So for a few months, things were actually going really well. Getting Haruhi's parents fully in our corner was good from an emotional standpoint, and our training with The Kagemusha had been going great, too; I'm getting the hang of capoeira, and I'm going home with far fewer bruises than usual. A lot of the time, I feel like we're not making any real progress, what with how the two of us still can't touch her and everything, but then Haruhi goes on about how much stronger we're getting, so maybe we're doing something right? I don't know. The point is that everything was going really well, and I wouldn't have complained if they just stayed that way forever.

So it figures that Haruhi would be the one to force things to change.

It was the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday, yet oddly enough, Midoriya and Haruhi weren't spending it on one of their training regiments. The reason for that was a simple one: now that it was November, their parents said that they needed to cut down on their training for a little while and study for entrance exams. Naturally, Haruhi threw a fit at the order, saying that getting into a bad junior high didn't matter if U.A. didn't care about things like that, but when The Kagemusha of all people told her to study, she finally begrudgingly accepted it. Midoriya thought that was a little weird, what with how similar to each other the two tended to be, but at the very least, the problem was solved.

At least it would have been if Haruhi would actually do any work. The two of them were supposed to be studying and doing homework at Midoriya's apartment, but he was the only one doing anything productive while Haruhi just sat around playing with his little sister. Granted, that was usually what she did when she came over, but it was more annoying than usual since they were supposed to be doing something important.

"Okay, and now I just need to roll a seventeen or higher," Haruhi said before releasing five different dice from her hands. "Yes! Now I can roll six dice, and if I get a high enough roll, I can get all of the cones!"

"Action card! No cones, Haruhi, no cones!" said Midoriya's little sister.

"Fine, but just try and use your shaman for anything. I dare you."

"I dare you to actually do some work," Midoriya said. Haruhi took off her Ledgerman hat and turned her attention to the desk Midoriya was sitting at.

"Excuse me, but I think that playing board games that require high-level thinking like this is more than useful, so there," Haruhi said.

"So there!" Midoriya's little sister parroted.

"That's not what we're supposed to be doing, Suzumiya-san, and you know it," Midoriya said. "If you don't actually do some work, you're going to fail, and our parents will get mad at both of us, so please just—"

"Oh my God, I already did everything before I came here!" Haruhi cut in. Before Midoriya even had a chance to cast doubt on that, Haruhi pulled a loose stack of papers out from her backpack and shoved them into his face. They were all the same homework sheets and practice tests Midoriya was in the middle of working through, and if he wasn't mistaken, a good majority of the answers on all of them were correct.

"You really did do this all on your own time," Midoriya said.

"Of course I did. I only come to your place to have fun, so I can't waste my time here on boring stuff like school."

"Where does that leave me, though?" Haruhi just shrugged her shoulders, because of course she did. "Still, you should at least do a little studying, right? Homework is one thing, but tests—"

"Aren't a big deal, either. When it comes to tests, you don't need to memorize the answers, you need to memorize how the teacher constructs the test. If you pay enough attention to your teachers, you'll find that they all have patterns for which kinds of questions they pull from the textbooks, so if you've got that down, then you just need to memorize those specific questions and you're golden. Obviously, this ends up backfiring on you if you don't understand the material, but I do, so there." The smirk on Haruhi's face was as smug as he expected it to be, and the worst part about it was that he had no argument against it.

"Can you help me out, then?"

"I'll see what I can do." Haruhi stepped over to Midoriya's desk while his little sister pulled out her phone and started watching videos of things being crushed under hydraulic presses. Most of Midoriya's answers were already correct, but there were just enough wrong ones to make Haruhi berate him for his apparent lack of intelligence as she pointed him in the right direction.

"You know, being book-smart might not be that important, but at least you being it makes this go a lot faster."

"You're pretty smart too, you know." Haruhi nodded her head with a smile. "If we just keep going like this, we're going to have no problem getting into Aldera."

"Are you serious?"

"Definitely! I know it's not the best school around, but I hear that's it's still kind of tough to get into, so—"

"No, I mean why would I ever want to go there?" The second question made Midoriya turn his head to properly face Haruhi, and the expression she wore was one of complete and utter disgust. He couldn't begin to understand the logic behind it.

