn't be so relaxed with.
In response, Dazai drapes himself over Nakahara and smiles sweetly. It looks… odd. "No need to be so jealous Chibi, you'll always be my top choice for double suicide~~"
Nakahara's face scrunches up as he scoffs, "As if!" Wasting not a second longer he shoves Dazai off and begins storming across the room to the exit, Dazai trails along behind him whining once again.
Sighing, Aizawa resigns himself to corralling those two to their respective therapists. Nedzu needs to speak with Dazai about his suicidal tendencies and while Nakahara doesn't need to visit Yamada it wouldn't hurt to have him go. Unfortunately, that does mean he has to leave his class with All Might, which wouldn't be that bad if the guy was just as good a teacher as he is a Pro Hero.
Before leaving, Aizawa's eyes fall on Bakugou. The boy is still sitting in the exact same spot, his face unreadable. Hopefully, All Might has enough common sense to speak to the boy before dismissing class because he clearly needs it. Unfortunately, with the Nakahara and Dazai nearing the exit to the building, Aizawa has no time to do it himself. He'll have to settle for a check-in later.
-
No one really speaks after All Might dismisses them from the lesson, in place of the usual chatter while they get changed is a stale silence. Uraraka understands why no one feels like talking, they're supposed to be the newest generation of Pro Heroes in training. They're supposed to be a step above the rest, Uraraka isn't arrogant enough to think herself the strongest ever, but… Getting into UA means something, right? It means that along with her classmates, she has the potential to be a good Pro Hero, and yet she got beaten so easily. Of course, Aizawa-sensei had told them that Nakahara and Dazai are strong, that they managed to fight against the top 3 Pro Heroes for a decent amount of time but still… She had at least expected 18 of them to give Nakahara some trouble, not for him to wipe them all out easily.
Together, they all walk down to the dorms with the silence hanging heavy between them. Uraraka can't help but wonder what everyone else is thinking, specifically Todoroki and Bakugou. They haven't said anything but she can just tell Dazai had a negative effect on them, anyone would have in their position.
When they arrive at the dorms Sero collapses down onto the sofa with a sigh and finally breaks that silence, "That was a disaster."
Kaminari joins him, "Those guys are way overpowered."
The rest of the class, minus Todoroki and Bakugou who have already disappeared to their rooms, settle around the common room and finally give in to the urge to complain. Everyone seems to have something to say about the pair, none of it being good.
"How Dazai spoke to Todoroki was totally uncalled for.."
"Nakahara using Tokoyami and Jirou to attack each other was so dirty."
"What the hell was that final move Dazai pulled?"
"You think Dazai is really suicidal? Maybe it's another mind game…"
Uraraka doesn't pay much mind to who says what, most every comment is the same anyway. Initially, she finds herself agreeing to all those comments. Nakahara was far stronger than she expected, or more specifically, his Ability was. Quirks that have some degree of control over gravity aren't rare per se, but they certainly aren't common. Of all the ones she knows of no one has the same control that Nakahara had displayed, he was able to fly through the air like it was water. The pieces of concrete never wobbled or slipped from his control, they moved the exact way he wanted even when under the influence of Uraraka's Quirk. Maybe it was a worst loss for her in that way, here is someone who shares the same power as you but is so much better at it. She has been trying to get better control of herself when in the air for a long time now, she had thought she was doing well but looking at Nakahara it's clear she's leagues behind. It feels like a cruel type of irony that the only person she has met with advanced control over gravity happens to be a Villain, in other words, someone she can't beg to teach her.
Dazai too was intimidating, somehow even more than before. The way he moved around screamed a casual confidence, there wasn't a single point in his fights that he felt threatened. Of course, his mental attacks were far more prominent. To be honest, Uraraka can't really put into words how she felt about all that. Picking apart Todoroki's insecurities like that was just cruel, especially since Dazai knew what type of reaction he would get. Sure, that might be how he is in real fights but that wasn't a real one, so why did he have to taunt like that? Not to mention what happened with Bakugou… Everything about how he acted was completely alien to Uraraka, she really didn't like it.
"They could've gone easier on us or something… Fighting like that just feels unfair," Mina complains.
That comment does catch Uraraka's attention, in fact, it triggers a memory from when she was interning with Gunhead. At the start of the internship she had no fighting skills whatsoever, after a few days of learning moves Gunhead had her fight one of his sidekicks. The fight had gone terribly for her, her opponent was far more experienced and took her down in minutes. After the fight she had complained, why make her fight someone so much better when there was no chance of winning? Isn't that just unfair? She still remembers what Gunhead has said in response, admittedly it isn't hard to remember due to the tone he had spoken in.