"Wh-Why don't you want to go to Aldera?"

"Because I don't want to spend three more years stuck with Bakugou, duh!" Now he saw the logic behind it.

"Why don't you want to go to school with Kacchan? Kacchan's great!" Midoriya's little sister said.

"No, no he isn't. He sucks." Midoriya's little sister just pouted and went back to her videos.

"He's not that bad. You just need to, you know, give him a chance," Midoriya said.

"What, like how he gave me a chance to be known as something other than the Quirkless girl who needs to be laughed at?"

"H-He's still not the worst person in the world." It was a lousy defense, but it was the only one he had.

"So that's supposed to mean something? 'Mr. Bakugou, congratulations on not being the absolute worst person in the world! Take your silver medal, and please, for all of us, have a splendid time making other people's lives a living hell.'" Midoriya didn't know who she was supposed to be impersonating, but he hated how well it worked. "I hate that guy just from dealing with his crap for a few months, so why do you keep bending over backwards to defend him, despite spending years dealing with all of it?"

"That's not—"

"And you want to go to the same school as not just him, but all the people who went along with his bullying and will just spend the next three years roping all the new people you meet along for the ride? You really are some kind of masochist, aren't you?"

"No, I just—" Midoriya was sure he had something to say, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember what it was.

"Look Midoriya, I'm not going to Aldera, not even as a backup choice. I'm going to East Junior High; it's the same school Nodoka goes to, and more importantly, it's not the one Bakugou wants to go to. If that's not something you can do, then fine. We'll work out the finer details of our partnership later." Haruhi stepped away from Midoriya's desk and resumed the game she was playing his little sister. She was still basically right next to him, but it suddenly felt like he was all alone in the world.

At least that could be used as an argument against the idea of him being a masochist.

Several days had passed since Midoriya and Haruhi's fight, but things had mostly worked themselves out since then. Haruhi always sounded like she was upset about something when they had lunch or trained with The Kagemusha, but she still felt like talking to him, so at the very least, he could be thankful for that. Midoriya desperately wanted to fix things between them, but if, days later, he still couldn't come up with a proper rebuttal to her argument, then he knew he wasn't ready to mend any bridges.

At some point, he needed to figure out what to do, but at the moment, there was something else occupying his time: his very last sports festival as an elementary school student. He wasn't usually excited about it, mostly because he always did terribly, but with all of the strength training he had gone through in the past few months, he wanted to believe that he had gotten good enough to at least not make a fool of himself. Simply not looking like an idiot was all he was hoping for.

"We're gonna go out there and crush them to smithereens! That's the way white team rolls!" Naturally, Haruhi had other ideas. Also naturally, she thought that just wearing the normal gym uniform was too boring, so she made the two of them dress up in red haoris and yellow headbands, Midoriya's reading "Nick of Time" and Haruhi's "Indian Summer"; the only victory he had obtained that day was successfully explaining to Haruhi why her idea of banners that said "White Power" in English was a terrible one.

"Didn't you all hear me? I said that we're gonna win!" Haruhi said. For the second time in a row, her declaration was met with silence. She didn't seem to grasp that this wasn't something that required a leader, and even if it was, she was the last person their team would want to put in charge.

Besides, there's only one reason she even cares about something like this, Midoriya thought. His gaze drifted towards the opposing red team, where Bakugou was making his presence known with enthusiasm rivaling Haruhi's. A single look at him made Midoriya remember the fight he had with Haruhi the other day, and with that, a lot of his enthusiasm was drained away.

Soon enough, the principal called for the start of the games, and the teams all lined up to shake each other's hands to start things off with a show of good sportsmanship. Against all odds, Midoriya ended up standing in front of Bakugou.

"G-Good luck, Kacchan," Midoriya said, extending a hand that Bakugou quickly slapped out of the way.

"Like I need any of that shit from you. Now go on and be a good little benchwarmer, Deku," Bakugou said. The teams dispersed from one another, Bakugou laughing all the while.

"You could have just left it at the slap," Midoriya said under his breath. Haruhi, who had been standing next to him, just flashed an exasperated look as the white team fell back to their area. He knew she was thinking that she was still right, that Bakugou truly wasn't a good person for him to be around.

He wanted her to be wrong about that, but it simply became harder and harder with every interaction.

"Don't screw up, Deku!" was what a large number of Midoriya's teammates yelled out as he got ready for his first event of the day: the bread eating contest. If the words weren't enough of an indicator, their tone made it clear that they weren't happy that the kid who always came in dead last was the one chosen to compete. He couldn't exactly blame them, but he still wanted to put up a good fight, and with any luck, his nerves would last long enough to make that happen.

"Red team ready?" a teacher asked. A burly boy called out a confident confirmation. "White team ready?" Midoriya let out a meek yelp that barely qualified as a "yes". "Go!"

With that, the bread eating contest had officially begun. Two pieces of bread were tied to a clothesline and suspended in midair, and the kids, with their hands tied behind their backs, had to keep jumping up and down until they could sink their teeth into it and pull it down. For most people, it took a few good jumps to get into the rhythm, and a few more to actually grab it.

Midoriya got it done in one jump.

"White team is the winner!"

I did it! Midoriya thought as he landed on the ground and finished eating the bread.

"Good going, Izuku!"

"Go Deku-kun, go!" Midoriya smiled as he heard his mother and his little sister cheer him on; he jumped back a bit when he heard Bakugou curse out in disbelief of the results, then he got a little confused when he heard Bakugou's mother laugh at that.

"Did-Did you actually win something?" asked a member of the white team.

"I-I guess so," Midoriya said.

"Awesome! Guess you're not complete dead weight, after all!" The words might have been off, but his heart was in the right place. It felt nice, either way.

As the kid walked away, Midoriya started to wonder how Haruhi was doing at the jump rope contest. Just as he started to think about it, he heard another teacher announce the end of the jump rope contest and the winner of said contest being the white team, i.e. Haruhi.

"You're doing great, sweetie!"

"I'm gonna give you a big kiss for every event you win, and a big kiss for every event you lose." Haruhi's parents were shouting words of encouragement from the sidelines, but she only responded with annoyed yells; Midoriya guessed that it was part the embarrassing nature of their words, part her not liking the sight of so many people fawning over her mom's beauty, but he'd never put himself at risk by asking about it.

When Haruhi stopped yelling at them, her eyes met with Midoriya's. Neither of them said a word, but Haruhi flashed a toothy grin and gave him a peace sign.

Now he knew that today was going to be a good day.

Katsuki Bakugou had been abruptly tossed into some sort of backwards reality parallel to his own. That was the only way of explaining what was the most insane day of his life.

Even if it was nothing compared to what U.A. did, the sports festival at his school was supposed to be Bakugou's greatest time to shine, the day where he did the best at showing everyone why he deserved their admiration and respect. He had succeeded in doing that every year since kindergarten, yet somehow, in his very last sports festival as an elementary school student, it was all falling apart. It was all falling apart, and it was all because of, of all people, Midoriya and Suzumiya.

He should have been more worried when Midoriya jumped into the air like a frog to grab that piece of bread in one go. He only reacted to that with confusion and frustration, but he wanted to think it was just a fluke thing. Then Suzumiya won the jump rope contest without even breaking a sweat. Still crazy, still abnormal, but he still tricked himself into thinking that it wasn't anything to be worried about.

Then came the ball toss. The second the whistle was blown, everyone went wild trying to toss balls into the basket, but somehow Midoriya and Suzumiya were the best at it. Every shot they took flew like a speeding bullet and went in without a hitch, and it took no time at all for them to pick up more and repeat the process all over again. By the time the contest was over, the white team had won by an incredible margin, and over half of their total score was gained by Midoriya and Suzumiya, alone.

"Man, you guys were on fire out there!" one kid from the white team said.

"Seriously! You two sure you're Quirkless?" another kid from the white team asked.

"Pretty sure that hasn't changed," Midoriya said.