Like he was speaking to an impatient child, which was partially true, Gunhead had asked what she would gain from fighting a beginner? Sure it would increase her chance of winning but it would also decrease what she learns. Besides, calling a fight unfair just because her opponent has more experience, has trained for longer, is insulting to all the time they had put into mastering their skills. Everyone is a beginner at some point, it's just that some people put more work in to achieve a better result.
With that floating in her mind Uraraka looks back on those two fights and thinks about the skills the two of them had shown. How many people did Dazai try his mind attacks on before getting the result he wanted? How long did it take for him to learn the perfect word order to get good results?
Nakahara must have been like her once, must have had a period of time where he struggled to jump around the air, a period of time where his control was wobbly. Had he spent months learning those skills? Had he too wished for someone who could teach him the ropes? Maybe. Using Jirou and Tokoyami to take each other out was a smart move, not to mention he his first target was Hagakure. Back then Uraraka hadn't thought much about it but now she could see the significance behind that move, clearly, he had thought about who would be a risk to him and took down the only person that could slip by undetected.
Really, the two of them had shown off an insane amount of skills that must have taken ages to perfect. To say that it was unfair, that they should have gone easy is rather stupid now she's thinking about it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from highly skilled Villains with no risk.
"Fighting them was a learning opportunity, something we need if we want to be stronger," Uraraka says.
Kaminari sighs, "Yeah I get that… Just wish they had toned it down a bit." A few other classmates seem to agree with his statement.
Fortunately, Uraraka can see at least someone understands her. Across the room Yaoyorozu nods in her direction before speaking, "Think of is this way, we may have gotten beat around but we have learned valuable things about those two." She pauses for a second to collect her thoughts, "Now we know how Dazai uses his words as a weapon, we know how his Ability works, we know Nakahara is a better fighter, we also know what his Ability can't affect."
"What it can't affect?" Mina asks with slight confusion.
In response, Yaoyorozu nods, "Yes, remember how he used Jirou and Tokoyami to take each other down? I suspect that's because he can't manipulate the gravity on Dark Shadow or on sound waves. If he had gone easy, then we wouldn't know that for next time."
Uraraka can see as a spark is lit behind her classmates' eyes. Kaminari sits up from where he was previously slouching, "My electricity would be good too right?"
From beside her Deku nods, honestly, part of her wants to be surprised at how long it's taken for him to start analysing the pair. Typically, Deku can't stop talking about Quirks and their uses, finding out about Abilities must have been like finding gold. (The other part of her knows his excitement was dampened by that live stream, it's hard to be excited by murderers.)
"If we could stun Nakahara with either Kaminari's or Jirou's Quirk then it would give the rest of us an opportunity to attack," Deku explains, "Obviously, Shinsou would be the best choice for taking Nakahara down but I doubt he would fall for that at this point."
A few people nod while others sigh. Shinsou does a mix of both, "It was hell fighting those two, can't help but feel bad for the people of Yokohama."
"How come?" Tsu asks.
Shinsou shrugs, "At least they obeyed the law when fighting us, doubt they do that in Yokohama."
The atmosphere in the room dips down again as people process what Shinsou said. It's at that moment that Uraraka remembers just who these two are, they aren't some cool fighters that have come to UA to teach them. They're criminals, murderers. She hadn't forgotten about that, there's no way she could, but in analysing the fights it had slipped to the side of her mind.
For just a few minutes her brain had lessened the importance of that fact, the fact that they could have- would have- killed them in those fights. Or, perhaps, something worse. In a real fight, with a real gun, with Aizawa-sensei nowhere in sight, if all those conditions had been met would Dazai have turned Bakugou into a murderer? What would be worse, dying before becoming a Pro or turning into the very thing you strive to defeat?
The faces of her classmates say that they must be thinking something similar. Fortunately, Yaoyorozu is quick to change the topic, "Midoriya, I have a question."
Deku looks up and nods at her to continue, with that encouragement she does, "During your fight, near the end, you touched Dazai and his Ability activated, I was wondering how it felt?"
Deku stays silent for a moment, like he's trying to find the right way to say something, eventually, he speaks, "It was the exact opposite of Aizawa-sensei's Quirk."
That prompts a few confused looks, Uraraka feels the same. Seeing this, Deku continues, "With Aizawa-sensei you don't even notice your Quirk is gone 'til you can't use it, it's like a silent attack."
"And Dazai's was a loud attack?" Uraraka asks.
"Yes," Deku sighs a little, "It… it felt like he was reaching inside me to take my Quirk. Where my Quirk is supposed to sit felt cold and empty… Like I was Quirkless with no hope of getting it back."