"Instead of praising us, you should be feeling ashamed of yourselves for doing such a bad job," Suzumiya said. "Then again, I guess I can't blame you for that when the gaps in our experiences are so large. After all, hitting something motionless like this is child's play compared to trying to throw something at a beast in human skin moving at Mach speed."

"Mach speed's kind of an exaggeration, isn't it?" People on the white team started laughing at that, but Bakugou, bearing witness to all of it, just felt like punching something.

What the hell even is this? Bakugou thought. Deku and Ribbons, they're actually able to do shit? Since when are they good for anything besides being a pain in the ass?! Have they been getting training from this "beast" thing? Who the hell would even waste their time on a couple of Quirkless nobodies like them?! Especially if one of them's Deku?! It was that line of thought that gave credence to the backwards reality theory. Even if it was wrong, he still couldn't let this stand; he needed to do everything in his power to make everyone remember how things worked around here.

Then came the tug of war. Bakugou, Midoriya, and Suzumiya were the anchors of their respective teams, so he finally had a chance to personally beat those two down and remind them of where they stood. He pulled on the end of his rope with every muscle fiber of his being, knowing that it would be more than enough to take the two of them down. That's how it was supposed to go, but against all odds, the white team was in the lead. Having a couple of Quirkless kids was supposed to bring them down, yet for some reason, those two were contributing the most to their team, and they did so in a way that surpassed Bakugou's own efforts.

It was all a storm of illogic, and in the midst of it all, the red team fell down in the wake of the white team's victory.

"So this is pretty crazy, right?" one of the kids on the red team asked. "They've got the two Quirkless kids on their team, but they keep on winning!"

"I think I heard Suzumiya say something about her and Deku doing some kind of training? Maybe that's it," another kid on the red team said.

"Whatever it is, they're actually pretty tough. Didn't see that coming," a third kid on the red team said.

All of it was like nails on a chalkboard to Bakugou's ears. For his own teammates to be singing praises of people like Midoriya and Suzumiya was ridiculous. They were Quirkless, they were useless in the grand scheme of things, so why were they being put up on a pedestal while he wasn't even an afterthought? None of it made sense. He needed to fix things, he needed a chance to put everything back to how it was supposed to be.

As the day went on and wins and losses stacked up on both sides, he finally got that chance at the boys relay. By an excellent stroke of fate, he and Midoriya were chosen as the final runners for their respective teams; even better, the red team had a large lead over the white team, meaning Midoriya would have no chance of catching up to him once he finally got his baton; even better still, one glare from Bakugou was able to reduce Midoriya to a twitching mess, proving that he was still the same wimp as always.

You're going down, Deku, Bakugou thought. I'm gonna bury you in a shallow grave and force-feed you a reminder of what happens when you try and mess with me! The runner for the red team met up with Bakugou, and the second he grabbed the baton, he was off. The white team's runner was still far behind, and by the time he finally got to Midoriya, he was nearly a quarter of the way done. Victory was so close, he could almost taste it.

At least that was the case until Midoriya closed the gap in a matter of seconds.

"What the fuck?!" The second the curse left his mouth, Midoriya ended up passing him, and too many people to count started to cheer. Bakugou pushed himself for a burst of speed and got tied with Midoriya, but for some insane reason, Midoriya kept getting ahead whenever he relaxed for even a second. He seemed perfectly comfortable running at his pace, yet Bakugou was straining himself just to barely keep up. Soon enough, it was starting to get to him. He couldn't stay even with Midoriya, and he took a definitive lead just as they were closing in on the finish line. As it stood, Bakugou was going to suffer a direct loss to a Quirkless loser like Midoriya.

"The hell with that!" Bakugou, refusing to accept that as a reality, threw everything he had into the singular goal of beating Midoriya. Everything of the world around him seemed to vanish, everything except the finish line and the sound of Midoriya's running. Whatever else was happening didn't matter; all he needed to do was get in front of that sound and be the first to cross the finish line. So long as he did that, everything would be okay, and he could go back to being the best of the best.

And that's exactly what happened. He outpaced Midoriya, even making him trip over his own feet in the process, and got to cross the finish line first. All was right with the world, once more.

Then, as soon as the wider world came back into focus, Suzumiya nailed him in the face with a dropkick.

"What the hell was that, you stupid bitch?! You're gonna get that pissy about me beating you?!" Bakugou asked as he picked himself up, readying himself for a fight.

"Don't you dare give me that! How are you going to call me pissy when you go and pull a stunt like that?! I oughta slap you in the teeth!"

"Suzumiya, that's enough!" one of the teachers called out, eliciting a laugh from Bakugou. "Due to the circumstances at hand, the white team is the winner of the boys relay!"

"What?!" Bakugou felt like punching something.

"Don't give me that, Bakugou. We made it very clear at the start that the sports festival is just like gym class in that you can't use your Quirk to help your performance, and even if you could, you definitely can't use it to attack someone!"

"I-I'm fine, really! It was just a little graze, honest!" Bakugou turned his head to see Midoriya standing up and dusting himself off, and his shirt and a part of his arm looked a little burnt. Suzumiya ran up to him and started yelling at him about something, but Bakugou couldn't hear it over the sound of his own thoughts.

I hit him with my Quirk, Bakugou thought. Without even thinking about it, I used my Quirk on Deku to get ahead of him. That—That Quirkless loser forced me to break the rules to try and beat him!

Above all else, Bakugou truly hated the backwards parallel reality he had been thrown into.

The sports festival went on after that, each team taking their share of wins and losses. Eventually, though, it all came to a close with the white team being the winner and Midoriya and Haruhi being named the MVPs of the event. In addition to a couple of blue ribbons, the two of them were given Hero plush toys of their choosing; Midoriya and Haruhi didn't hesitate to go with All Might and Mirko, respectively.

Getting another fine addition to his collection was great and everything, but he would have been satisfied with just the victory on its own. All he had hoped for was not falling flat on his face and embarrassing himself, but not only was he one of the key contributors in his team's victory, but he also got to have everyone praising him for a job well done. He always thought that his time in elementary school would just fizzle out into nothingness, yet here he was, able to go out with something of a bang.

"We sure showed them, didn't we? Get used to all the cheering, Midoriya; this is just a prelude to what the rest of our lives have in store!" The fact that one of his best—no, his best friend—was standing there with him was just the flavor of icing he was looking for.

"It's not supposed to be about that, but yeah, this is pretty nice," Midoriya said. As the other children were dispersing and going about their respective businesses, a weight found its way to Midoriya's back.

"You and Haruhi were awesome, Deku-kun! Super duper awesome!" A weight that perfectly matched his little sister.

"Thanks. Now get off of me." His mother took care of that for him.

"I'm so proud of you, Izuku. Wait until your father hears about this," Inko said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he flew home to hug you right then and there," Mai said.

"Speaking of parental affection, I believe I promised someone a myriad of kisses for a job well done," Sakura said. Before Haruhi could object, he had already planted a kiss atop her head.

"Ah, gross!" Haruhi cried, repeating the cry as he did it again. "If we're doing this, let's do this where no one can see us!"

"An adult man taking a little girl into the bushes to kiss her. I see nothing wrong with that."

"Don't make this weirder!" Haruhi put on a pout, but she still complied as her parents pulled her away from prying eyes to give her the reward she hated so dearly.

As Midoriya watched the Suzumiyas walk off, he caught sight of his little sister running off somewhere. Inko told him to go get her while she went back to the car, and he had no reason not to comply.

Upon seeing that she had run off to greet Bakugou, he wished that he had been able to think of something.

"Hi Kacchan!" his little sister said. "You were so cool out there, but not as cool as Deku-kun! I thought you were the coolest person there is, but I guess Deku-kun can be just as cool as you! Isn't that great?"

"Beat it, runt," Bakugou said. Midoriya's little walked off with a dejected look on her face, leaving him all alone with Bakugou. "Deku."

"H-Hey, Kacchan," Midoriya stuttered out.

"What the hell are you and Ribbons trying to pull here?"

"I-I don't think we're trying to do anything."

"Bullshit. You two are supposed to be a couple of nobodies, but all of a sudden, you're able to outpaced me and everyone else with even a sliver of talent. The hell's going on here?"