Quirkless? That… Uraraka can't imagine how terrible that must have felt. Having such an integral part of herself taken away, being constantly reminded of her loss by feeling empty and cold, it sounds like a nightmare. Realistically, she knows it's impossible to forever lose her Quirk, there has never been a case- at least one in modern history- of someone losing their Quirk forever.
It doesn't happen.
She knows this, so there is no reason to be afraid of Dazai. No need to imagine him leaving her cold and empty before killing her, no need to imagine him laughing over her corpse like she never mattered.
She is a Pro Hero in training, she has been given a golden opportunity to learn, she will not be scared of something she knows can't happen.
(And if she hides away in her room for the rest of the evening, no one will blame her.)
-
He's completely drawn in, surrounded on all sides by that empty eye and the matching emptiness where his Quirk should be.
He sharply turns over as his scowl deepens.
The gun in his hand is manipulated and soon pressed against Dazai's head, all the while that eye stays wide and empty.
"Go on then, kill me."
A borderline growl threatens to leave his throat, his hand grips his pillow harder.
The trigger clicks.
In a fit of anger, Bakugou can't help but launch his pillow across the room, it hits the wall and falls to the ground with little fanfare. Disappointing, he would have liked to smash a hole into the wall in place of that bastard's face. Honestly, if only it were a real fight. If that were the case Bakugou wouldn't have been pulled away by Aizawa-sensei, then he could have pummelled that fucker into the ground.
(If Aizawa-sensei hadn't been there, would he have shot Dazai?)
Despite his best efforts, that bandaged freak and his words just keep echoing around his head, every second he closes his eyes the image of a gun in his hand appears. Every second spent in silence allows his words to return and taunt him, it's off-putting and unsettling.
"Go on then, kill me."
It's infuriating, even more so than that idiot Deku. Why the hell can't he stop thinking about it? Even now, hours later, the damn images won't leave his mind. He can't help but think about that eye, how empty it was, how emotionless he sounded when wishing to die, how his hand moved without his will… Why is he so affected by this? Why won't that dead-eyed stare leave his mind?
Well, it's obvious why, it wasn't a fair fucking fight. That's why it won't leave him alone, a missed opportunity to win always sticks around like that. That's what it must be, anger that he was robbed of a win, nothing more. The heavy feeling in his stomach and slight shake in his hand is just repressed rage, clearly.
Really though, what fucking right does that guy have to act like that? To put a gun in his hand and start making demands? No one makes Bakugou do anything, and that's a fact.
(Dazai controlled his every move, he was powerless.)
Just thinking about it pisses him off. Bakugou wanted a real fight, he wanted to show that some Yokohama kids aren't shit compared to him and that Abilities pale in comparison to his Quirk. That fucker used cheap tricks to hide how shitty a fighter he must be, if he had actually engaged in a fight instead of running away Bakugou is sure he would have won the fight in seconds. Yeah, a real fight, that's what he wants. Things would be different then, he would be better.
(If the gun was real-)
Really, he should have swapped to fight that Nakahara kid when he had the chance. He would have, but hearing that the bandaged fuck wouldn't hold back sounded far more interesting. A weak opponent who would show no mercy would always be more enjoyable than a strong opponent who held back. In the end, though, it was a shit fight and the other guy seemed the better choice. That guy at least wasn't such a wimp that he avoided fighting, not that his stupid jumping around would do shit to help him win. Yea, Bakugou can see it right now, he'd try some gravity shit and get blown up for it. His explosions are far superior to gravity, he proved that back at the sports festival.
(Would Dazai's head have exploded like Mt. Lady's?)
He needs to get a re-match with that fucker soon, show him that his 'mind attacks' don't work on Bakugou. Maybe half and half is stupid enough to get emotional over it, but not Bakugou. There is nothing that freak could do to screw with his mind, not a word he could say or an action he could do. He's the best in this whole damn school, stuff like that just doesn't work on him. Maybe he'll even use the bastard's tricks on him, in Bakugou's opinion he looks like the type who can't take what they serve. The ginger too, he'd probably get pissy about it and mess up like half and half.
(Would that make him a killer?)
Tomorrow, that's when he'll set things right. He'll challenge the two of them to a real fight and blast them to hell and back, show 'em what a real Pro in training is made of. Heh, maybe he can send them flying back to Yokohama as a warning. Don't mess with the next generation of Pros, or you'll get your asses handed to you by the future number one Pro, Bakugou Katsuki.
(He was so close to becoming a murderer, a Villain.)