"W-Well, we actually met this Hero a while ago who's been—"

"You two think messing with me is funny?" Midoriya didn't know how to respond to that. "End of the school year, last time I get to show off to everyone, and you two decide to try and make me look like a chump?!"

"We weren't—"

"This was supposed to be my time, Deku! My time! You and Ribbons had no right to mess it up just because you were born with nothing!"

"That's not—"

"What's it gonna take for you two to learn your place? You're just a couple of losers trying too hard to be literally anything! Why can't you see how pathetic that is?!"

"Where do you get off saying that when you had to cheat to beat me?" Midoriya didn't know where those words came from; they just appeared in his head out of nowhere and slipped out of his mouth before he had time to stop them from coming out.

"What? What?!" Bakugou threw an explosion out in front of Midoriya's face. It didn't actually touch him, but it still made him stumble back and fall on the ground. "I didn't fucking cheat, I played for real! In the real world, no one's gonna stop me from using my Quirk to win, so all I did was run that stupid relay at full power! And you know what that means? It means that no matter what you and Ribbons do, your best is always going to be nothing compared to my best! You two were born Quirkless losers, and you're gonna die Quirkless losers! That's your reality, so hurry up and accept it, already!"

After that, Bakugou stomped off in a huff, leaving Midoriya all alone in the dirt. All alone with spiteful, breaking words swirling around in his head and a singed shirt clinging to his torso. All of it because someone who was supposed to be his friend was mad that he lost at something for the first time in years.

That's how it always is, isn't it? Midoriya asked himself. Kacchan beating me down and doing everything in his power to remind that it's a miracle I can even breathe the same air as him. That's how it always goes, and I always brush it off because… because…

"Why do I even do it?" For the life of him, he couldn't remember.

"How's the view from down there? Any more exciting than it would be up here?" In the middle of all of that, Haruhi came over and pulled him back onto his feet. "I don't why you were sitting there, but everyone's waiting for you so we can go to dinner, especially me. I am figuratively starving, so let's go!"

"Right. Sorry." Haruhi headed for where their families were presumably waiting for them, and though he was slow about it, Midoriya got around to following her. "Suzumiya-san."

"Yeah?"

"I think you might be right."

"I'm right about a lot of things. You're gonna have to be more specific."

A few weeks had passed since the sports festival to bring the world into early December; the city of Musutafu was blanketed in snow, but it did nothing to chill the rage Bakugou had been in since that day. No matter what he did, all of the stupidity and ridiculousness that Midoriya had invoked that day wouldn't leave him; it certainly didn't help that there were still a few people who teased him about his loss in the relay race, no matter how hard he tried to justify it.

Today was a good chance to finally move away from that. Today was the day of the entrance exams for Aldera Junior High. Midoriya, the little sheep that he was, was going to be there, and he could have another shot at putting him in his place by finishing with time to spare while he struggled just to get halfway through. If something like that could happen, he'd just feel so much better about himself; maybe he'd even slip in a quick barb or two for added effect. Whatever he ended up doing, it would have to wait for when Midoriya actually showed up to work.

The test was due to start in five minutes, yet Midoriya, always punctual for these kinds of things, was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell? Where's the nerd?" Bakugou asked.

"Who, Deku? Beats me. Maybe he got sick," said Hanger-on #1.

"Or maybe he didn't feel the need to beat you in brains and brawn," Hanger-on #2 said. Bakugou would have punched him in the face if it wasn't something that would get him thrown out of the test. The test that Midoriya wasn't at, for some reason. Meaning that he had lost an opportunity to get back at him for the unjust humiliation he had suffered.

It was clear that he was still trapped in that backwards parallel reality, and he hated every second of it.

A few weeks had passed since the sports festival to bring the world into early December; the city of Musutafu was blanketed in snow, but it did nothing to soften the sting of physical labor Midoriya was subjected to by The Kagemusha.

"Hey, at least now when she knocks you down, you can land in a big pile of snow. That's pretty good," Haruhi said as she walked with him back to his home.

"Doesn't do me a whole lot of good, though," Midoriya said as he rubbed his midsection.

"Stop stressing about the small stuff like internal bruising and focus on the positives. It's almost Christmas, so that'll be fun."

"Yeah, except for the lead up to the actual day. My sister still believes in Santa Claus, so she makes the whole family go overboard with decorating the place and making sure everything is perfect for his 'arrival'. Maybe it's just me, but I think seven is a little too old to still be believing in stuff like that, don't you?" When Midoriya turned to face Haruhi, she looked just about ready to cry.

"Santa's not real?" Haruhi asked.

"N-No, of course, he is! Just because I don't believe in him doesn't mean he can't exist! Half of the people in present-day, normal society would have been seen as fictional a century ago, so why couldn't there be a bearded fat man who flies around the world delivering presents in a single night? Of course, that would still mean that there wasn't a Santa Claus for all of human history up until Quirks first appeared, but the point is that we have one now and you're just messing with me, aren't you?" Haruhi responded to that with a laugh. "Yeah, real funny."

"Glad you think so. And to answer your earlier question, if you ask me, your sister just embodies the true spirit of the holiday by sticking to her beliefs like that."

"That's one way of looking at it, I guess."

"Hey, Deku!" Obviously, the one who shouted that wasn't Haruhi. Midoriya truly didn't want to be correct about it, but when he turned to face the new speaker, Bakugou and two of his companions were indeed standing behind them.

"H-Hi K-K-Kacchan."

"Hey, we're an important conversation about Christmas, so we don't need any of your bah humbugness ruining the mood!" Haruhi said.

"I'm not here for you, Ribbons," Bakugou said. "Deku, why the hell weren't you at the exam today?"

"I-I was training with Suzumiya-san, so—"

"So what? Since when are you the kind of guy to ditch a test to hang out with a girl?"

"Why do you even care?" Haruhi asked. "Seriously, for all you go on about how much you hate having Midoriya around, you sure are making a big deal about him not spending one afternoon with you. What, are Thing 1 and Thing 2 over there not good enough for you?"

"I take offense to that, but she's not wrong," said one of the duo—Midoriya didn't know if Haruhi considered him Thing 1 or Thing 2.

"No one asked you, dumbass! And Ribbons, stop butting in before I—"

"I'm not going to Aldera!" Midoriya couldn't let that kind of back and forth keep going, so he needed to just come out and say what needed to be said, no matter the consequences.

"What?" No matter how dire the consequences may be.

"I-I know that our parents wanted us to go to the same school, but for a variety of reasons, I don't think I'd enjoy myself that much there. That's why I'm going to East Junior High with Suzumiya-san, and all of my backups are in the same general area. I-I mean, East Junior is a little closer to home, it looks just as good on a resume as Aldera, and if I go there, I won't have to deal with…" The rest of his sentence fell apart in his mouth as Bakugou stomped over right into his face.

"Where do you get the fucking nerve, Deku?! You embarrass me in front of the whole school, and then you decide to just run away before I can get even with you?!" Thing 1 and Thing 2's requests for him to calm down fell on deaf ears.

"Th-That's not—"

"The only thing he's running from is the toxic environment you've trapped him in for the past seven years. If that makes him a bad person, then I would just love to see a good person in your book!" Haruhi said. Bakugou's head snapped around towards her so fast Midoriya was afraid it would go flying off.

"You. Ever since you came here, Deku's been forgetting his place more and more," Bakugou said. "He knew not to mess with me before you came along, before you started filling his head with crazy ideas of going against me!" Bakugou took a pause. Then, with a wicked grin, he said, "Or maybe it's all because you've been emptying his head this whole time."

"What?!"

"What?" Much to Midoriya's own surprise, his response was the less emotional of the two, like there was so much to process all at once that it was hard to lock down a single feeling.

"Is that it, Deku? You've been feeling more confident because you've met the one and only girl who'd want to touch your scrawny ass? How far'd she have to go with you to make you feel like you could do this, huh?" Thing 1 and Thing 2 were more insistent with their requests for him to tone it down, but they still fell on deaf ears.

And Midoriya still felt something swelling inside.

"You've got a lot of problems, you know that?" Haruhi asked, her eyes looking ready to shoot lasers at Bakugou.

"What, struck a nerve? How much did I get right, anyway?" Bakugou asked.

"I've got five friends you can ask about—"

Before anything could happen, it was Midoriya, of all people, who punched Bakugou in the face. He did so because he knew exactly what to do with all of the emotions swelling around inside of him.

And it was probably a long time coming.

"You piece of—" Before Bakugou could finish, Midoriya screamed at the top of his lungs and punched him again, followed by a low kick that swept his legs and knocked him to the ground.

"Where do you get off talking about her like that?! You don't get to talk to her or anyone like that just because they're guilty of the great crime of being nice to me! Just because they've been a better friend to me in half a year than you have in seven!"

"Why, you!" Bakugou shot up, jumped at Midoriya, and threw an explosion at Midoriya. It hit him square in the face, but Midoriya stood his ground and head-butted Bakugou the second the smoke cleared.

"Kacchan, you-you blame me meeting Suzumiya-san for all of this, but if that's true, then it's your fault! You're the one who got us to start hanging out, and all because you thought it'd be funny to watch the two Quirkless kids become friends!" Bakugou punched Midoriya in the stomach, but Midoriya grabbed his arm, swung him around in a circle, and threw him into a nearby bus bench. "This isn't about Suzumiya-san, and it's not about you! This is about me being sick of you treating me like garbage! You're supposed to be my friend, and I-I want to believe the Kacchan who's a good person is still around, but I'm sick and tired of being your punching bag while I wait for him to come back! I'm done with it, okay?! I'm—" Bakugou sprung up with another explosion at the ready, but Midoriya ducked down to dodge and delivered an uppercut to his jaw. "—done!" Bakugou stumbled back for a bit before falling into the snow with a thud. Thing 1 and Thing 2 ran over to his side, but neither one was offering much in the way of support.

It was at that moment that the knowledge of everything he had done hit him. With that, he had a sudden desire to vomit, but he gave precedence to a different course of action.

"Tactical retreat!" Midoriya grabbed Haruhi's hand and sprinted away from the scene, never once bothering to look back. He was sure that he passed the corner he needed to take to go home, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was putting distance between him and Bakugou.

"Okay, that's enough, you can stop running now!" Haruhi said after five minutes that felt like an hour, a command he was more than willing to go along with.

"Sorry," Midoriya said through panting breaths.

"Feel free to let go of my hand at any time, too."

"S-Sorry!" He wished he was quicker about that one.

"It's fine, it's just—whatever. For the record, I could have done everything you did back there, but better. I don't need you acting like a white knight defending my honor and… my chastity when I'm more than capable of kicking ass all on my own."

"I know. I know." In the middle of his haggard breathing, Haruhi locked her arm around his. With that, it got a little harder to breathe.

"Thanks for that, though." All Midoriya could manage was an awkward nod as they walked back in what was hopefully the direction of his home.

If Midoriya had doubts about making the right decision, they all faded away right then and there.

The aftermath of my fight with Kacchan went better than I thought it would. His mom called my mom and asked if she knew anything about Kacchan coming home covered in bruises and a little blood—apparently he never said a word about it, but I couldn't figure out how to be that quiet. My mom looked disappointed not in me, but in the fact that things between us had gotten that bad, and she just told me how happy she was that Haruhi was around.

If anyone was upset over it, it was my sister. Against all odds, she and Kacchan actually liked each other, so the knowledge that she might not get to see him again for who knows how long looked like it was crushing her heart. For what it was worth, I told her she could keep calling me Deku. As crazy as it sounds, I still wanted to be Kacchan's friend, but I couldn't do it again until he started being a better person. I don't know how long that's going to take, so until then, might as well let someone hold onto Deku.

School was also not as bad as I thought it'd be. Haruhi, Kacchan and I didn't speak a word of what happened, and even if people figured it out, Kacchan shut up anyone who tried to say something about it. He never talked to me directly again, though. It felt weird, but at least Haruhi was there to help me through it.

Time passed, fall turned to winter turned to spring, and with it, Haruhi and I were no longer elementary school students. Now we were the newest students of East Junior High.

And this is where things really started to get interesting.